Fruit not affected by SWD, ripens July/August?

Below is a statement you can easily find with a google search on “fruit not bothered by spotted wing drosophila” or SWD.


In particular, SWD will feed on thin-skinned, soft fruits such as raspberries , blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, grapes, plums and cherries. They do not attack healthy apples, pears or cherry tomatoes. However, if these fruits become damaged, they can successfully infest them.

So with this SWD issue, I am having to rethink exactly what I want to have growing here that gets ripe in July/August timeframe.

The google info above mentions that they do not bother healthy apples or pears. I have a early Mcintosh apple and had some ripening late June, and all thru July so far and no SWD issues found with those. I consider myself lucky to have one thing already that ripens in July that these things will hopefully not bother. It would be nice to have 2-3 other fruits to add to that.

Do you know of any Pears or other Apples or any other fruit that ripen in July/August that SWD is known not to bother (healthy fruits) ?

Is there a early ripening muscadine for example ? not prone to splitting, too tuf skinned for SWD ?

Trying to think long term here… and move towards a goal of having very little fruit getting ripe here that I have to bag to keep these things from infesting.

I could eat Apples, Pears and Muscadines for a month or two :slight_smile:
Any early ripening Jujube’s out there ?

Have any of you started to move in a direction like that for your SWD period ?

If so what fruit choices have you decided to try ?

Thanks

TNHunter

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Great topic! This is something I’ve considered as well.

Here SWD are a problem from late July through September or sometimes even into October if there hasn’t been a good cold spell yet.

Melons are pretty resistant to SWD as long as they don’t split or crack.

Pawpaws don’t seem to be affected by them either and it’s possible to start getting fruit in August with some of the earlier varieties if you live in the south. Here pawpaws don’t start ripening until the second week of September.

ive been starting to switch to early summer bearing floricane cropping raspberries like prelude, acc eden and getting away from everbearing fall cropping varieties. my only blackberry nelson will ripen early aug but we havent seen any SWD this far north yet. honeyberries and currants are early enough to avoid them also. most of my strawberries are junebearers so they are safe. blueberries, not so much. i may replace them with honeyberries if SWD becomes a issue with them.

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