I planted 6 apple trees: Goldrush(2016,G.890), Yellow transparent(2017), Ashmeads Kernel(2017, G11),Antonovka(2018,B9), Gingergold(2017,B9) and Korichnoe Polosatoe(2017,G41) .
Out of 6 I was only able to try 2-Goldrush and Gingergold , though all flowered well at least once.
Antonovka suffered black rot on each of 5 apples I had last year, no flowers this year.
Ashmeads Kernel dropped all the fruit twice already - 2018 and this year.
Gingergold gave us few apples that were great, but started to develop fire blight last year.
Goldrush never gets ripe and actually gold, but still not bad.
Yellow transparent and Korichnoe Polosatoe are all deformed and drop before ripe.
This is how their apples look like:
I am half a zone warmer than you. I have a hard time ripening Gold Rush. We don’t have enough long, warm days. Also, Gold Rush tends to go biennial. It went biennial on me last year and is loaded this year. I thinned tons off but won’t be surprised if it goes biennial again next year.
Ashmead Kernel is triploid. You will need two different varieties that are pollen compatible with AK to cross pollinate it. My AK graft bloomed very well this year but set one fruit. It is surrounded by 10+ apple varieties.
Galinas
I live in Kent, wa and have been fairly successful with my apples. My varieties are Cortland, Honey Crisp, Chehellis, Native Yellow, and Tompkins King.
For improving pollination I have following suggestions since most areas are experiencing a decline in honeybees.
Make sure you have sufficient cross pollinating varieties. The crab apple will serve this purpose for almost any variety, or
Here we suffer from codling moth which looks like your red circle. And we have the Apple maggot fly which makes a mess looking like your other circle. To prevent damage from these two and any other Apple pest, I do what most professional grower in Washington state do:
After blossom fall and as soon as the fruit is about 1” in diameter I use a spray using Bonide Fruit tree spray (Home depot source) in a slurry of Kayolin Clay. Be sure to add some liquid soap as a Surfactant. I spray immediately after each rain and at least each two weeks until the fruit begins to ripen. For the first spray I go over each tree 3 times assuring that each fruit is coated with the slurry. The Kayolin clay form a protective barrier that most insects cannot penetrate, and the chemicals in Bonide also kills or wards off most pest. When you gather the fruit you merely wash off the coating and find near perfect fruit!
Good luck
Dennis
Wow, dems some ugly apples. PC tends to leave c shaped scars (what’s the word?) The frass stuff looks like coddling moth, but the seed should be eaten. How big were the crops- pressure tends to be much higher when there’s very little fruit. I’ve never seen bug damage like that on apples around here, most its on peaches and nects, but because the bumps lead to interior damage I can see Tippy’s reasoning. More stink bug symptoms than TPB, which is more surface injury.
At any rate, check spray schedules in the guides section. Mine should work for you.
Here in S. NYS and CT I rarely see AFM in the many orchards I manage, and when I do it shows up later. It just completely riddles the interior without doing much damage to the outside. When it shows it requires one more spray if you don’t want to cover a bunch of balls with tangle trap. I say I rarely see it, but I’ve actually only seen it once and caught it very early.
Galina,
Since apple maggot flies starts doing damage later than coddling moths or plum curculio, bagging will be very effective.
If you want to go organic, about two spray of Surround with Spinosad right at petal fall and 7-10 days later, will be needed before you bag.
I suggest bagging because your trees are young and have not produce many fruit. Bagging would be less time consuming and a very effective approach to fix the apple pest problem you have.
Coddling moths are savage. They caused most of my apples to drop early last year. I bagged these in early June, when they were large enough for the sock to not slip off.
Surround may offer adequate protection against all of these pests once your trees are too big for you to bag. At some orchards I manage we are now producing peaches and apples without poison, although brown rot may eventually require at least a single synthetic spray of something like Indar. With Indar we are even producing nectarines without insecticide of any kind.
I prefer a highly reduced synthetic spray schedule- Surround is a royal PIA to apply thick enough and it tends to clog equipment and leave trees aesthetically unappealing, but you can’t argue against religion and expect to win the loyalty of the religious.
That’s the main reason I am still not using Surround. I live in the city, and can’t ignore what people think about my yard. Second reason is my believe in sun. How the fruit and leaves are getting their sun through Surround?
Keep in mind that for much of the day in summer temps are too hot for apple leaves to gather energy- they close their stomates… or is that stomata… yeah stomata!
At any rate, research indicates that Surround does not negatively effect such processes and its even used in the west to reduce sunburn on fruit. Just for that.
However, the appearance to the uneducated is that trees have been dosed with the most radioactive and toxic chemicals legally available. Great stuff for stopping people from filching your fruit. Warning, orchard has been sprayed with an experimental compound that may cause human mutations!!!
That’s true. But I am afraid they will call city on me. And if Surround is nothing to worry about, the compost pile with horse manure, water barrels with open top, and some other few corners cut here and there could be a problem and I would like to avoid them.
Galina,
I am fortunately that my neighbors (9 other families/houses) are either don’t mind or don’t care about my white wash trees. If someone calls town officials, I would take the opportunity to eaducate the officials about Surround.
Even if you decide to spray with Surround, you need to do it at least twice before apples are big enough to bag.
If you chosse to spray with Triacicide, you would do the same thing.
Not so Mr.T. It depends on the site but two synthetic apps of insecticide in spring are often all it takes to harvest mostly sound fruit, as long as you aren’t looking for cosmetic perfection.
I’m really not sure about the number of Surround apps, but right now I’m thinking if it doesn’t get washed off by heavy rain, 3 sprays 10 days apart from petal fall on may be adequate. I know 4 sprays generally works placed a week apart. That’s the sched we’ve been running with the last few years.
Now scab and cedar apple rust can alter the equation with some varieties at many sites.
Mam. Have you ever tried to not bag apples and run with a couple of insecticide sprays instead? What are your issues that require the bags where you are?
I dont spray insecticide more that 2 or 3 times a year and still get good quality fruits. Im not sure why people always think weekly spraying is needed, not many folks around here spray that much.
@Kellogg_Hill_Farms,
Please know that many of us are backyard growers who may grow only a few fruit trees. There are many factors people need to spray more than they want to. The first one is pest pressure. Gardening is local. Different places have different pests, diseases and pressure.
Then, the chemicals used. Backyard growers do not have access to commercial-grade chemicals which often provide stronger protection and some with kick back.
Also, some of us live in residential areas where certain chemicals cannot be used i.e. Imidan.
In addition, some of us would like to avoid spraying chemicals when we can. Organic appraoach often labor intensive. It’s a personal choice.
