Hi there everyone. I have two very old pear trees and an apple tree at the back of my property about 30 yards from a small forest. I have noticed lots of curculio scars on much of the fruit.
Close to my house, and about 100 yards from these older trees I have many of my “high value” fruit trees. The old ones came with the house, but all my “high value” trees are young ones I have planted. I don’t really care for the old trees as they have grown wild and large and do not make very good fruit. One is a seedling pear tree I believe and is a spitter. It makes fruit but it’s very bland and basically inedible. It is however the largest shade tree in my lot so cutting it down is not really an option. I am wondering however if any of these trees are simply inviting pests into my orchard and exacerbating a problem that I know is rather ubiquitous. I have noticed some scars on my young trees’ fruits but not near the extent of the larger trees.
Could these old trees be a good distraction crop, or am I likely just adding fuel to the insect pest fire by allowing them to breed in these trees? I want to get good quality fruit, and am willing to spray my small trees, but the larger ones are impossible. I would hate to do all of that spraying for nothing if my insect pest population is overbearingly high because of these larger trees.
Good question. My neighbor has a bunch of ornamental fruits on the other side of my property line. Ive always wondered how that affects my pest pressure. The pollen is welcome but there’s probably a horde of insects in waiting.
Extension publications say plum curculios can fly a 1/4 mile or more in search of fruit to attack. With several generations during the growing season it’s a season long battle.
Having a non-sprayed tree close by is asking for trouble as it will be a nursery for hodes of insects of all kinds.
I’ve actually wondered the same thing about my Flat Wonderful peach tree. It smells so sweet and has such aromatic wood and leaves - it basically screams “bite me!” If I were a pest, that’s the tree I’d go for. It gets hit pretty hard by pests (I don’t spray it at all), but I honestly believe that might help keep the bugs away from my other trees. It’s my theory.
The only way a “trap tree” will work is if all the high value trees are constantly protected by chemicals or organic means as pests are constantly flying around even if dinner is offered at one place.
That’s the plan I’m executing - using organic protection for all other trees while keeping “trap” tree without any protection. It worked well in previous years (for protected trees).
I’ve added one variable this year, decided to nuke my “trap” tree with some insecticide (Sevin with zeta cypermethrin), I hope to get cleaner flat peaches.
That’s my thinking too. I’m not actually doing it, but if some expert could identify a variety that is a magnet for PC or apple maggot or whatever, I’d plant one then routinely spray the crap out of it.
We can’t be the first people to think of this. It must have been tried. Anybody know the results?
I had this thought as well but this tree is a thirty foot tall fifty year old pear tree. I have no hope to spray this tree other than maybe the low branches.
Should I just cut it down? I really hate this idea but I don’t want to cause more problems in my orchard. I do plan to spray my cropping trees with surround and probably some insecticides too.
I think this is a fools errand. More food for plum curculio equals more plum curculio. Spraying a large tree thinking it’s a bug magnet wastes a lot of chemicals costing money and might even be against the label thus illegal.
Do a good job spraying your trees, follow university guidelines or Alan’s schedule. I’ve followed Alan’s schedule for years and I get great crops. I wouldn’t think of wasting gallons of spray on a large tree full of fruit I didn’t intend to eat.
I am absolutely not saying I wish to spray this big tree. I have already stated that this would be impossible and even if it was I don’t wish to bathe in a rain of poisons. Lmao.
My question was "Should I cut the tree down? "
In addition: Is diligently keeping up with pest management on my high value trees enough, or is cutting the ‘feral’ trees down a necessity in order to have good success with IPM?
I’m not even sure if the trees hang onto their fruit. Like I said there are so many bites in the fruit and I didn’t even know the big one fruited until last year when I saw a single mature pear back in August. The tree is loaded now, but I expect most of the fruit to just drop off as I have never ever seen it with an actual crop.
The tree does look nice and provide good shade. I really don’t actually expect it to be a good “distraction” for the PC even though that is how I titled the post. My main concern is just that I may be inviting MORE of them, even though they are already a rather ubiquitous problem.
