Hi all,
I just saw these on young Freedom apples this season. Maybe 1/3-1/2 of the fruit has them. Am I looking at Plum Curculio? Any saving the fruit?
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First picture looks more like PC damage since it’s more of a sickle shaped cut
Some fruit will fall off. I have a huge apple tree on the property that we don’t spray and I would say most of the fruit with PC damage would fall off.
There’s a lot of threads on PC with good info, here’s one
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You can’t undo the superficial damage, but more extensive damage may not occur.
Larval development varies by fruit type. In apple and pear, after hatching, almost all larvae are soon killed by the firmness of the young fruit tissue as it develops. Often, the only injury to the fruit is the crescent- shaped surface scar where the egg was laid. Larvae that are most likely to survive and develop are those in dropped fruit.
- Deutsch, Annie, and Christelle Guédot. Plum Curculio. Madison, WI: UW Extension, 2018. A4160. 9 May 2022 https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0145/8808/4272/files/A4160.pdf.
Sometimes, curc-damaged apples — that don’t drop — nevertheless develop severe deformity. Presumably this occurs most readily in early, fast-developing, soft-fleshed varieties wherein the curc larvae manage to survive.
Obviously, when you notice curc damage on a fruitlet, you’re going to thin that fruitlet before the rest because it is not as good a risk as the others that remain.