What damaged this apple?

General Fruit Growing
1

What did this damage to a Honey Gold apple? What marks the skin with those tracks? On slicing off the top layer, the apple pock marked with corky spots that continue deeper into the apple? The whole crop isn’t wrecked, but maybe 1 in 6 apples are affected this way. I have also been fighting apple scab on this tree to limited success over multiple seasons.

This tree was treated three times this season with Avaunt (Indoxacarb) – at fruit set, a couple weeks later when the extension person warned of high trap counts of codling moth, and a third time in mid July to counter the apple maggot fly.

This doesn’t look like maggot fly larvae damage, but then again, it is reported that such damage could look like that when an insecticide offers partial protection?

The corkiness of Bitter Pit (calcium deficiency) is said to be more towards the calyx end whereas stink bug (BMSB) strikes are more on the “shoulders”?

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2

I’ve never seen it myself but from pictures, apple maggot. I guess you got partial protection. That’s better than none. They could all look like that.

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3

Agree with Fruitnut, definitely apple fly maggots trails. Start coating your fruit with surround as soon as fruit is big as a quarter. First application needs very thick spray about 3 cups powder per gallon. May take 2-3 applications to get the surround to develop a coating on the fruit. Thereafter spray bi weekly as fruit grows of after every significant rainfall to keep fruit covered thru the majority of growing season until fruit reaches maximum size.
Dennis
Kent, wa

4

Try hanging a red Christmas ornament painted with TangleFoot in every other tree. It will slow down the apple maggots.

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5

tried that, 5 of them per small tree, no help at all.

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6

Spray Avaunt and or Assail.

7

I sprayed with Avaunt this season.

8

What rate did you spray?

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I sprayed at 2.5 gm/gallon (a bit under .1 oz/gallon. You had recommended .04 oz/gallon on the Avaunt vs Imidan thread, I ran this by my extension guy, who told me, “Follow the label.” Yes, right.

My logic us that the recommended rate is 6 oz/acre, where anywhere from 50 to 200 gallons should be applied to an acre. My orchard I paced out at about 1/3 of an acre. Because I am using a hand-pump sprayer, I go through about 20 gallons to cover the entire orchard, which works out to 60 gallons/acre, at about the low end of the range. 6 oz in 60 gallons works out to .1 oz/gallon or 2.8 gm/gallon. – I rounded down to 2.5 gm/gallon, 5 gm for a 2-gallon sprayer charge.

I made two applications early in the season – one at petal drop and a second two weeks later when Extension was saying they were trapping codling moth nearby. A third application went on in mid-to-late July when I spotted my first maggot fly. Some time in late August, Extension warned that both moth and fly were flying, but I didn’t find rain-free weather when I was up there.

When I told my extension guy I had purchased Avaunt for this season, we warned me it was less effective “on your late-season pests”, I guess he meant apple maggot fly. The label warns that it is less effective on maggot fly – they describe the problem is that the maggot fly can feed on unsprayed trees outside your orchard and then fly into your orchard and lay eggs before the adult female takes a bite to eat. I have untreated 100-year-old-trees some distance from the orchard on the property line.

Mindful of the potential reduced effectiveness of Avaunt against maggot fly in my situation, I added some of my dwindling stock of Ortho Flower Fruit and Vegetable Insect Killer Concentrate to the tank mix, and the Avaunt label says is is OK to blend other insecticides. I reserved this for the late July spray for my earlier-season apple trees that attract the maggot fly.

I could purchase the commercial version of acetamiprid in the form of Assail. I have already spent $160 on the 18-ounce quantity of Avaunt, which should hold me for another 2 seasons, that is, if it works.

Assail 30 WG runs about $250/64 oz, where 4 oz is the upper range of the application rate per acre, which at 3 applications/season works out to a 16 season supply for my small orchard. It’s not just the money, at my age, I have to figure on whether I can stay healthy for another 16 years working the orchard.

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10

If my pest problem is maggot fly, I should just purchase a supply of Assail 30 SG and be done with the maggot fly. I should go through next season with my mouth open (inside a mask with an organic vapor cartridge, of course!) in apple maggot fly denial.

But if this is something else, I want to find out what it is in order to purchase an effective agent or adopt a proper control strategy. Those surface tracks on my photo of the whole apple are not something I see on the Web in pictures of maggot-fly damage.

11

The 6oz per acre rate assumes an air blast sprayer. We are using pump sprayers with wands or guns. The rate should be lower. When using an air blast sprayer, much more product ends up in the wind and on the ground

12

One problem is that the label for avaunt does not take into account the needs of the small grower. Sometimes we need to take the advice of other similar growers.
I have been spraying .04 oz per gallon for 6 years with good control of pc. Blueberrythrill sprayer .05oz. I think Alan also does .04oz per gallon.

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I am also planning to purchase some Assail this year. If you are anywhere near me maybe we can split a bottle.

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Pyrethroids are relatively cheap, if you can’t buy a restricted type like Asana there are at least a couple formulations packaged in lower quantity for homeowners, I believe. The problem is that commercial formulations are so concentrated that even I have difficulty using up a jug before I fear they have lost potency- and my state does a terrible job of allowing me to dispose of the stuff legally. If you spray during relatively cool spells, I should think they’d work as well as a neonic for fly maggot.

I am surprised you got no efficacy from the fake fruit traps. Another thing you can do is have some early ripening red apple variety as a trap and focus on killing them there. My experience is that they strongly tend to come to them first in an orchard. Certainly they are attracted to some varieties more than others.

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15

Slightly changing topic but I personally try to only buy granulated or powdered products. I think these will last much longer than any liquid stuff. Next year I will use Avaunt, Assail, Captan and Rally

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What about this damage? What is the cause?

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Thank you in advance.

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17

My guess is breakdown from insufficient calcium.

18

@alan
I was wondering about a nutrient issue as this variety is grafted on Honey Crisp. My HC has had a calcocium problem.

Thanks

19

It’s an interesting concept that the mother tree might affect the graft with the same vulnerability- I’ve never read anything on the subject and haven’t anything anecdotal to form even a guess, but I can think of reasons why it could be the case, given the calcium would have to pass from the HC wood to the graft (I bet you thought of that as well). I have grafted other varieties on Honeycrisp apple trees but they were nursery trees.

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20

I don’t know but I think it appears logical.

I also think that some varieties may be more susceptible to this issue than others. I have 12-15 varieties grafted on HC. A few varieties have this problem. The majority don’t.

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