Fruits - Apples

1. Apples

2. CHOOSING PLANTS Ripen July through October By choosing different ripening times, can have 4-month apple harvest that extends

3. Dessert apples Best apples for eating fresh Can be cooked or preserved, but best when fresh

4. Processing apples Usually more tart Make best pies and sauce Firmer flesh so don’t turn to mush when cooked

5. Storage apples Bred to remain crisp, flavorful when stored under refrigeration or root cellar through winter Ripen late, tough skins Many types taste better after several months of storage

6. Heirloom apples Old varieties being brought back into production Many have superb flavor Drawback - seldom have disease resistance

7. Disease resistance Apples naturally disease prone New class of disease-resistant apples that are flavorful Resistant to scab, fireblight, rust Examples: Liberty, Freedom, Prima, Jonafree, Williams' Pride, Redfree, Dayton, Novamac, Nova Easygro, Sir Prize, Macfree

8. Size selection Most apples grafted Desirable top grafted onto hardy rootstock Rootstock determines size of tree standard 20-25 feet semi-dwarf 10-13 feet dwarf 6-8 feet

9. Size selection Dwarf, semi-dwarf trees strongly recommended for home garden Take up less room Provide more apples per square foot of canopy Begin to bear earlier Easier to pick Easier to prune Easier to spray

10. Planting Give plenty of room to spread without crowding 20-25 feet between semi-dwarfs 10-15 feet between dwarfs

11. Cross-pollination Most need another variety planted nearby for cross-pollination Can be accomplished with wild apples and crabapples To assure good crop, plant pollinator Most resources give extensive lists of appropriate pollinators http://www.fruit-tree.com/applepollen.html

13. Pruning and training Use central or modified central leader method of pruning Thin in late winter for improved air circulation

14. Pests, diseases For absolutely clean fruit, necessary to use spray program with fungicide, insecticide Attitude adjustment - accept fruits that aren’t spotless, perfect specimens Will allow reduction of spray programs

15. Plum curculio Overwinter in woods and hedgerows Emerge after petal fall, lay eggs at night when above 70 degrees Small, crescent-shaped cuts in fruit made by females to lay eggs Can place cloth on ground and shake tree vigorously Weevils "play dead" and will fall onto cloth - gather and dispose of Botanical spray

16. Codling moth Worm in apple - usually codling moth Overwinter as eggs under loose bark female moths lay eggs on developing fruit Caterpillar larvae burrow into fruit to core Pheromone traps – monitoring Botanical sprays effective for control Corrugated cardboard strips around base of tree in early spring - first generation of caterpillars emerges from apples and pupate under cardboard. Removing cardboard every couple of weeks, destroying pupal cases reduces populations

17. Apple maggot Fly larvae burrow leaving brown trails, unusable flesh Traps - hang red spheres covered with Tanglefoot Flies attracted, get stuck One trap for every 100 apples Leave 9-18" of open space around trap

18. Apple scab Fungal spores overwinter in fallen leaves As leaf, flower buds open, spores released into air to and on leaves and buds Dry weather – less infection Wet springs - severe 1. Resistant varieties 2. Clean up all debris to reduce overwintering spores 3. Sulfur sprays

19. Fruitworm, leafroller Caterpillars - feed on surface of fruit Careful monitoring – pheromone traps Control- Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) as soon as they emerge from egg

20. Harvest, storage Picked when ripe rather than letting them ripen off the trees (exception - storage apples) Twist apple off branch, leaving small portion of stem attached. Don’t puncture or bruise Freeze - peel, slice, dip in ascorbic acid or lemon juice. Bag and freeze.