Apple trees

Planted 2 trees about a month ago. Starting to bloom apples. Sprayed them with fruit bug spray. Did I used the right spray? What else should I do?

https://extension.umn.edu/fruit/growing-apples

More info than you will need, but all ever helpful.

Nothing better than eating apples off a tree.

My honey crisp trees only fruit every other year so on the off year I trim them in the spring before they start coming to life. This year we got a little snow right after I trimmed it. I got three wheel barrels last year off this one tree.

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Mine used to do that also, but I learned how to thin the fruit just before the bloom, they produce apples every year now. When a tree produces that much one year it takes a year of recovery, thinning makes it easier on the tree and produces bigger apples yearly.

Your right and I tried doing that but even after we reduced the clumps of five down to two or three we still had way too many. The plan next year is to reduce clumps to only one like my mom told me to do! This tree is amazing though with the size and quality. I’ve been trimming it every other year since we planted it fifteen years ago. The branch unions are terrible so it has around twelve eye bolts with cables and turn screws in it. I’m not taking any chances with limb damage.

When will you learn, listen to mom! Lol

sliderfishn wrote:

When will you learn, listen to mom! Lol

Lol! That’s what she said

Hy crap Gino, what do you do with that many apples??? Various stills of apple moonshine!!🤣🤣

glenn57 wrote:

Hy crap Gino, what do you do with that many apples??? Various stills of apple moonshine!!🤣🤣

The FW and I have been thinking about that, maybe apple wine? I don’t think I can legally make booze with them but I’d like too 😂 I actually brought two boxes of apples to the dump last year after my wife said she was going to use them and they sat in my garage for three weeks 🤷🏻‍♂️

Well iffin you got to many again I’ll buy some from you!!👍

Gino wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>glenn57 wrote:</div>
Hy crap Gino, what do you do with that many apples??? Various stills of apple moonshine!!🤣🤣

The FW and I have been thinking about that, maybe apple wine? I don’t think I can legally make booze with them but I’d like too 😂 I actually brought two boxes of apples to the dump last year after my wife said she was going to use them and they sat in my garage for three weeks 🤷🏻‍♂️

You can legally make booze with them, just can’t sell it and has to be under 150 gallons or something, I can’t remember the exact amount. A good buddy does it every year with apples, raspberries, strawberries, and of course corn

glenn57 wrote:

Hy crap Gino, what do you do with that many apples??? Various stills of apple moonshine!!🤣🤣

I had Deer under the trees munching away.

There are basically 3 apple parasites in this part of the country. I have 25 trees in a remote area and since there are no apple trees for miles, I don’t have parasites. There is the apple maggot, curulio beetles and codling moth. Hang the sticky red traps and you catch apple maggots. Hang a codling moth trap (it has pheromones so if you get a bug, it’s likely a codling moth.) and spray if you capture one. This helps timing and cuts down on chemicals and randomly spraying. Also clean up all fruit that falls so no parasite completes its life cycle. Curculio feed on small apples and make them usually drop. They might be doing you a favor but reducing apple load. This is a great article. At my prior home, I had apple trees and did not spray them.

https://www.hgtv.com/outdoors/flowers-and-plants/fruit/preventing-apple-pests

Dutchboy wrote:

I had Deer under the trees munching away.

I was going to suggest something similar with the extra apples that might be a little bruised or some insects have gotten to them. I throw as many of them in the woods by my house, deer love them. I’ve put some trail cameras up by the trees too and even some big 8-pointers have been regulars.

I’ve always brought fruit to work for later on in the day but don’t want to pay store prices for honeycrisp, so I go through a lot when we have apples. The kids will eat a few apples too.

I’ve made some applesauce but I don’t even like it that much and my kids don’t either, even when the youngest was on baby food.

Otherwise I picked up the extra hobby of always having apple crisp in the house in the fall, so much so that by the time I’m done I’m sick of it.

I’ll freeze some too for future apple crisp. I’ve heard on this website recommendations of freezing them flat on a sheet or something, I’ve just frozen them with a small amount of lemon juice which basically just helps them not look brown.

I also bought two apple trees this year, they’re a little taller than me-I guess I’m not sure when they’re supposed to give me apples. The way they look I don’t think they’ll be giving apples this year.

Also, what does anyone do with crabapples? Use them for baking?? I forgot we had a crabapple tree because a family of coons would climb into the tree last year and eat them all, but now that I’ve been taking care of more and more of our coon population we have a bunch of vibrant red crabapples this year.

I put in 5 new apple trees last spring between 5 and six feet tall after planting. Got a total of 3 apples on them. Dont know if the buds froze off or what happened. I was gonna pick most off anyway to let the tree grow another year first but wanted to at least try a few.

Dan wrote:

Also, what does anyone do with crabapples?

We had a bunch at our old house, and I’d just leave them. They would become very popular for food in winter, especially after they fermented or something one time. Had a huge bird party in the backyard with all types of birds, and they were wasted. Flying into the house, falling off tree branches, seriously reminded me of college keg parties!

BigWerm wrote:

We had a bunch at our old house, and I’d just leave them. They would become very popular for food in winter, especially after they fermented or something one time. Had a huge bird party in the backyard with all types of birds, and they were wasted. Flying into the house, falling off tree branches, seriously reminded me of college keg parties!

Well you just solved that problem for me, thanks!