Warning - Fruit Moths Are Here

In spite of our cool spring, I'm really pleased with the fruit set on my trees this year. However, the 'June Drop' started a little earlier than usual, probably due to the high winds we had at the beginning of last week. Once they'd subsided I decided to set up my pheromone moth traps amongst my trees - one for plum moth and the other for codling. Gardening books say they're meant to indicate when to spray, but I'm of the opinion that if the traps are catching most of the males, then the females aren't going to lay many eggs to hatch into those horrible maggots in my fruit.

I set them up last Thursday and it turned out to be just in time. On Saturday the plum moth trap (see below) had a number of moths (ha ha ha!); yesterday the codling moth trap had its first catch of the season.

Comments

  1. Zoë3 June 2008 at 10:54

    Like you I much prefer these traps and won't spray either.

    Looks like a bumper crop if the making though.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Esther Montgomery3 June 2008 at 12:33

    Um - do you have some advice (please).

    I've never had so much blossom on my apple tree before this year - nor so many fruits which have set.

    Nothing's dropped yet though. I expect a lot will eventually because the groups of little apples are so large. (If they don't, I'll have to thin them out myself.)

    Each apple is now about an inch long.

    But here's the worry - they're going red - bright red.

    a.) It's too early for them to ripen.

    b.) They aren't the kind of apple that goes red, even when it's ready to pick.

    Any ideas?

    Esther

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous3 June 2008 at 13:03

    Ooh, good timely reminder. I'll hang mine out this afternoon.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous4 June 2008 at 01:29

    Hi VP. Apples aren't easy. You should try a medlar, both flowers and fruit are attractive and no pests seem attracted to them. I'm fond of my medlar tree. Of course, medlars taste like dessicated rat carcass, but hey!

    I'm expecting a poor apple crop this year because last year was stupendous and apples seem to crop well every other year.

    Simon

    ReplyDelete
  5. VP23 June 2008 at 20:42

    Zoe - I do hope so!

    Esther - Hope my answer by e-mail helped!

    Lisa - doooo, else they'll be all maggoty :(

    Simon - I think you can do something about biennial cropping but I've forgooten what it is :(

    ReplyDelete

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