Apples looking diseased? Here is how to prevent even more damage
YOU may see bumper harvests of apples in October, but what if your crop is mouldy mess, maggot infested or has scabs? HANNAH
STEPHENSON has some ideas of what’s gone wrong and how you can prevent it in future... Codling moth
MAGGOTS or the telltale holes, are generally codling moth larvae. The holes lead to secondary rot.
Andrew Salisbury, RHS principal entomologist, advises: “Pheromone traps in your tree will attract males and will give you an indication of numbers, but the only treatment is an insecticide spray.
You need to get the caterpillars
as they hatch but before they enter the fruit – normally late May or early June.” Rosy apple aphid
“THIS aphid’s blackish eggs are hardly noticeable on woody parts of the plant. They hatch in spring and you get dense colonies which cause leaf curling, while the fruit remains small and is often pinched at the base.”
A tree wash applied in autumn should kill off overwintering aphids and limit the spring colonies. Canker THIS fungus, inset left makes the bark shrink back in flakes, and crack. It spreads each year if untreated. If it gets into the main trunk, it can kill the tree. and there is little you can do apart from pruning out affected areas. Disinfect tools as you use them and lime the soil in spring to reduce the risk. Apple scab
UNSIGHTLY, scabby fruit is likely to be this fungal disease which likes wet, warm conditions. The first signs are dark brown or green spots on
leaves and blistered shoots. To control it you need good garden hygiene, so rake up fallen leaves and prune out damaged shoots before burning them.
Prune out scabby branches, but also try to keep the soil healthy, well drained and mulched in spring. Woolly aphid
THE damage they cause can lead to cankers. While it may not affect the fruit, a tree infested with woolly aphid doesn’t look well and can lack vigour.
The only solution is to manually remove the colonies in early spring with a stiff brush, then apply an organic insecticide.