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undamaged apple yield

neilbradburnneilbradburn Posts: 142
in Fruit & veg
Hi all,
I cropped what I believe to be a Discovery apple tree in our garden today. The earwigs and wasps were making themselves a real nusanse and the fruit appeared to be ready. In the end, having knocked a few earwigs from the stalk end of most fruits, I ended up with about 30 undamaged fruit and a further 20 with surface punctures from my insect friends. Is this sort of ratio of good to bad to be expected? I did thin quite aggressively and have been removing obviously damaged fruit on a weekly basis for a while, so my figures relate to a final selection of the trees fruit.

I have hung some a couple of home made 'sugar water' traps on the tree, which have caught a few of each pest, but they don't seem to have made enough of a dent.

Oh, and sorry! :-) ... Am I alone in feeling victimised my earwigs this year? Prior to this they ate my beet seedlings and the tassles of my exotic blue corn. IT does appear to be a very favourable year for them..

Kind regards
Neil

Posts

  • purplerallimpurplerallim Posts: 5,287
    Nearly all my apples have been eaten by wasps, and they are not ready to pick yet so won't be able to save any I think.
  • PalustrisPalustris Posts: 4,307
    Our Discovery are ready to eat. Blackbirds are out main problem. They peck at the fruit which them allows wasps etc to get in.
  • PlashingPlashing Posts: 328
    We must have got long way 100 kl of apples off my tree that was grown from a pip it is about 10 years old now they are a loverly apple cooked or eaten straight from the tree its very sweet even when cooked,we have made plum and apple jam bramble and apple jam.I wish now we grafted on a dwarf rooting stock its getting rather large now will have to do some pruning this winter,I wish I knew the variety,I suppose its called a pipin been that it grew from a pip in the first place. Regards Peter
  • neilbradburnneilbradburn Posts: 142
    Hi all,

    Many thanks for your responses! Sounds like I've gotten off somewhat lightly and thus should stop complaining :-) 

    Purpleallim: really sorry to hear that you won't get to save any of your apples! Hopefully you'll at least be able to rescue a few casualties.

    Peter: Wow! I'm envious! 100kg! That must take some dedicated baking :-) And all from a pip - isn't nature magical!

    Kind regards

  • PalustrisPalustris Posts: 4,307
    With regards to the earwigs, we have an apple variety called Cat's Head which  develops as a hollow centred fruit. Almost every apple has an earwig resident in the hollow. Makes preparation for cooking a bit odd.
  • Lizzie27Lizzie27 Posts: 12,494
    How peculiar - never heard of that one before.
    North East Somerset - Clay soil over limestone
  • PalustrisPalustris Posts: 4,307
    edited August 2018
    Very old Heritage variety also known as Pig's Snout. Fabulous tasting cooker, but no good commercially as the skin is so soft it bruises just when picking, no matter how gentle one is.
  • neilbradburnneilbradburn Posts: 142
    Hi Berghill,
    My 'wigs are behaving exactly the same. It's been recommended to me that I let them perform their usual near-suicidal dive, but into a bucket, and then emptying them onto the compost heap to perform the more useful task of breaking down organic matter. 

    Hope you manage to remove them all before cooking :-) They somehow seem to find their way into the kitchen on fruit and veg I harvest (no matter how scrutiny I am), and their swimming through my gazpacho the other day certainly didn't improve my appetite :-)
    Kind regards.
  • Joyce GoldenlilyJoyce Goldenlily Posts: 2,933
    I have a young Cornish apple tree, variety unknown, grown from a whip given to me from Trellisk House, it has cropped well this year for the first time. It looks like a Christmas tree, sparkling, bright red, good sized apples all over it. It is not fully ripe yet, seeds still white, but it must give off a perfume already, something we forget, because the wasps are lining up, ready to attack. Unfortunately the flesh is very soft when fully ripe and the apples do not store so I have started using the fruit for jams and jellies, as well as blackberry and apple crumble. It is such a shame as they are delicious eaters.  So far the fruit is all sound and undamaged but not sure how long that is going to last. I will be giving away a lot and putting the rest of the apple down in the freezer as apple sauce, as well as eating some but there is only so much you can eat.
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