Fruits and Nuts: Red delicious apple tree and worms, 1 by drobarr

drobarr wrote:
For apples here is what I do. All sprays are mixed up in a 1.5 gallon hand sprayer I bought at a Lowes:

I prune my apples in January or February. Then in early spring (March) while still dormant I apply an oil: http://www.lowes.com/pd_94034-446-0168160_0__?productId=3047...
This kills any eggs that have overwintered on the tree as well as helps to control San Jose Scale as well as mites.

In MI and parts of the east, on most varieties you can get apple scab. This is a fungal disease that causes black round lessions to form on leaves and fruit. Attached is a picture of a golden delicious apple with scab on the fruit. Also seen are tiny little dots which is a summer disease called flyspeck. Red Delicious is also a sceceptible variety. The fact sheet tells you how to control scab as well as lists disease resistant cultivars. To control scab I usually apply copper early on at 1/2 green tip and then apply a fungicide(Captain) at 10-14 day intervals until after petal fall especiall if we have alot of wet weather. Copper after the pink flower stage can cause injury to the fruit. http://plantclinic.cornell.edu/factsheets/applescab2.pdf After this stage I do not apply any more fungicide and I have been fine in my area. Scab can be so bad that a tree can be defoliated and scab infected fruit falls to the ground before reaching maturity.

At petal fall I apply NEEM oil + pyrethrins. http://www.scotts.com/smg/goprod/green-light-fruit-tree-spra...
This targets plum curculios, and European apple sawfly. To get codding moth at the first generation you generlaly want to apply insecticide around the end of May to target their first generation. This is hard to figure when it exactly will be due to shifting weather paterns recently so I apply the NEEM + pyrethrins on a 7-10 interval for 3-4 applications after petal fall to insure I not only get the plum curculios, and European apple sawfly, but also the codding moth, and numerous other pests. The NEEM oil product also suppresses diseases and mites.

After this I do not apply the NEEM unless needed so I scout weekly to see what pests might be out there and some years do not make any additional sprays beyond late June.

Sounds like alot of spraying but it ensures good pest and disease free apples and does so almost organically(Captain not organic). If you dont get disease only use the insect program. If you dont get the insects just use the fungicide spray program. I am all about spraying as little as possible...but for my Gala's and Red Delicious I know I'm going to get scab in 3 out of 4 years and the only way to prevent is to spray on a program and start early at the 1/2 green tip stage.