Protecting Your Apples from Insects Organically with Surround and Nylon Stockings

For many years I've been frustrated by the near complete loss of my apple crop to plum curculios, codling moths and apple maggot.  If you're not familiar with these insects pests download this excellent PDF from the Wisconsin extension.  It is free to download and you can purchase a hard copy as well.

Between the three of these little devils, I was getting only enough apples for a few pints of applesauce.  I tried putting nylon stockings over the developing tiny fruit.  However, the plum curculios damage the fruit before it is large enough to be able to use this technique.

This year I finally got smart and I began spraying my apples since petal fall with Surround, a finely ground clay that irritates the insects and prevents them from feeding or injecting their eggs into the fruit.  Here's a good article about using Surround kaolin clay.  (It's probably obvious but "petal fall" is when most of the petals have fallen off the blossoms.)  Don't spray before petal fall or you will interfere with pollination.

The Surround keeps the insects at bay until the fruitlets are the size of a nickel and ready for their nylon stocking hats.  The nylon "footies" protect the apple for the rest of the season.   You can read all about this technique and buy footies from the Home Orchard Society website.

Here's the whole process:

This is what the Surround Kaolin Clay spray looks like when applied.  The silvery color is actually pretty pleasing but does look a little weird.  I hated the way the spray covered my grass and so I avoided using Surround for years.  This year I experimented and found that if I spray the grass immediately after application with a strong jet of water, most of the excess clay is washed away.

Before putting on the footie we need to thin the fruit to prevent the tree from over-taxing itself and to make the apples that remain on the tree bigger.

Using a scissors I carefully thin away the excess fruit.  Choose the largest fruit and do your best to make sure it isn't damaged in any way.

After thinning this apple has room to grow!

Now comes the weird part.  Putting on the nylon footies.

Here's the footie as it comes out of the package.  These stockings do NOT snap back so handle them carefully.

You need to open the footie 1/3 to 1/2 its length.  I  pull the footie over my thumb to coax it open far enough to slip over the tiny apple.

Now gently slide the footie over the small apple.  Insert it about half way.  This  gives plenty of room for the apple to grow.

Now just lightly twist the end shut under the fruitlet.  Be careful not to break him off!

Here's the finished product.  A cute little apple snug inside a nylon footie.  Sure, it looks a little weird but isn't that worth it for perfect organic apples?

There you have it.  Not only is this process completely organic, it also avoids killing the pests.  As a Buddhist, I really appreciate being able to avoid unnecessary killing.  The pests land on the tree, become irritated by the clay, and move on somewhere else!

Protecting Espaliers from Frost

Another great benefit of espaliers is the ease of protecting them from late frosts.  Frost is threatening my home town tonight.  I found some tarps and sheets and clipped them to the wire support system to provide some protection against frost.  It's doubtful that these passive measures will be effective under 28 degrees but the forecast is for 30 degrees tonight.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Tarps and blankets covering espaliers will protect to 28 degrees if you're lucky.

The micro-climate here with the cement driveway close by might be enough to protect these blossoms if there is no wind but I didn't want to chance it.  If you're lucky enough to have your espaliers planted against a rock or brick wall, you've got excellent protection if you can use a tarp to cover the tree and include the wall allowing the radiant heat to be trapped by the tarp.

Good luck to everyone.  I'm hopeful I can still have a harvest this year.

Pruning Black Currants

Pruning black currants is a fairly easy task. Since black currants bear the most fruit on last year's wood, the only real trick is to remove all the wood that is more than one year old. Here's a before photo:

See the finished product below.  It looks like I've killed the poor thing but without removing those old canes, there wouldn't be room for the new shoots that will bear next year's crop.

Be sure to either burn the removed canes or remove them far away from your garden to avoid spreading disease or insect pests.

Spray for Peach Leaf Curl Now

Peach leaf curl is a serious problem and can defoliate a tree

Photo credit goes to the University of Illinois Extension

There is no cure for peach leaf curl, only prevention.  You must apply a fungicide early before the buds begin to swell.  The fungus is carried into the opening buds via rain so you've got to knock out the fungus before buds are susceptible.  Some people also apply fungicide in late fall.

If you're looking for organic solutions, you can use lime sulfur. My experience is that it is quite effective.  However, it smells like rotten eggs and since mine is an urban orchard, I didn't feel it was fair to make the neighbors smell that for weeks!

I switched to Chlorothalonil.  I try to be as organic as possible but sometimes gardening requires compromises.

The folks at your local garden store will be able to help you with what is available in your area. 

Whatever you do act now!  Once the disease starts, you just have to wait while all your lovely peach leaves curl up and fall off.