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An apple a day, please?

Posted on August 29th, 2007 – 2:01 PM
By Jaime Chismar

GradientGirl send us this question from the wilds of south Minneapolis:

I just moved into a new house and my new yard features a pretty mature apple tree! However, the apple tree has a few problems. The main one is it started dropping apples like mad, as soon as they appeared and all summer long. Many of them weren’t ready yet. Was it the heat and drought? Is it the fact that the apple tree is shaded by a very sickly-looking pine tree? The other, even bigger problem is squirrels. I have voracious squirrels in my back yard who are constantly shaking apples off the tree, nibbling two bites, and then running off and doing whatever it is that squirrels do. I managed to harvest one, yes ONE apple, and it seems to be a classic pie apple–tart and kinda soft.

What can I do to make my apple tree healthy and save the bountiful harvest from the squirrels?

I don’t know much about apple tress, but I know many of you do. What advice do you have for GradientGirl? Is there a particular resource you would recommend? How do you keep you apples safe until harvest time?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 29th, 2007 at 2:01 pm and is filed under Apples, Plums + Tree fruits, Critters + vermin. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

4 Responses to "An apple a day, please?"

gardengoddess says:

August 30th, 2007 at 2:17 pm

Apple trees often drop fruit if they have produced an excess in a given year. A tree can only bring so much fruit to harvest and so it aborts some of its load before they’re ripe. Now it may be that because this trees is so heavily shaded that it can’t handle much fruit. If so, getting rid of the ugly pine would be a good option. However, another factor this year was indeed, the drought. If you didn’t lay soaker hose around the fruit tree, it suffered from the lack of moisture and that affects its ability to produce.

One thing you can do to improve the harvest on your apple trees is to do some thinning early in the season. This requires some discipline because it seems counter-intuitive to remove fruit unless you remind yourself that if you don’t do it, the tree will. When the fruit is small, remove all but one or two baby apples in each cluster. You can also try apple bagging. I’ve included links for more info below.

Best cure for squirrels is a dog that hates them or a cat that eats them. It’s true. There are lots of repellants you can try but I’ve never heard of anyone having much success with them. Tree rats are a real problem. Another possibility is to create a feeding station for the squirrels that is far away from your tree. They may still have a taste for fruit, but it could cut down on the invasion.

If you want to know all there is to know about growing apples in Minnesota, your best resource is the U of MN’s extension site. Here’s a few examples of their info on apples:

http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/applepear.html

http://www.extension.umn.edu/projects/yardandgarden/ygbriefs/h202thinfruit.html

Reetsyburger says:

August 30th, 2007 at 3:19 pm

Gradient Girl,

I sent your question to the folks at the U of M extension.

Answer:
Apple trees often start out in spring with more apples than they can support, and around mid-June, will drop the excess fruits. This “fruit drop” is a normal process. In fact, apple trees are infamous for having too many fruits one year (even after normal fruit drop), and then having none the following year. Thus, many people thin the apples down to an acceptable number in the heavy years, so that the tree is able to support a crop every year. Go to the following link and page down to the section entitled, “Thinning Fruit”:
http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/applepear.html

Apple trees do best in full sun, so if there is a “sickly-looking” pine shading it and if you value your apple tree and want to give the best growing environment, you might want to consider eventually removing the pine.

Keeping squirrels out of an apple tree is next to impossible. Trying to exclude them with netting doesn’t work, and trapping (or shooting them, if permissible where you live) is only a temporary solution, because more will soon move in to fill the void. Sorry I can’t give you any good solution.

As for caring for your tree, in addition to watering your apple tree when rainfall is inadequate, you will want to learn about insect pests and diseases and their control. Read about the most common insect pest, apple maggot, at:
http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/DG1007.html

Also, read about the most common disease, apple scab, at:
http://www.extension.umn.edu/yardandgarden/ygbriefs/p220applescab.html

-Peggy in Chisago County, MN

gradientgirl says:

August 31st, 2007 at 12:44 pm

Thanks for the advice, wow! Those darn squirrels. I do have a dog who hates them and it is no help: when he goes out in the yard and chases them they climb up just out of his reach and then sit there and laugh at him (really, they are evil).

I have been waiting for an excuse to cut down that pine and this is going to be it. Maybe I’ll start letting my cat out in the backyard and see what damage he can do.

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