apple trees and pests

mamacaz, the ants, good farmers of aphids. I have some diatomacious earth, I think I will sprinkle some around the trees next year. I don`t know if it will work or not but worth a try

The weather seemed right to split and move chives under each apple tree, there seems pretty good evidence that it will help with scab and I saw 2 baby nettles while hoeing today and have planted those close enough in shady places, they seem to be one of the best for helping the prediators

I had 2 buckwheat pillow and the hulls are now around the trees. I used those pherome traps once on the allotment, that was the year when I had the worst ever codling problem, I think they attracted the moths into the area

Esspee

*MamaCaz*. Spraying the tree with soapy water (just washing up liquid will do) kills off aphids. Bit like coronavirus really.

Thanks, Esspee
I had tried washing the leaves with soapy water, which turned out to be trickier than I had imagined, even on a small tree. Spraying sounds much more sensible, so I will definitely try that next year.

On large apple trees it’s not worth doing anything, as there will be more than enough apples that are perfect, but we also have a small tree with the same rootstock as you crafty and do nothing more than look out for the curled up leaves and remove them (aphids) yes, there will be some apples not good enough to eat but plenty that are, am not sure it’s worth all the precautions.We do remove a percentage of apples when they are small to encourage growth and ventilation.
Are your trees not giving you enough perfect apples, are most of them affected?

MamaCaz. Spraying the tree with soapy water (just washing up liquid will do) kills off aphids. Bit like coronavirus really.

We have an apple tree on the allotment which seems to have a hole in most apples
They re fine if you cut the hole out though obviously no longer perfect

My three-year old apple tree seems to be attacked more by aphids than anything else. The ants 'farm' them, protecting them from their natural predators.
Because the aphids quickly colonise the underside of leaves at all the growing points (and the affected leaves quickly start to curl around them too), spraying with insecticide hasn't proved very effective at all, and isn't something I like to do anyway unless absolutely necessary.
Do any of you have any tips on how best to deal with this problem? The tree really seems to be struggling.

I hope you don't mind my adding this question to your thread, OP

Our apple tree is looking fully laden and very healthy but the squirrels are now showing an interest so thank you for reminding me we need to try putting netting on today.

Wouldn’t mind sharing if they stuck to taking away the odd apple but they tend to try little nibbles of each.?????

About half the apples have codling exit holes. I have used pherome traps on the allotment trees, not much use. Grease bands were ok and I lay down a bag of buckwheat hulls that I had just for somewhere to get rid of them. They did make my soil nice to how btw

I was thinking last night, that year my allotment apples were extremely unblemished and I never put this theory together until last night. My plan this year is grease bands, putting chives and dll below, for distraction scent and preditors and I have some hulls, which I will put around each tree. Maybe diatomaceous earth will work around the tree too. I will try all these, they are all organic methods

As an aside, I did a little light summer pruning and will set to for the open centre shape in winter this year. The whip, I will take down to half its height, so that I get the branches to make that bowl shape. All my trees are M26 rootstock thankfully and very well staked