What to do with apples falling off tree

Birds and insects will soon eat them on the compost heap. The only thing is they may attract rats if any lurking in your area. So we tend to cover them up with the stuff that's already composted so any thing has to dig deep for them! I don't know if it will alter the balance too much.

I bung everything in my compost container, vegetables, fruit, bits of paper cardboard even kitchen towel, tissues and cotton wool.

Never had any problem with the compost during the process or when complete. As long as you only put things made from vegetable matter you are OK. A good compost heap should be full of worms, some of which eventually die and rot down into the compost so i see no reason why apples, that might have maggots in them should cause any problem.

If I cut an apple with an insect hole I rarely find an insect in it. Those holes are the holes made by a maggot exiting the apple, not entering it. The result of eggs laid at an earlier stage of the apples development.

I use a bin compost and have good compost coming out it's been a real success.
Monica it's just the amount of apples (about 50) which I have, just wondered if it might be too many in one go. I don't want to ruin the compost.

Cut the good bits up and make apple sauce which you can freeze in small portions. The rest can go on a compost heap.

My eldest DD is a fanatical compost maker (she has an allotment as well as a garden). I've forgotten how many compost heap she has. Re M0nica's remark about only vegetable matter, DD says she never has enough cardboard for her heaps. Cardboard helps deal with compost dampness.

I have put hundreds of apples on my compost heap, and do so every year, plus the peelings and trimmings from the hundreds more that I process for home consumption, which includes many more with insect holes.

Once rotted compost is compost is compost. The only material I layer is grass cuttings, because thick layers of those can get slimy, but do eventually rot, although most of my grass cuttings go on the veg patch as mulch.

Baggs, cardboard is vegetable matter, it is made from wood pulp, as are all the other things I listed as going on my compost heap.

Baggs, cardboard is vegetable matter, it is made from wood pulp, as are all the other things I listed as going on my compost heap.

Yes. That's why I told the story of DD and her compost heaps containing lots of cardboard.

Make jam just get rid of the core peel and any bad bits

Well I've put the fallen apples in the compost, I cut them up first and took out any diseased bits. A bag of shredded carboard, some vegetables from the kitchen and a small amount of grass and a can of water. My compost goes down so quickly that's why I wanted to add the apples. Fingers crossed, if it starts smelling I'll add some leaf mould and more cardboard. My compost never smells and I understand that if it does it's out of balance. Thanks everyone for your comments, I only started composting last December first time adding apples in these quantities.
I now need to wrap the good apples for storage but not sure yet where to store them.

Don’t take out the diseased bits, just put them on the compost as they are.

Definitely no need to waste time cutting out diseased bits. Another one here who has put lots of apples/apple pulp (remains from making juice) on compost with no problems.

Hi Jeanie ,
If you have time -
I'd use as much of the apple as possible for sauce , jams and pickles -you can always give them as gifts .
Pickles are so easy to make .
I do mine in the microwave .

Rough cut the rest up and mix with cardboard and compost .

I have plenty of cooking apples this year, but they are quite small. A house down the road has a wheelbarrow full, all of theirs are small as well, I suppose it’s the lack of rain?
I have an Apple Peeler and it’s been a godsend with my Arthritic hands.

I'd use what I could in making sauce etc as well then put the rest on the compost heap
In fact I'm as we lost our cooking apple tree and the replacement is not thriving well. It has two small apples this year.

You can make apple cider vinegar. The beauty is you don’t have to peel the apples which is useful especially if they are small piddling ones. Similarly you can make apple wine. Or pulp them for the juice which can be strained and frozen.

Thanks 25Avalon
That's something I never knew and it looks quite simple

25Avalon

You can make apple cider vinegar. The beauty is you don’t have to peel the apples which is useful especially if they are small piddling ones. Similarly you can make apple wine. Or pulp them for the juice which can be strained and frozen.

That’s what we always did when we had an apple orchard.

Any tips WWM2 for us please?

I use crabapples - and cooking apples to make apple jelly and bramble jelly with added blackberries. Again the apples do not need to be peeled and chopped.

Pigs like them!

We chop ours up, leave some for the birds and some on the compost heap.

We have also been known to throw them towards (but not hit) cats who sit under the bird feeders to scare them away.

I used to make green apple and parsley jelly ,was fab with pork(I dont eat pork now) or ham .You'll probably get a recipe online Sadly my apple tree like my cherry tree is no more .Might plant new ones when we reconfigure the back garden in the spring

October now and the apples etc have just turned into brown compost with the help of my worm community.
Thanks everyone for your suggestions I hope you are all well and enjoying the garden.