Friday, July 9, 2010

Day 9 - Setbacks and Pitfalls, Chapter 1

One of my readers suggested that I should talk about setbacks and pitfalls and how I deal with them. Humans remember that perfect peach but do not like to remember the wormy apple. I am guilty of that!! Well, everything does not always work out as planned and I have learned quite a bit over the years.

For this posting, I would like to talk about the "wormy apple". I have had problems with this issue, especially with my Sierra Beauty apple tree...and unfortunately it looks like I will have the same problem this year. Why do I get wormy apples some years and not others? Well, I do not use any sprays on my trees. I asked a local apple grower and his solution to worms was sprays. I do not want to spray anything on fruit that I am going to consume...much less my kids. So, the worms come from the Codling Moth. These buggers are a real problem in my yard and the only real solution that I have is to thin fruit when they are about dime sized. I did this last year and had the most incredible apples around. This year I was a bit of a slacker...and I will not have great apples. What I mean by thinning is cut away any apples that might touch each other. Apple blossoms will produce 3 - 5 flowers and with the bees providing great polination, they all turn into apples. If I do not thin to one apple, they will all have the moth larvae. I was just a bit late this year....

Harvested today:
1) Three zuchini ($2.50)

Year-to-Date ($34.50)

No comments:

Post a Comment