Topic: staggering my apples. They are ripening early

[strawberry1]

I have 7 different varieties, all M26 rootstocks. I helped the june drop and took hundreds off in june/july. I now have large apples and bountiful started to drop ripe fruit. I didn`t spray this year, only ever sprayed last year and it was successful. This year I used that green triangular codling trap, it was worse than useless. So bountiful is ready and I have frozen many small portions and eaten some, baked with honey and raisins, absolutely gorgeous. I decided that I need a heads start and have taken all the apples off that tree, thanking my lucky stars that I had thought to thin. More than half have codling holes, so tomorrow I will make puree again and the next day and the next. I put some into a drawer in my wooden apple store knowing full well that bountiful don`t last at all but they make beautiful puree

Bardsey are next, I ate one today, a windfall, very sweet and nice. Another one that doesn`t keep. Fortunately a combined cooker/eater

We are so early this year, unbelievably early. Red windsor started dropping perfect apples yesterday

[saddad]

If you have some other trees eg plums nearby put the moth trap in those... putting it in the apples draws the moths to it.. and you want to draw them away so they don't mate..

even if you have some codling moth damage.. they ripen first so your later apples, from the same tree are less likely to be maggoty..

[strawberry1]

Thank you saddad. I learnt a lot from your post

[Russell]

I struggled on intermittently for years with various remedies for codling moth of various degrees of effectiveness/ineffectiveness until one year I recorded all the apples that came off my tree, whether they were OK or not, if they fell off early (windfall) and what might be wrong with them. The record showed that about 50% of my apples were damaged by codling moth and were thus of zero value. With every problem there is an opportunity, by defeating the codling moth I could double my yield of apples.
I found a legal spray that worked and did not harm the bees, and windfalls immediately became a thing of the past.
I now have a grip on the problem but I have to maintain control year by year, because the codling moths that hatch from my neighbours neglected trees invite themselves on to my trees. I understand the moths can fly up to half a mile. If true this would explain the limited effectiveness of traps, garden hygiene, nematodes etc.
It surprises me that allotments are so tolerant of neglected fruit trees which provide an overwintering sanctuary for pests and diseases. Come the spring these trees become reservoirs of infection for those pests and diseases of negative economic consequence to other nearby fruit growers. There is a big Bramley tree on my allotment in this state and at this time of year there is usually £40 worth of fruit rotting on the ground below it.
By contrast  allotments are usually intolerant of seeding weeds that are merely an irritant to others.

[strawberry1]

have a look at the bramley thread Russell