Fireside and Macintosh Apples

My friend has a Fireside apple tree but rarely eats any of the apples because they fall off of the tree before they're ripe. It doesn't upset her a lot because she planted it mostly to fertilize the Macintosh tree that she likes better. But she ends up with hundreds of green Fireside apples on the ground and just have to get rid of them. She has never sprayed either of the trees. The Macintosh often get little brown streaks through them like a tiny bug ate its way around in them. What can she do to have a usable crop?

Thank-you

TLC: You won't believe this remedy, but it works. I have used it for years on fruit trees.

1 banana peel
1 cup sugar
1 cup cider vinegar
1 gallon milk jug

Put all ingredients into milk jug--add water to top of jug.
Hang jug up in tree on the main trunk right before they bloom.
The bugs go for the mixture in jug and drown.
We leave them up all season and put up new filled jugs every year.
Your friends apples will not have the brown streaks going through them with this recipe.

Thank you so much,
Debby!

Wow! Do you think this might work for plums too? Something gets into ours and causes them to drop before they ripen. They also get a grey moldy stuff on them. Last we we sprayed but then a terrible wind blew all the blossoms off the fruit trees so we didn't get any fruit at all from anything.

Debby, would that work on apricots too. We have a tree that is just covered with pea size apricots and I would love to get some before the bugs and the deer do.

Tombstonejan: I use it on all fruit trees. I had apple trees, but alas they both died of old age. I still use it on my pear trees and cherry tree.
Hurry and get the jugs on the tree, I put my jugs on right at blooming time. You could still do it when they are young fruit.

My friend is going to try it! I will let you know how it goes for her. She was very excited!

What a find! I've already put this thread on watch for next spring and plan to print out a copy for my neighbors. We have apple, apricot, and pear trees, and the worms hit them pretty hard (though not nearly as bad as last year).

Thank you so much, Debby! :)

Donna/TuttiFrutti

P.S. Happy Birthday! :)

This message was edited Aug 6, 2004 6:52 PM

Tutti Fruti: Your welcome.
It works and best of all no chemicals, no spraying every two weeks.
I think this recipe was orginally in 'Mother Earth News'.

Debby, it doesn't dry out and have to be refreshed/replaced over the season? Sounds most promising!

Darius: Just has to be put up the first of the season and forget it. It doesn't dry completely up, evaporates a little at a time. I usually kept my jugs up till the next spring and then replaced them with newly filled jugs.

Thanks, Debby.

Your welcome. Now that was quick posting.