how do I prevent worms in my apples?

Question

how do I keep worms from getting in my apples? I can use spray but its expensive and unhealthy. So? Whats the answer? We did it for hundreds of years but no one seems to know the answer.

Answer 1

You can spray in the late fall for coddling moth-they form the worms in your apples.  If you don't like to spray you can bag each apple individually, tie the bags with a rubber band and when your neighbor's apples are ripe, open several bags on your tree to check the stage of ripening and pick appropriately.  Or you can leave the apples alone and pick them when they are ripe and cut out the worms.

Answer 2

What I do is take an old plastic milk jug, put in 2 cups of water, 1 cup of apple cider vinegar, and 1 tablespoon of blue Dawn dishwashing liquid.  Hang several in each tree, depending on size.  A tree that is about 10 foot tall and 10 foot diameter spread I will hang 2 in, about midway high in the tree.  You have to wait until the blossoms drop of or you will kill a lot of bees.  The bigger the tree the more you need to hang I the tree.  Take down in the fall and dispose of them.  You also need to be diligent in raking up the fallen apples throughout the year.  I generally will have less than 10% of my apples with any type of worms in them.  Never have sprayed my apple trees for years.  I use this in my Fireside, Reagent, and Honeycrisp trees.

Answer 3

You can prevent most worm activity feasting on your fruit trees by feeding your trees with this mixture:  1 Cup White Vinegar [6 oz]  mixed with 2 gallons luke-warm water, after mixing, pour the entire 2 gallons around the affected fruit tree, the vinegar gets into the trees sap and most insects will not bother the tree after a while, this is not dangerous to either human nor animal.  You will need to do this for four days (1x/day) then wait two days then continue the treatment for another four days, you will see dramatic improvement in about 2 weeks

-Bird