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Fri, Feb 1, 13 at 12:55
| Last year i planted my first apple trees, 2 varieties (macintosh and red delicious). we did get apples. they reached their ripe stage however the yellow jackets took over. how can i keep them from digging into the apples without spraying toxins in the tree? |
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| Bag the apples. Basically put a Ziplock sandwich bag on each one. This obviously works best when the trees are still small enough and only producing a dozen or so apples. Once the trees get older this is more time consuming. But it is very easy and very effective. |
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- Posted by northwoodswis4 4a (My Page) on Fri, Feb 1, 13 at 13:57
| Be sure to snip the corners of the ziplock to let out rainwater. I find it easiest to use a paper punch to punch a circle in the center of the zipper for where the stem will go. I do that all in the house first. The cheaper brands of bags seem easiest to put on the marble-sized apples. Some apple varieties have longer stems than others, so are easier to do. Use a scissors to carefully cut off the other apples in the clump. I have problems with so many of the apples dropping after I have bagged, making a mess on the ground. Not sure if there is any solution to that problem, other than bagging more apples than I expect to harvest while thinning them. I wonder if I am squeezing the stems too much when putting the bags on and that is causing the dropping. Northwoodswis |
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