AMF pick-up

This being a limited crop year here in the Northeast may justify making no effort at containing apple maggot fly. However, the few fruit on Gravenstein, Zestar, and other late summer varieties have been hit hard. My sole harvest task now is to get those fruits picked and disposed, especially any and all drops. Every maggot in an apple takes 3 to 9 days once that fruit drops to go from the safety within to reach the species imperative of soil pupation . . . and that alone sets the stage for AMF to return the next season in a big way. Call it "harvest hyygiene" if you wish but it's the scouring of the orchard floor twice a week for early drops that makes pressure from this persistant pest far more manageable. Get out there, folks.

Lost Nation Orchard
Zone 4b in New Hampshire



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/26/2012 07:47AM by Michael Phillips.

Apple maggot flies seem to be everywhere this season (I am getting pretty good at my sneak up and squish technique while picking). I want to add to the discussion that last year things went pretty quick with pickup by tossing the worst drops in barrels of water, as the larvae will drown. Scything or mowing right before harvest and spreading hay underneath helps in policing. Those with less than a hundred trees could probably police every other day or more without too much trouble. The best of the fruit might find the maggot eaten into submission.

Walden Heights Nursery & Orchard
Zone 3 in Vermont