Thinnings and drops - what to do with them?

We are having a lot of trouble with European Apple Sawfly and Plum Curculio this year so have been picking up all the drops and harvesting all the thinnings into 5 gallon buckets. My question is, after sometime sitting in the buckets, is it all right to compost all of these fruitlets or should they be discarded in some other way?

Thank you!
Molly

5 Star Nursery and Orchard
Zone 5, Brooklin, ME



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/05/2018 09:06AM by Molly DellaRoman.

What you don't want is for living larvae to reach soil to pupate. Sitting in buckets for a month or so probably does them in as I imagine the bulk of those fruitlets begin to compost in situ. Fill the buckets with water and larvae drown. Feed them to chickens or piglets. Place in a HOT compost pile (as opposed to dribbled across a not very active pile of organic matter). Dump them on a blacktop road and let cars run over the works. I find a limited amount of infested fruitlets when thinning and so simply put those in my pocket and then throw on our gravel driveway.

Lost Nation Orchard
Zone 4b in New Hampshire

Thanks! As a follow up to this - we have 60+ peach trees on the orchard as well. We are just about done thinning them and have also been harvesting the thinnings into buckets. Wondering if people take this extra step or if there are not as many bugs/diseases to worry about in peaches that the drops and thinnings can just remain on the ground?

5 Star Nursery and Orchard
Zone 5, Brooklin, ME