To get a rich harvest of quality apples, not damaged by worms, a whole range of measures should be followed, including agrotechnical, biological and chemical methods of pest and disease control.
To taste ripe bulk apples from your own garden, it is not enough just to plant an apple tree once. You also need to know how to protect it from the invasion of pests, otherwise the entire crop will be in wormholes, or simply crumble before it reaches its final maturity.
Preliminary preparation of wood before processing
Even novice gardeners have heard that apple trees should be treated against pests in spring and autumn, but only dendrologists recommend carefully preparing the tree for this purpose. Otherwise, even the most high-quality and proven remedy will not have the proper effect on the parasites.
Experts are sure that simple cleaning around the seedlings, crown formation, pruning lifeless branches, cleaning the trunk from old bark are very important procedures for caring for an apple tree, allowing you to increase the susceptibility to subsequent processing against pests. Just don't take it literally that you need to cleanse all of last year's bark. The main thing is to remove the exfoliated, under which the pests that have hibernated there may remain.
Making out the crown of an apple tree, you need to remember that not only dried branches are subject to pruning, but also "extra" ones, which did not differ in the abundance of the harvest last season. The branches of the main "skeleton" of the tree undergo rejuvenating pruning, during which they are shortened just as much as they have grown in a year.
There is no need to delay the preparatory work, because pruning and cultivation of the soil at the foot of the apple tree is done at a time when the threat of frost has already passed, but the buds on the tree have not yet appeared. That is, the rest phase should be chosen for these events. Autumn is the period of the end of leaf fall.
Every parasite has its own remedy
The above methods of caring for apple trees are also a kind of pest control. Mechanical removal of bark, whitewashing of the trunk in spring and autumn, loosening of the soil at the foot of the tree can partially exterminate parasites on the tree itself and on the soil surface near the apple tree. However, it is hardly possible to do without pesticides.
Prevention against sucker, aphid, silkworm, apple moth and hawthorn, which may remain on the apple tree after wintering, is carried out in early spring, before the buds open. Thorough spraying of the trunk, branches and trunk circle on the soil is carried out with Bordeaux liquid (3% solution), nitrophene (4% solution) or DNOC (1% solution). True, the last remedy is applied every 3 years, while others can be processed annually.
From the comma-shaped scabbard, you need to have time to process it before and after the flowering phase. This is done with the drug "Aktara". From apple blossom beetle and leafworm, processing is carried out by means of "Cymbush" during blooming. But the most dangerous pest for the apple tree is the apple moth. She gets down to business immediately after flowering, leaving the larvae on the leaves. Experts recommend treating the apple tree with Fastak approximately 3 weeks after flowering. Such means as "Tsineb", "Kaptan", "Phtalan", copper oxychloride have a similar effect.
If the summer is very hot, then the treatment from the moth should be repeated in 10 - 12 days. Good results are obtained by karbofos, which is effective in the fight against scale insects, ticks, flower beetle, budworm, silkworm, leafworm and moth. But not all chemicals that deal with the moth will be able to get rid of other parasites.
It is recommended to change pesticides so as not to addictive parasites to one remedy. If you engage in agrotechnical measures in a timely and regular manner, then the treatment with chemical agents will noticeably decrease.
