Solution for apple maggot and codling moth problems?

[Bob F]

At the suggestion of my wife's older aunt back east, we tried the below solution this year, and drastically lessened apple damage from apple maggots and codling moths. She claims it has worked for her for years.

Mix together 1 cup vinegar, 1 cup sugar, and 1 banana peel. put it all in a plastic gallon milk jug and add water to make it 1/3 - 1/2 full. Hang jugs without lids in each tree, more for larger trees. I use 2-3 for each tree I have. 3, for instance in a tree 15 feet tall and 20 feet in diameter.

I tied the jugs by their handles to branches 1" or larger in diameter with 1/4" rope.

I put up the jugs shortly after fruit set.

Lots of dead flies and other insects drowned in the jugs now.

We pressed apples for cider yesterday, and were amazed how few of the apples showed damage.

[songbird]

apple cider vinegar or distilled vinegar? or will any vinegar do?

i'm all in favor of not spraying a bunch of poisons on the trees.

i was going to start a cider apple patch out back but i never got around to transplanting my apple tree saplings (that i grew from seeds) and eventually had to remove them from the garden i had them started in because they were going to take over.

you must be fairly far north or have a pretty early apple to be making cider already. :)

songbird

[songbird]

Bob F wrote: ...

ah, ok.

as a fruit fly trap i use apple cider vinegar and lemon juice and a tiny amount of dish soap. it works well and it is nice to not have them flying around all the time in the house.

...

i love a good tart green apple. :)

is this the apple you mean?

we don't have apple trees here, but i sure wish we did.

songbird

[songbird]

Bob F wrote: ...

i wish bananas would grow here. well, ok, bananas will grow here as long as you bring them inside before the cold weather does them in. i know someone who kept a nice collection of them to grow out each season because he liked the large leaves and plants and used them as a barrier planting. he never quite got them to actually fruit, but he said it was close one season.

songbird

[songbird]

Bob F wrote: ...

i haven't looked it up on flowering time but i did notice the Transparent Yellows were noted as flowering early and that they needed some thinning to get a decent crop.

around here flowering early would be a damage from frost risk i'd like to avoid.

this is an apple growing region but the number of apple orchards isn't that big any more. it takes a lot of manual labor to properly take care of an apple orchard.

songbird