Apple Tree--Invaders or Just the Wind/Rain?

[Beth Pierce]

I have an apple orchard with about 40 different kinds of apple trees. This year the fruit on the trees has been "fruitful" and if anyone has been watching the weather for Northeastern Pennsylvania, they will know why ? we've had a lot of rain.

Yesterday, my husband mowed a portion of the orchard, around two trees that have a lot of fruit. Today, about 30 apples were found on the ground under these trees. All of the apples were unripe, and looked as if they had either fallen or were pulled off. Several apples had no stems; others had a little piece of a branch. On other apples, there were marks. My suspicion is deer, however, wouldn't deer eat the apples they took off the tree, even if they were green? Do they "browse" like other animals, or do they eat what they take?

[B & J]

Think squirrels! They like to do that type of thing, which might also explain the apples with missing stems or leaves attached to some of the fallen apples where they've nipped them from the tree. I lost my entire early peach crop from their marauding. The late ripening tree still has most of its crop because my neighbor has declared war on squirrels after they wiped out his strawberry crop even though the patch was covered with netting, which they promptly chewed holes through. At last count he told me that there are fifty-nine fewer squirrels in the area. :)

John

John