North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Ginda Fisher <ginda@concentric.net>]

My husband's uncle has an apple tree that gets very little insect
damage.  It was one of the Cornell numbered trees (a sibling of Liberty)
and is hardy and productive, with tasty flesh if you like tart apples (I
do).  He does have a few other apples on the property, all of which have
lots of bugs.  BUT the skin on the resistant one is very tough and
somewhat bitter.  I have assumed that the apples resist bugs BECAUSE the
skin is tough and bitter - hard to chew through, and perhaps a little
toxic, at least to worms.

Yours sounds like a winning home orchard tree.  I second Lon, take good
care of it, and give scions to friends.

Ginda Fisher
Zone 6, Eastern Mass.

"Lon J. Rombough" wrote:
> 
> I've been looking for apples resistant to insects, particularly codling
> moth, for years.  So far I have found some that get less codling moth, but
> none that are free of it.  In a lot of cases, it turns out that the variety
> only works in a mixed orchard - the insects just prefer the other types and
> leave the one alone, as long as there are other apples to go to.  Plant the
> "resistant" one by itself so the insects have no choice and it will get
> them.  Even so, such types are worth collecting as they may give us clues to
> types that are REALLY resistant.  Hang onto it Ward, or make sure lots of
> folks have it to test and preserve.
> -Lon Rombough
> ----------
> >From: "Ward Barnes" <ward_p_barnes@hotmail.com>
> >To: nafex@egroups.com
> >Subject: [nafex] bug resistant apple?
> >Date: Thu, Jul 20, 2000, 9:54 AM
> >
> 
> >Hi everyone:
> >
> >In my orchard of some 50 apple trees I have one that over the past 3 years
> >has had no or very few worm or other bug damage even in years (like this 
> >one
> >in which I did not spray) that the other apples are hit very hard.  This is
> >my wife's favorite eating apple and is not a bad cooking apple either.  The
> >variety is unknown to me as this was a fully developed orchard prior to me
> >purchasing the property.  Can this be a bug resistant apple and can the
> >properties be transferred to established trees (I don't see how) or perhaps
> >onto rootstock to establish a more reduced labor organic orchard?
> >
> >Ward Barnes
> >Coastal Zone 7
> >Middlesex County, VA.
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