North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Andrew Bell <acbell@iastate.edu>]

At 05:48 AM 12/9/2003 -0800, you wrote:
>      I frequently read about organic apple orchards and wonder how they 
> keep the Apple Maggots and Plum Curcullio in check.  I've tried hanging 
> bottles of apple juice, cider vinegar, and, another time, apple juice 
> with mother-of-vinegar in each.  A few bottles, alot of bottles, I catch 
> alot of bugs but the nasties still render the fruit inedible.  I'd like 
> to hear from those of you who've figured out a solution.

There is a book called "The Apple Grower", by Michael Phillips, which 
covers organic production almost exclusively.  The new weapon in the war is 
"Surround", which is finely ground Kaolin clay with a sticker.  I have used 
it for the past two years with pretty good results.  It does a great job on 
Plum Curculio and Apple Maggot - not as good a job on Codling Moth and some 
of the other buggers.

Cheers,


-- Andrew Bell
acbell@iastate.edu