North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Lee Reich <garden@leereich.com>]

It evidently depends on the amount of the damage. Quoting from one of Cornell's publications:

The plum curculio (PC) is a serious pest of plums, prunes, cherries and apple in New York. It also 

attacks apricot, nectarine, pear and quince as well as wild plum, hawthorn and native crabapples.  This insect is 

most abundant in orchards adjoining hedgerows and woodlands that offer shelter or overwintering adults. Both 

feeding and egg laying scars result in russeted areas on the surface of the fruits. The crescent-shaped scar from 

oviposition is useful in diagnosing damage from this pest. Severely injured fruits become misshapen. Infested 

fruits often drop early and with smaller fruits, such as cherry, the entire fruit may be ingested by the larva.

In my experience, severely damaged fruits usually drop when quite small so the only damaged fruit that I see have only one or two scars. The most important point is: plum curculio is bad, and must be controlled if you want to eat apples.

Lee Reich, PhD

http://leereich.com/

Books by Lee Reich:

The Pruning Book

Weedless Gardening

Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden

A Northeast Gardener's Year

On Jun 5, 2008, at 10:15 AM, Alan Haigh wrote:

Lee wrote, "Actually, scarred apples that stay on the tree are pretty much fine for eating. The scar is only a surface blemish. I don't think the scar should really affect storage either."
 

If only that were actually true- there might be a thriving organic apple industry out east and my business would be so much easier.  Lee, where you are you may actually harvest a lot of usable, slightly scarred apples but that is not the norm in my experience.  I remember sharing  that comment with Jim Cummins when you made it to me in the same conversation I mentioned earlier- he was baffled.  We are both used to seeing deformed and useless fruit as a result of PC.

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