North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[mauch1@aol.com]

I planted medlar as it is supposed disease/insect resistant and good to eat.  I do enjoy their flavor, but I'm having trouble with some sort of insect pest on my Medlar fruit (on the positive side, I just recently harvested my Medlars and even with 20 -25 F nights the fruit condition overall is good.)  

Problem:  On a significant number of fruit, some sort of insect has created an entry hole on the side of the fruit about 1/16th of an inch in diameter,  The hole actually looks innoccuous, but when the fruit is openned the insect has gone into the center and coverted the seeds to frass.  On an apple when there's core damage, I can cut out the offending portion.  But the medlars are much smaller and since they've already bletted when I'm trying to deal with this, it is difficult to separate the flesh from the frass.

Has anybody else seen this?  Do they have a suggestion on what to do about it and when?  Because I had this problem last year, I did spray the medlar with some early season sprays, but this seems to be attacking the fruit later in the season (at a guess).

On a lighter note, I've been trying to think of a way to promote medlar as a fruit.  So I thought maybe a jingle, but I'm stuck on:

"MED - LAR.  The fruit you eat when its rotteN."

Just don't think that's going to do the job...   :-)

Chris Mauchline
SE PA, zone 6
40° 5' N 75° 51'W
~650 ft elevation

---

Traveling over the river or through the woods this holiday season? Get the MapQuest Toolbar. Directions, Traffic, Gas Prices & More!