North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Steve <sdw12986@aol.com>]

Eddie,
In spite of your disease and insect pressure, I still envy your zone 7a 
or b climate. Our family made the long trip south to spend a summer week 
in Ocean City Maryland 6 or 7 years in a row back in the 90s. I always 
thought I could be happy living near the bay somewhere.
Several months ago, I mentioned, here, that I didn't believe curculios 
ever actually reproduced in my apples, even though they scar them up 
badly in years that the weather keeps me from spraying as I would like 
to. Others replied that I was right, and they don't manage to reproduce 
in apples anywhere else either.
My point is, that if this is true, having neglected apple orchids in the 
area would not actually increase the number of curculios on your 
property. In fact, the apples would function as a trap crop to draw some 
of them away from fruits that they actually reproduce in. Having said 
that, I doubt the apples do enough good to say so. We can reopen the 
curculio/apple discussion if need be. Have you ever found a maturing 
curculio larva in an apple?

Steve in the Adirondacks of Northern NY (zone 3b or 4a)



Eddie Earles wrote:
> I'm along the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.  The USDA map shows us as 7a 
> but I think we're actually 7b. 
>  
> We have a lot of humidity and a lot of disease and insect pressure here, 
> compounded by the fact that all the surrounding properties have old 
> apple trees that are not sprayed or tended by the landowners.  Curculio 
> pressure is very heavy.  Malathion and Sevin have no effect on them 
> here.  I looked into Surround, but found it to be prohibitively (in 
> fact, outrageously) expensive.
>  
> Eddie Earles