To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] spraying curculiio
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2009 06:20:03 -0500
> Eddie, > In spite of your disease and
insect pressure, I still envy your zone 7a > or b climate.
Mine is particularly good in one
respect: I have a very long growing season. Our county is a
peninsula that sticks out into the Bay, and we have tidal water on three
sides. It takes a long time for us to cool off in the fall; I usually
don't have a killing frost until the second week in December. I pick
apples fresh off the trees past Thanksgiving. Fall gardens are a snap
here. I'm only 30 miles from Washington, DC, but have about 6 weeks more
growing season than DC!
> 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?
No, I haven't. We also have lots of
wild cherry trees here; they may be a reservoir for the curculios.
I'll be moving to Kentucky in a few weeks,
and starting all over. I hope the insect/disease pressure won't be as
great there.