ONE SIMPLE SECRET
FOR WORM-FREE ORGANIC APPLES!
by Debra Graff
...a Square Foot Abundance Special Report
© Debra Graff 2013 — All Rights Reserved
This is a free report offered by Debra Graff and SquareFootAbundance.com
This publication may not be sold, re-written, modified, or bundled with other products.
One Simple Secret for Worm-Free Organic Apples!
Have you ever dreamed of biting into home-grown juicy apples –
...only to find rotting, wormy apples on your trees?
Here's one simple secret for growing worm-free organic apples
in your own backyard...
Bag each of your apples with nylon footlets
(nylon socks that just cover your feet)
treated with Surround®, an organic pest control
product.
If you grow miniature or espalier apple trees
in a mini fruit garden, this is very easy to do
and you won't need any ladders!
First: It's important to bag your fruit at the right time
- around 4 weeks after blooming,
when the apples are about marble-size.
Every week you delay bagging the fruit increases the
number of apples that will become wormy.
Some people bag the apples much earlier, but I have
a hard time working with really tiny apples.
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One Simple Secret for Worm-Free Organic Apples!
Thinning Your Fruit
This is also the ideal time to thin your fruit crop, which is very important
for two reasons:
1. Apples thinned to about 6 inches apart grow into much larger fruit.
2. If apple trees are not properly thinned, they tend to produce too much fruit one
year (often breaking branches), and then produce very little fruit the next year.
Thinning the fruit will encourage the trees to produce a healthy crop every year.
The flowers and fruit are usually produced
in tight clusters.
I check the small fruits for any sign of
insect damage, and prune them off first.
After that, the best fruit to keep in a cluster
is the one with the sturdiest stem.
Because I have damaged joints in my hands,
I use small sharp scissors to clip off
the fruit I'm removing.
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One Simple Secret for Worm-Free Organic Apples!
Your goal is to thin each cluster down to just
ONE fruit, and then to thin the remaining fruit
to at least 6 inches apart on the branch.
You can see the calyx sticking out from
the bottom of the apple. This calyx often sticks
to the inside of the footies, making it a little
challenging to slide the footies on the apple.
Now we are ready to bag the fruit.
It's up to you if you prefer to thin all the apples first
and then bag them,
or to bag each fruit while you are thinning.
We will be bagging the fruit with nylon footlets,
or “footies.” These footies alone do an excellent job
of keeping apple maggots away, but by themselves
they won't control codling moths –
which are another source of worms.
You need to treat the footies with Surround®
in order to repel the codling moths, too.
You can purchase pre-treated “Fruit Soxs,”
or you can purchase footies in bulk,
buy a bag of Surround®, and treat them yourself.
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One Simple Secret for Worm-Free Organic Apples!
It very important to NOT stretch the footies out
AT ALL before sliding them onto your apples.
Once stretched, they won't cling to the fruit and
will fall off easily. The footie on the right was
stretched over my hand
and it doesn't readily shrink back again.
Surround® is a specially treated organic
pest control product made from kaolin clay.
It has been formulated to repel and irritate insect
pests. DON'T try to make up your own solution from
your own clay. It won't work the same!
To treat 100 footies, I thoroughly mix
2 tablespoons of Surround® into 1 quart of water
in a container at least 1.5 gallons in size.
Then I add all the footies,
saturating them all completely.
You can dry them before using, but I've also just
squeezed them out and used them while still wet.
It's recommended that you use plastic gloves while
handling Surround®. I've noticed that it can
temporarily irritate my skin if I don't.
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One Simple Secret for Worm-Free Organic Apples!
It's a little tricky learning how to
slide the footies onto the fruit.
The calyx of the apple tends to stick to the
inside of the nylon, so I usually have to hold the
footie straight out from the apple with one hand
while gently sliding the opening
over the fruit with the other.
I try to slide at least 1/3 of the footie
over the fruit, but you will always have
extra material dangling down.
I also try to gently twist the opening closed
around the stem of the apple.
Sometimes the apple will fall off during this process.
I don't worry too much about it, unless I'm losing
more than about 5% of the fruit that I'm bagging.
Some varieties of apples have much shorter stems,
which are harder to bag.
This year, I bagged 96 apples in less than one hour.
I find this much easier than spraying my apple trees ten times a year!
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One Simple Secret for Worm-Free Organic Apples!
Some people will use a twist tie
or a 3/8″ orthodontist rubber band
to help hold the footies onto the fruit.
If you use one of these to secure your footies,
you can go ahead and stretch the footie open
to make it easier to slide over the apple.
Experiment to find out which method
works best for you.
You will lose a few bagged fruit
during the June “fruit drop.”
Again, it's not usually a problem, unless you are
losing large numbers – which is not likely to happen
if you thin the fruit to about 6 inches apart. Just
accept that you will lose some.
As the apples grow,
the footies will stretch to fit.
I'll check the apples once or twice during the season
to look for any footies that aren't
fully covering the apple.
A minor disadvantage of bagging is that I usually find
a thin layer of dark mildew on the surface of the apples when I harvest them,
caused by lack of air circulation inside the footies.
I just scrub it off when I'm ready to eat them.
It doesn't seem to cause any problems with storing my apples.
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One Simple Secret for Worm-Free Organic Apples!
This is a very large William's Pride apple
that I harvested from a 4-year-old mini dwarf apple tree.
In the two years that I've used this bagging method,
90-95% of my apples have been completely worm-free.
I still have some minor surface scarring
caused by plum curculio beetles before bagging,
but it doesn't bother me enough to want to spray my apple trees
between petal fall and when I bag the apples.
That's it! It's that simple!
If you would like to watch the video presentation again, go to:
SquareFootAbundance.com/worm-free-apples/
See the list below for sources for pre-treated Fruit Soxs, footies sold in bulk, or bags of
Surround®.
~ Debra
...so everyone can learn to harvest abundant food from small gardens!
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One Simple Secret for Worm-Free Organic Apples!
Resources
(as of May 2013)
Fruit Soxs:
Home Orchard Society offers nylon footlets already treated with Surround® (packages of 288)
http://www.homeorchardsociety.org/fruitsoxs/
Surround®:
Edible Landscaping offers 5 pound bags
http://ediblelandscaping.com/products/books/GrowingAids/SurroundWPOrganicSpray.php
7 Springs Farm has one of the best prices per pound, but only offers 25 pound bags
http://www.7springsfarm.com/surroundtm-wp-crop-protectant-25lb/
Nylon Footlets (bags):
RainTree Nursery offers packages of 144 nylon bags
http://www.raintreenursery.com/Apple-Maggot-Control-Bags-144-Bags.html
Seattle Tree Fruit Society offers both regular and heavy-duty (super) nylon bags (PDF order form)
http://www.seattletreefruitsociety.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/maggot-barrier-pg2.pdf
Store Supply Warehouse has one of the best prices for boxes of 144 footlets
https://www.storesupply.com/pc-12845-1228-beige-womens-sewn-bottom-footlet-64106.aspx
Also, see if your local dollar store sells nylon footies in bulk!
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