Apples are a favorite fruit crop of most gardeners. Someone prefers the juicy "White filling", someone - the sour "Antonovka", to someone serve sweet "Crimean" or crispy aromatic "Gala". But each of us from time to time at the time of harvest is faced with the fact that the long-awaited apples look not at all the same as in the picture. Sometimes the fruits are literally covered with black dots, sores, spots and growths.
Is it possible to eat such apples, what kind of attack happened to them and how to avoid similar problems in the future? Let's take a look at two of the most common reasons.
1. The apple tree got sick with scab
Numerous small brown dots on the fruit most often means that the apple tree is affected by scab. Check - most likely in this case, the leaves will have greenish-brown spots and foci of drying. This fungal disease spreads quickly to nearby healthy trees, especially in wet weather.
You can eat such fruits only if you carefully cut out areas with spots. However, if measures are not taken in time, the entire crop will be infected next season. And soon the trees themselves will feel bad - winter hardiness will decrease, the bark will crack, the leaves will dry out ahead of time and fly around.
What to do?
If there are few lesions, try a folk remedy - spraying the crown with an infusion of garlic. Chop 300 g of garlic, pour 2 liters of hot water and let it brew for 24 hours. Then strain, dilute in 8 liters of cold water and add 30 g of laundry soap.
With a serious infection, fungicides cannot be avoided three times per season:
- At the beginning of bud break, use 3% Bordeaux liquid;
- Immediately after flowering, 1% Bordeaux liquid or copper oxychloride is used;
- 2-3 weeks after flowering, use Skor, Horus or Ditan.
2. The apple tree got sick with subcutaneous spotting
In this case, the dark dots on the apples are pressed into the fruit. Outwardly, they may resemble small pits. The disease is called subcutaneous spotting or bitter pitting. You will not want to eat such fruits - their taste deteriorates greatly. And the reason for this is a lack of calcium.
What to do?
A month before harvesting, spray the apple trees with a 1% solution of calcium chloride, two weeks later - again.
- Check the soil to see if it is acidic. If so, in the fall, when digging into the trunk circles, add dolomite flour at the rate of 100-150 g. per 1 m2.
- Check fertilization - excess potassium and magnesium can also cause calcium deficiency.
Read also on my website -What to do if the apples are rotting right on the tree. Causes and consequences
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