Mark, I used a combination of Surround plus spinosad last summer for the first time and it worked reasonably well. Some varieties were nearly wormless and others were mildly wormy. I would recommend using it with spinosad - just add the spinosad to your Surround sprays. Spinosad is an organic treatment - it is a virus that infects the moths. I noticed that Michael Phillips, the author of the book about organic apple growing, also uses it now. Since your climate is less buggy than mine, I expect you will have better results than I did.

Scott

Thanks, Scott. I'll try it; DW is hopeful ...

i'm also going to try doing more with pheromone traps, smothering sprays, (summer and winter) and so on. But there are so many untreated trees around here that I doubt I'll ever be able to fully rely on "organic" methods.

Best regards,

M

Please write about your experiences here. There are not many people using Surround/spinosad on this group. I think there is still a lot to learn, in terms of frequency of application, most important times of year, etc.

Scott

I will, Scott. You know how I am ...

We have one major pest so far on the apple, and that's good old CM. Between pheromone traps and the country extension tracking we have a fairly good idea of when to expect them, and I hope to anticipate them by about a week and then repeat during their cycle on a weekly basis. We usually get two hatches a year, but in '07 we got three.

One on-line source (Cornell, Pennsylvania, Ohio?) said the number of Spinosad sprays should be limited, but didn't say why. I should find that again and re-read it.

But I'm going to sneak in a little summer oil (as well as doing dormant oil when we're closer to breaking dormancy) and I'll use enough traps that they themselves may provide some disruption, so there'll be nothing scientific about the experiment!

I may go ahead and use one or two sprays of Malathion along the way also, but we do want to minimize it. I'd like to dent the "resident" population and try to keep it down.

Best again,

M