Dropping Apples

[PotGardener]

Can anyone explain why my young apples are dropping off my Ballerina apple tree please? The tree is in a protected spot, so no windy blasts, and the dropping only seems to happen overnight. The tree is in a v. large pot and is watered well. They are no way near ready for picking yet. Advice much appreciated. Thank you.

[lynda66]

disease, squirrels or random people shaking the tree at night

[Jeanied]

This is a late 'June drop' I think you will find, Potgardener - my apple trees are still shedding some of their fruit. Hopefully you will still have a crop at the end of it.

[binley100]

Mines shedding as well , beginning to wonder how much fruit will actually ripen on the tree,. Mind you I think some of it is down to Jake jumping up and helping himself.......

[FB.]

Several possible reasons for fruit drop:

1.
Some varieties are naturally prone to dropping fruit before it is ripe.

2.
Some fruits are too large and heavy for the branches, or the fruit spurs are weak, resulting in wind causing fruits to break off.

3.
Apples damaged by pests or diseases will often drop prematurely. Right about now, early-in-the-season-infested apples, with maggots inside will be dropping, preparing for the maggots to crawl out, pupate in the soil and create a second generation of infestation in a few weeks time.

4.
Most apple trees will shed a heavy fruit set in June. Due to the long cold winter, the "june drop" is very late this year.

5.
Lack of water, irregular water supply, or other stresses, will cause fruits to drop.

[purplekat]

3.
Apples damaged by pests or diseases will often drop prematurely. Right about now, early-in-the-season-infested apples, with maggots inside will be dropping, preparing for the maggots to crawl out, pupate in the soil and create a second generation of infestation in a few weeks time.

My neighbour just gave me a bag of windfall apples for cooking, she said they were a bit sour but on opening it, the pips are still white so def. not ripe yet (I thought it was early)
I'm going to be very careful now, I have a maggot phobia
It was very windy here last week so hopefully was just that that knocked them off

[FB.]

Some apple varieties are prone to dropping fruits in windy conditions. The larger size of cookers tends to make them swing around with a lot more clout when the tree is being tossed around by strong winds, meaning that the fruits can break off under their own momentum.

Maggots will tend to be in the core - they eat the pips. There is usually a noticeable entrance hole, surrounded with sawdust-like or sand-like excrement being pushed out of the apple. Occasionally the maggot entrance hole is in the bottom or top of the fruit, making it very difficult to see.
I recommend that all home-grown fruit be cut open, to ensure there isn't an un-noticed maggot or earwig hiding inside the core.

If you're concerned about maggoty apples, cut around the core, rather than through the core.

Genuine cooking apples are less likely to have maggots inside than eating apples.

At the end of the following link, I put up some pics of how I deal with a suspected "maggoty" apple:

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...lem_51516.html

.

.


.