Lucky1: 1. If your apples had visible worms (larvae) in them, they were most likely those of the codling moth. Apple maggots leave small tracks in the fruit, but the actual larvae are so small as to be difficult to see. I checked out your profile to see where you live (always an important diagnostic fact), and north of Seattle is codling moth country, as is much of the Pacific Northwest. That is not to say, however, that you don't also have apple maggot infestation. 2. The best technique for the small grower to prevent infestations of codling moth, apple maggot fly, and/or plum curculio, is to bag the apples in ziplock sandwich bags immediately after thinning them. Bags should be installed after thinning the small apples to the one best per cluster (usually the king fruit in the middle), and you want to ensure a firm zipper seal right up to the stem on both sides to make sure the bag holds through wind and rain. Before installation, cut the bottom corners from the bags with a scissors to allow water drainage, and, after opening the bags, remove the excess plastic on top by slitting with the same scissors. If you get the bags on while the apples are still relatively small and undamaged, you can grow perfect apples without any spraying at all, all season long. I do it here every year. After picking, leave the apples in their bags for storage, and the apples will have less tendency to shrivel in refrigeration. If you have only one tree, you ought to be able to do the entire installation job in less than an hour, and you are good to go for the rest of the season. 3. Agree with Warren that the best preventative for aphids is dormant spraying with horticultural oil, and the most important time to apply it is just at bud break. Use a strong oil mix when dormant spraying -- about 4 ounces per gallon (2 oz./quart for smaller jobs), but if you still have aphids after leaves emerge, use the oil at a much lower rate of about 1 ounce/gallon. Oil spray is non-toxic, and you can apply it with a hand trigger sprayer if you don't have a larger pump-up. If you apply dormant oil spray to your plum tree, do the apple tree at the same time. Aphids can show up there too. 4. However, aphids were not responsible for the cracking of your plums, which can occur after a rain or heavy watering following a dry spell. Some fruit varieties (pluots come to mind) are so crack-prone that it seems they can crack with only high humidity. But if you have a dry summer, which is typical for your region, you might want to try watering more regularly and moderately, and avoid heavy watering when the soil is very dry. My brother, who lives in Belleview, seems able to grow the Italian plum without cracking, and without much care at all, and I don't think he waters the tree much. 5. For Warren: Recommending insecticidal sprays is always pretty spongy territory, which brings out many different views. As you have mentioned, natural pyrethrin is produced from flower blossoms, and is generally considered to be organically acceptable, though it is not non-toxic, and is EPA classified as a restricted use pesticide. Permethrin is a synthetic chemical pyrethroid which mimics the action of natural pyrethrins. While both these substances have been widely used, it is rare to see either of them available on the local retail market today, although many chemicals can be found online that seldom show up at Home Depot or Lowes. In addition to being restricted, natural pyrethrin is extremely expensive. Rotenone, once a favorite of the organic grower, is also difficult to find today, and when found it is in a 1% formulation instead of the 5% formulation sold in the past. Rotenone is produced from the ground cube resins of South American plants, and although Jicama contains some cube resins, that is not the usual commercial source of Rotenone. Rotenone in its powdered form was usually used as a dust. When mixed with water, the ground resins tended to quickly clog a sprayer head. Rotenone is also highly toxic to fish and other aquatic organisms, although much less toxic to humans or animals. This product can still be found, but is not a very practical alternative for a fruit tree spray. For the backyard fruit grower, oil spray, especially dormant application, is a much better alternative for aphid control. Sevin liquid and dust are still widely available, but I have not found this product to be very effective against either aphids or codling moth. Sevin is, however, very effective against Japanese beetles, and I still use it for that. The best feature of bagging apples is that you don't have to sort through the various pesticides or guess at their relative toxicity or effectiveness. You don't have to use them at all. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

I know this is hard but cut back 1/3 of all limbs and the leader if it is not vase shaped. No fertilizer for a month and then only lightly. Water but do it often and only to dampen the soil. I haven't had a tree fail when planted within a few days of recieving them in april. Ones I have healed in and planted in late june early july I seem to have about a 5- 10% fail rate. I don't whine to ANC because I disturbed the roots 2 times. Sometimes the real job and the honey do list gets in the way of your fun. Do you understand that hosta, lilys, roses, and peonies are more important then apples , peaches and grapes. She only wants the sod removed, the soil amended and the edging put in so she can plant for show to her garden club. good luck every one and smile. Sometimes when the garden club comes I take them down to taste a ripe readhaven off the tree. Then I take down orders for next year.I should be adding a margin on the sale but (that's my garden club). when the grand kids come down this weekend let her put her roses against my mont cherrys. I bet hey have red lips and shirts.

I would guess that you're seeing a combination of damage from leafrollers, plum curculio, a little bit of apple scab, and probably some other things. To grow fruit in Minnesota, you really do have to spray regularly in order to get any edible fruit at all. Even the organic producers spray here, they just use organic spray instead of synthetic. The absolute minimum is to use a combination "home fruit" spray starting in the spring after petal fall and then at 2-3 week intervals until the end of June.

Apples survive a tremendous amount of wood removal if they're healthy to begin with- plums not so much. I've lost track of how many old neglected apple trees I've remodeled but when I started doing this professionally I read Hall-Bayer's "Ecological Fruit Production in the North" which has a very easy to understand chapter on getting overgrown apple trees back into production. After spending half my work days pruning mostly apple trees for the last 20 years I've developed my own systems, of course, but a lot of the trees I face could be quite adequately managed using the photos and explanations in this book. If the plums are Japanese you can go after them more aggressively then Europeans. Yes, you can usually get away with removing the largest scaffolds on any healthy tree, depending, I guess, on local insect and disease pressure. Here in southeastern NY I don't believe I've ever had trees die from wounds I've inflicted on them and I remove whatever I have to to bring trees down in height. I just don't do it all at once.