McIntosh Apple & Malathion

14 years ago

Hi,

I have a mature full size McIntosh apple tree that is maybe 25' tall and close to that wide. I've had some years where it seems to have the famous premature drop, and others not so much. It occurred to me that I've sprayed Malathion over the past few years on all my trees and I think only last year did I seem to notice that it is not recommended for my McIntosh. (so of course I wondered if maybe my using it on the Mac had anything to do with the early drop thing. If so, the drop isn't as consistant as my spraying I guess...)

It hasn't seemed to had any effect on the quality and size of the apples and I don't recall that there was anything unusual about the fruits apperance after using Malathion.

Anyway, besides the mature Mac I have mature Earlyblaze, Golden Del, Red Del, State Fair, and Haralson, and in the ground for two years are a Honeycrisp, an Empire, & another Mac.

So I mix my spray in one of those tank sprayers on the back of my ATV and it's fairly convenient to be able to do all my trees at the same time with the same spray. That said, I would stop using Malathion in a minute on my Mac's if the experts on here advise me to, and would welcome any suggestions as a replacement.

Thanks!!

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Comments (3)

myk1
14 years ago
I haven't noticed damage from Malathion on my McIntosh or Cortland, and the warning is about damage.
I'd have to check to be exact but I spray it weekly from some time around July to some time in August.

I have had damage on my McIntosh, Cortland and Arkansas Black from Bonide Fruit Tree spray and sticker. I'm going to continue spraying Malathion and not spray the others.

Good luck on finding out exactly what the damage is. I've asked a couple of times and never got an answer. I've also searched the internet and never got an answer other than the warning.

How tart is the Earliblaze? I'm working on 2 and am dying to try it.
Beeone
14 years ago
I've used malathion on MacIntosh for years and never noticed any damage to the trees or fruit. It doesn't seem to correlate to premature fruit drop, either, although some years it is bad and others there is hardly any. I figure erratic moisture levels (particularly dryness) probably play into the fruit drop.
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iowajer
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks for posting guys, that makes me feel a little better about my oversight. I guess since it doesn't really seem to be hurting anything - if it ain't broke don't fix it - comes to mind.

I also found it odd that for the warning being there I couldn't seem to turn up any info on WHY it was there when I searched the Internet.

As a side note, another thing I thought was odd was that I noticed the warning is on Ortho brand of Malathion but I checked my bottle of Spectracide and it doesn't even mention apples at all, just gives harvest dates for other fruit?

After reading the forum for awhile now, I'm a tad embarrassed to admit to not only using Bonide FTS, but actually stocking up on it. But then last year CAR almost killed my Golden Del after I'd fallen for the Bonide lable... when it fact it didn't help at all. (This year I'm using Immunox based on intel gained from this forum)

MYK1; As far as the Earliblaze goes I turned to my wife and asked her what her opinion was and read her what the generic description said on All About Apples - "These semi-tart apples are crisp with just the right mixture of sweetness and zip for fresh off the tree eating" My wife said that nails it.

I like them for off the tree eating better than cooking, but we gook them too. I much prefer the McIntosh for pies though. But we use Earliblaze in pies and sauce too.

Beeone; The moisture angle may just be it. I can't recall the years when I've had a lot of drops and what the weather was like, but I know it makes me sick to be over there and hear or watch a really nice big apple fall from as high as my full size Mac is - they're so loaded with juice that when they hit they almost explode. If they fall from the lower branches they're fine though.

I've just always written it off as an unfortunate quirk of the Macs and tried to not figure it out..., that is until I began to wonder if my spraying it with Malathion was doing something, but that doesn't seem to scan so I'm content to be happily in the dark once again on the premature drop thing, and equally happy to know that I'm probably OK to use Malathion on my Mac.

Thanks again!!

McIntosh Apple & Malathion

Comments (3)

myk1

Beeone

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iowajer
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McIntosh Apple & Malathion

Comments (3)

myk1

Beeone

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iowajer
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