Thanks for the responses. How toxic is Immunox/myclobutanil? The warnings of course make it sound horrible and our water comes from a well not far off. Unfortunately, there will be no getting rid of the cedars, for family reasons. And while the area around the trees is mowed and underneath is kept mulched and weeded, the rest of the field (and the surrounding fields) are basically tall weedy grass that gets mowed once a year. That's not going anywhere either unless someone gives me a brush hog and a tractor to pull it with. I guess the best bet moving forward is to try to spray at the right time(s) in the future. I'll look into the suggested sprays for this year, though. Randy - My William's Pride isn't bearing yet (just put it in this year). I've had them from farm stands though and thought they were good enough to try planting. I don't have any tasting notes or anything, though :) Anyway, I hope they're good. Thanks again. Sam

Sarah, it is somewhat better to plant in the fall if you can find a good source (there are not many). Willis is not a highly recommended nursery, I have heard many negative reports. Perhaps your easiest option is Stark Brothers, they are a reasonable nursery (also doing better in the last few years) which does fall shipping and will give you a good choice. Or, wait until spring and get from a top quality nursery such as Adams County Nursery. In terms of varieties, I have heard mixed reports on Liberty and would recommend Gold Rush and Enterprise over LIberty. Williams Pride is another excellent disease-resistant apple which is early. Fuji and Gala are also good choices, they don't have many disease problems for me. Probably the main disease these disease-resistant apples have resistance to is apple scab, and it is not as much of a problem in hotter summer areas like ours, the summer heat bakes out the disease before it can get a foothold. So, there is not a huge advantage to the disease-resistant varieties. There is also no such thing as a bug-resistant variety, but some do seem to be the opposite, bug magnets. For organic growing you need to do more than bagging, you also need to spray Surround quite a few times in the spring when the fruitlets are too small to get in the bags. Without the Surround the curculio will ruin all the fruits. You also may need to do disease sprays for fireblight, fruit rots, etc, and aphids and stinkbugs can also be a problem. Besides the Surround and bagging though, the other sprays are optional, just check your trees regularly and look up any problem you see and solve it (and, make a note of the date and add a preventative spray before that time the following year). Scott

If you live in Southeast MA like me, you must be familiar with the winter moth caterpillars that defoliate most of the trees in the spring when the larva hatch. The moment bud break happens, the town swarms with dangly caterpillars that get in your hair, car, plants, LITERALLY EVERYWHERE. We've had to take down three elm trees since purchasing the property because 1. the winter moth caterpillars defoliate the entire tree and 2. the trees are overexerting themselves to regrow an entire canopy of leaves in the heat of june and july. The elms have become sickly because of these pests. Two years ago the caterpillars really started in on my fruiting trees and the stress is already obvious. The winter moth caterpillars are not picky, either. They especially love the elms (which are sadly WAY too tall to be sprayed and are as good as lunch) and the cherry trees. The problem is so bad in my town (Seekonk) that we were selected as a testing site for parasitic wasp release, hoping that they'll curb the moth population. Like treeoracle, I have no issue with "unappetizing" looking apples, or less-than-store-bought perfection from my produce. I just want my trees to be alive long enough that I can even taste the fruit. I'll be spraying my cherry, apple, and blueberry trees with either Dipel or Spinosad this year (I'm leaning towards Dipel but if it's unavailable I'll choose Spinosad), but only because the defoliation is killing the trees. Dipel is a formulation of BTK bacteria that specifically feeds on caterpillars. It may harm the butterfly population as well as the winter moths caterpillars population, but it is supposedly safe around the organic garden, humans, bees, other animals... Spinosad is not as friendly as Dipel because it targets a wider range of insects. I want to avoid Spinosad so I don't harm any bee populations around my yard. Edit: I was in contact with the uMass extension last season and they recommended Dipel as the spray to use against winter moth caterpillars. They strongly advised not using other products which may harm larger numbers of species.

Honestly, you might be better just pulling it out and planting a known apple. Who knows what rootstock you have, could range from a super dwarf m26 (unlikley) that will never get taller than 7' up to a seedling rootstock (unlikley) that will be 40'+. And the apples are probably some commercial variety that needs a ton of spraying to stay healthy and provide any fruit. Instead get a rootstock that will do well in your climate, with your disease pressure and that will be a size you will be happy with. Then make sure your apples are a disease resistant variety. Make sure that the 2 will flower at close to the same time (less important if you have flowering crabs in your area) because apples need another variety to cross polinate. It is also nice to have 2 different ripening times so you are not overloaded with apples at one time then get nothing for the rest of the season. Early apples such as Pristine, Redfree, Williams pride. Mid season like Crimson Crisp, Liberty, Macfree, ect. Late season like Enterprise, Goldrush, ect. Although you are in zone 8 so warmer climate guys could probably direct you to better apples for you (i'm in zone 4). Since it is just going to be 2 trees and in your backyard read about ''bagging'' apples. Can work well for spray free fruit. Good luck!