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

All the literature I've read says that if you grow from seed you will most likely get inferior apples. If you grow a seed from a grocery store apple you will most likely get a crab-cross as they use crab apples for commercial polination. The best tasting apple out of our entire 2008 production was a seedling my son named "Fresh Candy" the seed came from a Fuji or McIntosh. I have no crabs on the property so it may have been crossed with Gold Del or Calville Blanc (or a hundred others) I've planted dozens of seedlings and as long as I know a crab apple was not involved I've been OK with the result. Worse case scenario I'll cleft graft or top work the tree with something else. The Fresh Candy tree was loaded by year 5 with an abnormally large crop. On a side note the best peach tree we have out of 200 or so is seed grown and very productive. It would be nice to see people trying seed grown trees like during the explosion of varieties that came out of the mid to late 1800s.

Fruitnut makes a good point. I'm guessing you are at high altitude as well which would make the "sunburn" issue worse I'd guess. Less atmospheric filter. Probably best to wait until late Aug. Here in southeastern NY I do plenty of summer pruning- usually just mopping out water sprouts, but I do a lot of full structurual pruning at some sites as well- especially on old apple trees which are tough enough to prune most any time. I actually see less sunburn on mid to late summer pruned apple trees than on dormant pruned ones and prefer to begin major renovation projects at that time.

You are in MA and had a "very dry" summer? If it's close enough and easy enough to get drip irrigation there...why not? I know the pipe and emitters are so cheap they're almost free. As you know dwarf trees need supplemental water in the worst conditions. I know weather can vary a lot in different areas (even across small distances), however looking at USDA's MA drought map it looks like although surprisingly dry in some areas it wasn't all that bad. When it gets to the red or burgundy then you'll have issues like fruitnut and other folks in the southwest. Then you might need to water the dwarfs. Here's the map mentioned: http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/Home/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?MA