At the suggestion of my wife's older aunt back east, we tried the below
solution this year, and drastically lessened apple damage from apple
maggots and codling moths. She claims it has worked for her for years.

Mix together 1 cup vinegar, 1 cup sugar, and 1 banana peel. put it all
in a plastic gallon milk jug and add water to make it 1/3 - 1/2 full.
Hang jugs without lids in each tree, more for larger trees. I use 2-3
for each tree I have. 3, for instance in a tree 15 feet tall and 20 feet
in diameter.

I tied the jugs by their handles to branches 1" or larger in diameter
with 1/4" rope.

I put up the jugs shortly after fruit set.

Lots of dead flies and other insects drowned in the jugs now.

We pressed apples for cider yesterday, and were amazed how few of the
apples showed damage.

Bob F wrote:

> At the suggestion of my wife's older aunt back east, we tried the below
> solution this year, and drastically lessened apple damage from apple
> maggots and codling moths. She claims it has worked for her for years.
>
> Mix together 1 cup vinegar, 1 cup sugar, and 1 banana peel. put it all
> in a plastic gallon milk jug and add water to make it 1/3 - 1/2 full.
> Hang jugs without lids in each tree, more for larger trees. I use 2-3
> for each tree I have. 3, for instance in a tree 15 feet tall and 20 feet
> in diameter.
>
> I tied the jugs by their handles to branches 1" or larger in diameter
> with 1/4" rope.
>
> I put up the jugs shortly after fruit set.
>
> Lots of dead flies and other insects drowned in the jugs now.
>
> We pressed apples for cider yesterday, and were amazed how few of the
> apples showed damage.

apple cider vinegar or distilled vinegar? or will any vinegar do?

i'm all in favor of not spraying a bunch of poisons on the trees.

i was going to start a cider apple patch out back but i never got
around to transplanting my apple tree saplings (that i grew from
seeds) and eventually had to remove them from the garden i had them
started in because they were going to take over.

you must be fairly far north or have a pretty early apple to be
making cider already. :)

songbird

On 8/10/2021 3:56 AM, songbird wrote:
> Bob F wrote:
>
>> At the suggestion of my wife's older aunt back east, we tried the below
>> solution this year, and drastically lessened apple damage from apple
>> maggots and codling moths. She claims it has worked for her for years.
>>
>> Mix together 1 cup vinegar, 1 cup sugar, and 1 banana peel. put it all
>> in a plastic gallon milk jug and add water to make it 1/3 - 1/2 full.
>> Hang jugs without lids in each tree, more for larger trees. I use 2-3
>> for each tree I have. 3, for instance in a tree 15 feet tall and 20 feet
>> in diameter.
>>
>> I tied the jugs by their handles to branches 1" or larger in diameter
>> with 1/4" rope.
>>
>> I put up the jugs shortly after fruit set.
>>
>> Lots of dead flies and other insects drowned in the jugs now.
>>
>> We pressed apples for cider yesterday, and were amazed how few of the
>> apples showed damage.
>
> apple cider vinegar or distilled vinegar? or will any vinegar do?

We used cheap white vinegar.

>
> i'm all in favor of not spraying a bunch of poisons on the trees.
>
> i was going to start a cider apple patch out back but i never got
> around to transplanting my apple tree saplings (that i grew from
> seeds) and eventually had to remove them from the garden i had them
> started in because they were going to take over.
>
> you must be fairly far north or have a pretty early apple to be
> making cider already. :)
>
>
> songbird
>

This was my early tree in Seattle. Other varieties come much later. My
neighbors "Green Transparent" was done a couple weeks ago.

Bob F wrote:
....
> We used cheap white vinegar.

ah, ok.

as a fruit fly trap i use apple cider vinegar and lemon
juice and a tiny amount of dish soap. it works well and
it is nice to not have them flying around all the time in
the house.

....
> This was my early tree in Seattle. Other varieties come much later. My
> neighbors "Green Transparent" was done a couple weeks ago.

i love a good tart green apple. :)

is this the apple you mean?

https://www.wvpublic.org/post/generational-love-little-green-apple-keeps-heirloom-disappearing

we don't have apple trees here, but i sure wish we did.

songbird

On 8/13/2021 11:46 AM, songbird wrote:
> Bob F wrote:
> ...
>> We used cheap white vinegar.
>
> ah, ok.
>
> as a fruit fly trap i use apple cider vinegar and lemon
> juice and a tiny amount of dish soap. it works well and
> it is nice to not have them flying around all the time in
> the house.
>
>
> ...
>> This was my early tree in Seattle. Other varieties come much later. My
>> neighbors "Green Transparent" was done a couple weeks ago.
>
> i love a good tart green apple. :)
>
> is this the apple you mean?
>
> https://www.wvpublic.org/post/generational-love-little-green-apple-keeps-heirloom-disappearing
>
> we don't have apple trees here, but i sure wish we did.
>
>
> songbird
>

Sure sounds like it. The other apple in that yard is a "Winter Banana".
It actually has a touch of a banana flavor.

Bob F wrote:
....
> Sure sounds like it. The other apple in that yard is a "Winter Banana".
> It actually has a touch of a banana flavor.

i wish bananas would grow here. well, ok, bananas will grow
here as long as you bring them inside before the cold weather
does them in. i know someone who kept a nice collection of
them to grow out each season because he liked the large leaves
and plants and used them as a barrier planting. he never quite
got them to actually fruit, but he said it was close one season.

songbird

On 8/13/2021 4:13 PM, songbird wrote:
> Bob F wrote:
> ...
>> Sure sounds like it. The other apple in that yard is a "Winter Banana".
>> It actually has a touch of a banana flavor.
>
> i wish bananas would grow here. well, ok, bananas will grow
> here as long as you bring them inside before the cold weather
> does them in. i know someone who kept a nice collection of
> them to grow out each season because he liked the large leaves
> and plants and used them as a barrier planting. he never quite
> got them to actually fruit, but he said it was close one season.
>

The "winter banana" is a very late apple, and stores well, thus the name.

Bob F wrote:
....
> The "winter banana" is a very late apple, and stores well, thus the name.

i haven't looked it up on flowering time but i did
notice the Transparent Yellows were noted as flowering
early and that they needed some thinning to get a decent
crop.

around here flowering early would be a damage from frost
risk i'd like to avoid.

this is an apple growing region but the number of apple
orchards isn't that big any more. it takes a lot of manual
labor to properly take care of an apple orchard.

songbird

On 8/14/2021 5:26 AM, songbird wrote:
> Bob F wrote:
> ...
>> The "winter banana" is a very late apple, and stores well, thus the name.
>
> i haven't looked it up on flowering time but i did
> notice the Transparent Yellows were noted as flowering
> early and that they needed some thinning to get a decent
> crop.
>
> around here flowering early would be a damage from frost
> risk i'd like to avoid.
>
> this is an apple growing region but the number of apple
> orchards isn't that big any more. it takes a lot of manual
> labor to properly take care of an apple orchard.
>

There are lots of never picked apple trees near me in Seattle. It is
easy to get lots of apples for cider even if you have no trees.