Red Delicious Apple - Core is Brown & Rotting
Hi All, This is my first post, I hope you can help. I live in North central Illinois and I planted a red delicious apple tree last spring. I wasnt expecting any fruit last summer but I did expect fruit this season. The tree looks great nice shape and thick foliage and alot of blooms. The blooms produced fruit and the apples look great other than one small brown dot on each apple. It doesnt seem like much, but when you cut the apple in half the core is brown and starting to rot. Any advice would be appreciated and look forward to talking to all of you. Thanks, Mike
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applestar
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I believe what you have is Brown Rot, possibly introduced by plum curculio damage.
Here's one quick info on Brown Rot: https://postharvest.tfrec.wsu.edu/marketdiseases/brownrot.html
Does this seem like what you have?
I get them on my Enterprise apples too. Last year, the tree was extremely productive, but Brown Rot had affected many of the fruits. Once I learned to recognize the signs, I culled the ones showing early symptoms. I was able to cut out the damaged parts and make use of the green unripe~not quite ripe apples.
Here's one quick info on Brown Rot: https://postharvest.tfrec.wsu.edu/marketdiseases/brownrot.html
Does this seem like what you have?
I get them on my Enterprise apples too. Last year, the tree was extremely productive, but Brown Rot had affected many of the fruits. Once I learned to recognize the signs, I culled the ones showing early symptoms. I was able to cut out the damaged parts and make use of the green unripe~not quite ripe apples.
I would add just a couple of extras to Applestars.
Brown rot will infect an apple through a wound site normaly..be it a bird peck or a skin cracking. It is however an infection that will spread from fruit to fruit when it is in store ...so keep fruit from touching each other in store..even if this means wrapping each one in paper.
The other source of your brown and rotting core with just one spot on the surface is the Codling Moth. This would however show up as a small white maggot in the centre of the core. The small spot being its entry point at on hatching from the egg layed on the fruits surface.
Hence the old saying .....' There's only one thing worse than finding a maggot in the apple your eating.....finding half of one.'
Brown rot will infect an apple through a wound site normaly..be it a bird peck or a skin cracking. It is however an infection that will spread from fruit to fruit when it is in store ...so keep fruit from touching each other in store..even if this means wrapping each one in paper.
The other source of your brown and rotting core with just one spot on the surface is the Codling Moth. This would however show up as a small white maggot in the centre of the core. The small spot being its entry point at on hatching from the egg layed on the fruits surface.
Hence the old saying .....' There's only one thing worse than finding a maggot in the apple your eating.....finding half of one.'