ugly apples

[rainbowgardener]

Our red delicious tree didn't fruit at all this year -- maybe got blasted by the same late frost that wiped out almost all of our peaches.

But the gala apple tree produced a couple gallons of apples after counting out the ones the birds got or that got rotten spots.
The apples taste wonderful, sweet and tart and crisp and juicy and very apple-y. But they look ugly. The skins are dull (I know the grocery store ones are waxed to be shiny) and have dark mottling discoloration all over them. The discoloration is not rotting, the apple below it is unmarked and perfect and it is not soft. Just discolored.

Does anyone know why or what I could do to have prettier apples next year?

[applestar]

Is the mottling in the skin or on the surface like fly speck fungus?

Congrats on the successful Gala harvest, BTW

[JONA]

Gala do have a problem at times with lenticel breakdown which does produce a surface discolouration of the fruit. But..this is usually associated with storage problems rather than Pre harvest.
Interesting that your Gala came through the frost ok RG. did they flower any later than your other trees?
They do seem to suffer from weather and cultural problems more than many other vars. I have a feeling that rather like Coxs Orange Pippin they are an apple that is better suited to the commercial grower rather than the gardener. Lovely fruit but it seems to need constant attention to bring to harvest in top condition.

[Gary350]

I worked in an apple orchard 40 years ago.

If your apple tree gets too much shade apples will not be completely ripe and will not look good. The more sun your apple tree gets the ripper the fruit gets. Spray the tree once a week with fruit tree spray it keeps the bugs off that make bad places in the fruit. Trim a tree only in cold weather about December around here. If you trim a tree too much it will make no fruit the following summer. Biggest mistake most people make is not trimming your tree enough. Let a new tree grow about 5 years before you trim it. Fertilize the tree it needs a lot of high nitrogen fertilizer to make lots of large ripe apples. Cut limbs short so they do not get heavy with apples and break off the limbs. Trim horizontal limbs short, cut vertical limbs off. If you trim a tree the correct way you will think you screwed up really bad but you didn't.

When I lived at the other house I cut down a 40 foot tall Maple tree so my apple tree could have more sun. The apple tree made 14 bushels of apples the next season.

[rainbowgardener]

They are in full sun and ripen well. It is just the sooty blotch fungus applestar talked about.

[Gary350]

My apples were covered with black mildew looking stuff until I used Fruit Tree spray then they looked much better. I don't remember what the label says, I think Fruit Tree Spray is a repellent not a killer, it even keeps black fruit wasps away. The black mildew stuff on the surface comes off with vinegar in about 45 seconds. Pour 1 gallon of vinegar in a pan drop in several apples stir 45 seconds then rinse with water.

[rainbowgardener]

Fruit tree spray is a combination of several potent poisons:

"A complete liquid fruit tree spray containing Captan 12%, Malathion 6%, Carbaryl .3% and a spreader sticker. " https://www.bonide.com/products/insect-a ... oncentrate

I will keep my ugly apples.

[JONA]

Fruit tree spray is a combination of several potent poisons:

"A complete liquid fruit tree spray containing Captan 12%, Malathion 6%, Carbaryl .3% and a spreader sticker. " https://www.bonide.com/products/insect-a ... oncentrate

I will keep my ugly apples.

Couldn’t agree more Rainbow.
Captan is the only thing there that’s a fungicide and carbaryl’s been banned over here for many years because it’s carcinogenic.
Even Captan carries limitations in its use.