Bramley problems

[Blue Radish]

Hi folks, I have just come in from pruning my Bramley (probably not ruthlessly enough), and wanted to seek advice to avoid last year's problem. My tree Was attacked by aphids which I think laid eggs. Leaves strivelled and died and when the fruit came the apples were small and many had to be thrown away. I hope for better results this year but seek advice. I prefer not to use chemicals. I have attached a photo. Thanks.

[Martin H]

They look like ladybird pupa: Ladybirds

They are your friends, they eat aphids.

[WendyC]

They look like ladybird pupa: Ladybirds

They are your friends, they eat aphids.

That was my first thought too.

Is this a young tree? Has it fruited well before? Did it have enough water? Are there other apples trees around to act a pollination partners. There's something unusual about bramley pollination which I never fully understand and hopefully someone more knowledgeable will be able to help you with.

[Aberdeenplotter]

slight tangentisation here but haven't seen FB on the Forum recently. His advice on fruit tree matters was amazingly good

[Martin H]

My Bramley espalier had similar problems last year. It's the ants that make the problem much worse, they farm the aphids and drive off predators. So this year I'm going to try a band of vaseline or something on the trunk, see if I can stop the ants climbing up.

[Blue Radish]

Bramley

thanks for the replies. Ladybirds did appear later but the damage to the leaves had already been done. I had a lot of ants on the tree, farming the aphids. I thought about applying Vaseline around the trunk but I have read warnings of hat this can be very bad for the tree. In answer to another question, The tree is is a few years old and I usually get a plenty of nice big apples.

[fishpond]

It is not organic, but a circle of ant powder around the base of the tree, apply again after rain.
Use Vaseline as a second defense.
Works for me.
If you are unsure about the pruning, leave all but dead, dying , diseased, crossing.
Do not remove too many tips as it is a partial tip bearer.

[BUFFS]

I use 4ins wide gaffer tape run around the trunk then a "ledge" of tape around the lower covering and use high temp grease onto this ledge to form a barrier, so we get no ant farming of any aphids, and as we don't get any proper summer anymore (global warming??????) it doesn't melt and run down the trunk. the last "proper" summer we had was 2006 so we are due one in the next few years but we are not holding our breath....

[Martin H]

I'm going to try that this year, Buffs. Nice tip.

[BUFFS]

I'm going to try that this year, Buffs. Nice tip.

down where you are it does get warmer, (lucky devil) so I would make the ledge so it curls up on the outside lip, then, should the grease/Vaseline get a bit runny in really hot weather, you still have a ring of it to maintain the barrier and sink any ants trying to cross..