All my apples trees were smothered in aphid this year

[MrsGreenfinger]

Hi,

Apart from spraying with a mix of organic soap bar and water, what can I use to stop all these aphids on my trees. This year most of the leaves fell off, leaves curling and they look awful, all the fruits are in bunches and some do not get very large, or so it seems this is how they are growing.

I have 12 trees in my mini orchard and it is only the apples which were almost destroyed, then had something attacking the plum leaves and also some curled leaves on the pear tree,and have been spraying quite regularly this year only they have never suffered before.

So I think I have done something wrong and perhaps this could have been avoided? I would so appreciate any advice please.

[Bigmallly]

Hiya, I know nothing about fruit trees but there is some info here that may help:

http://www.which.co.uk/documents/pdf...ars-151457.pdf

[Guest]

Hi, you haven't done anything wrong. Most grapes have been moaning about blackfly being horrendous this year. Soapy water is all most people do and squishing. However, it only helps not gets rid of completely

[MrsGreenfinger]

Thank you Norfolkgrey, I shall post some photos of hopw the trees look and the bunching of the apples, they are all so closely packed and do not have room to grow, I have been taking the odd one out to allow the others to grow, is this a good idea?

[Guest]

Yes, thinning fruit out is a good thing for lots of reasons

[mothhawk]

My 2 young apple trees had a lot of aphids on them, but there were hoverflies around them too, so I left them to it, and within a couple of weeks all the aphids had gone. A bit of leaf damage and a few brown patches were the only evidence there had been any.

Nature usually sorts things out, I find.