For Pome Fruit Trees of Toronto!
As some of you may have noticed, your harvested apples or pears were visually imperfect. Full of funny indentations or dimples as we like to call it, brown and black spots and worms, resulting in your fruit rotting on the tree? This is the damage caused by the cankerworm and other wingless caterpillar moths. The most troublesome of them all is the Codling Moth which is causes the common ‘worm’ in a wormy apple or pear. Recommended pest management to prevent wingless moths and other pest alike include Winter Moth Tree Banding. In order to ensure your apples and pears can stand battle against these caterpillars and other insects, NFFTT would like to offer Tree Registrants this service! See below for more details.
Of course our NFFTT team is ecstatic to harvest ALL fruit you have growing in your yards regardless of a few dimples and bumps. We know that imperfect fruit is delicious, nutritious, and with some kitchen magic, can be transformed into the best apple sauce, crumbles, jams, pies and delicious delicacies alike. However, with some fruit heavily impacted by aphids, caterpillars, and other critters, our team is limited with sharing your delicious fruit. Due to the limitations of our partner agencies’ access to kitchens, not all of our service partners can turn your imperfect fruit into perfectly edible and nutritious meals for their clientele.
The adult winter caterpillars come out from late November through January. Females emerge from the ground and scramble up nearby tree trunks where they will mate and lay eggs in and on the trucks of your fruit tree. In the spring, when the caterpillars hatch, they wriggle into the swelling apple and pear buds on your tree and continue to burrow into your fruit feeding on the bounty of your tree.
Banding your tree will prevent these caterpillars from reaching the heights of your fruit trees! By applying a tree band, hatching caterpillars won’t be able to climb up the trunk of your tree in search of food come spring. Resulting in less worms and visual indentations in your fruit.
Additional Resources
Learn more about these critters and become the best Tree Steward with the information and resources below.
- Spring-feeding caterpillars: Great overview on the common caterpillars and their impact on your fruit trees by the Ontario Government.
- City of Toronto and Ontario Government: Information pages providing more in-depth information on Codling Moth and Regional efforts to manage the populations.
- Orchard People: Susan Poizner’s urban fruit tree care organization offers a range of online training courses, webinars, and resources.
- LEAF Presentations & Workshops: In addition to selling and planting trees, LEAF also offers a variety of educational programs on tree care and urban ecology.