Have you ever noticed damage to your apples and pears, or worse yet bitten into one to find a worm curled up inside? If so, codling moth, apple maggot fly, or a combination of all of these are probably damaging your fruit tree. Fortunately, there’s a simple fix that is chemical-free and affordable!
Since 2016, City Fruit has promoted the use of tree netting (sometimes referred to as “bee” or “hail” netting) to prevent the damage of these pests to community fruit trees. These nets are hoisted over the top of your tree and cinched around the trunk to prevent pests from moving into the fruit. Netting cherry trees usually involves netting individual productive branches and requires a different type of finer mesh net, which we would be happy to support you with as well.
Timing is very important when it comes to netting fruit trees. The best time to do so is from May to early June. If you’d like to learn more, here’s a link to our How-to Net Your Tree Guide. Further, City Fruit will be selling tree netting this spring for $1.50-2.50/foot depending on the net dimensions, as well as scheduling tree care visits to help community members net their trees. If you have more questions or would like to set up a visit with our fruit tree specialist, Julian, you can send him an email at [email protected].