The Agony and the Ecstasy

In the beginning…

Sarah Samantha battling
grasshoppers

When I was a kid, there was this one book I checked out over and over from the library. The Middle Sister by Marion Mason was dear to my heart. It’s the story of Sarah Samantha, a middle sister who was 8 (I was a middle sister and I was 8!) She wishes she were brave. Her Uncle Romeo (who works at a circus) strikes a bargain: in exchange for an apple dumpling (made with an apple from Miss Appleseed, a gift from Uncle Romeo) he will give her a lion’s tooth, a charm that will help her feel brave. The family travels to a homestead in Minnesota by covered wagon and Sarah Samantha has many opportunities to be brave protecting her beloved apple tree: uppity neighbors, greedy pigs, swarms of grasshoppers. At long last with just one apple left from the tree, Sarah Samantha makes the apple dumpling for her uncle and soon wears the lion’s tooth around her neck, ultimately realizing that she was brave all along. I never really wanted a lion’s tooth but I always thought apple dumplings sounded like the most delicious thing a person could eat. Mom made all sorts of wonderful pastries but never apple dumplings. It wasn’t until I was an adult, I made a pan full and they didn’t disappoint: a flaky pastry and tart apple island in a lake of cinnamony syrup. Sheer poetry!

A tree grows in California…

When Steve and I moved into our house 20 years ago, I knew I wanted to plant an apple tree. Not that I wanted to have my very own Miss Appleseed, but it felt necessary to have a tree...to climb its branches and pick fruit for pies and cobblers. The allotted space for the tree was small so we planted a Garden Delicious, a dwarf apple tree perfect for small yards. The first few years the crops were satisfactory. Then our sweet little tree hit its stride. We picked and picked and picked and still the tree produced. The apples were yellow and sweet and made the most delicious applesauce, were excellent dried but best of all, sheer joy to munch. We gave bags of apples away…to neighbors, church friends, co-workers…even once gave a bag to the UPS guy when he came to the door with a delivery. We didn’t do much for the tree…a cursory pruning now and then. But that’s about all.

And then there were none…

Two years ago, the tree didn’t look happy. Aphids were everywhere, leaves curled and got sticky, apples were stunted and we barely got one bowlful to eat. Last year we weren’t able to harvest one apple. Not only did we have the aphids and leaf curl, but every apple was infested with coddling worms and on top of all that, fire blight hit the tree turning large bunches of leaves brown. I asked Hank, an old farmer from down in south county, to come by and tell me what to do. He told me about setting traps for the coddling moths in the spring and about putting corrugated cardboard around the trunk of the tree. He said to get rid of the blight I needed to trim every affected leaf and branch, dipping my pruners in bleach after every cut to ensure I wouldn’t contaminate other parts of the tree. I started the blight elimination early fall last year when it was easy to see the crispy brown leaves. But it occurred to me that pruning severely in the fall would be premature. So I waited until early spring. By then all the leaves were gone and it was hard to tell which parts were blighted and which parts weren’t. And it was hard work: cut and dip, cut and dip. Steve helped me out and as a team we were able to do the job with little aggravation.  I forgot about the cardboard but put out the coddling moth trap at the right time.  Leaves started sprouting, blossoms showed their delicate faces. Blossoms morphed into tiny apples and I was hopeful that we had triumphed over nature.

A moveable feast…

And then, last week I noticed the aphids. Not just a few but hundreds. They caked the new growth way at the top of the tree which made rinsing them off with the hose impossible. My sister told me of a remedy for aphids she sprays on her roses: 1 tsp. baking soda, 1 tsp. dish soap, 1 tsp. vegetable oil and 1 quart water. Put it all in a spray bottle and drench the leaves of the plant. While searching for remedies for aphids, I found almost the same recipe on a website from Australia (Small Farm Permaculture and Sustainable Living…name just rolls of the tongue doesn’t it?!)  Be careful though…my nurserywoman said that the soap can burn the leaves of a plant if applied in full sun.

Small Farm etc also suggests that it’d be a good idea to introduce aphid predators. First on the list are wasps and hover flies. Not too sure I want those critters in my garden. Ah, yes, they also suggest ladybugs. That I can do. After a quick trip to the nursery, I had container in hand. But how does one get the little sweethearts to go from the container into the tree? The directions say to release them in the evening since they don’t fly at night. Climbing up as high as I could on the ladder, I dumped handfuls of bugs into the tree, with most of them falling on me and on the ground. (I have to say I felt a bit like Sarah Samantha bravely trying to save her precious tree.) Steve rigged up a scaffolding to place the open container and I left it there hoping the aroma of juicy aphids would entice the ladybugs to scramble out of their protective home into the nirvana of my tree.  

Now we wait. Did the traps stop the coddling worms from laying eggs in the apples? Will the ladybugs devour the aphids? Time will tell….in the meantime I’ve got a whole lotta other plants that will require my vigilance.