Growing Dwarf Apples & Netting from Pests Golden Dorset 

My dad always used long bamboo poles around the apple tree under the new to keep the met off the tree.

Apples in the subtropics! Very impressive, Mark! I really like your idea of building a frame for the netting over the tree. Those fruit flies must be nasty buggers. I'm glad we don't have them here.

Something I have noticed, in the recent years about store bought apples is the peeling is getting tough as shoe leather, for some reason, and it doesn't seem to matter the variety! I need to start growing my own like you do, Mark!

thank you for shering, they look like a loverly tree

Love your videos! Thanks for sharing.

That is a nice harvest.

So glad UK Here we grow recommended your channel. I am a transplanted Kiwi and just love to hear you talk. Sounds like us. Ha ha. Anyway, enjoy your channel so very much. The net idea is great and will try it on our dwarf trees although I don't think we are ever bothered by fruit fly. We do however lose some to the birds and other bugs. I know the net works great on our sour cherry tree.

I can see a rob Bob style structure helping out this problem. 4 star pickets left in all year if you want with a crossed irrigation pipe between them higher than the net. It will stop the rubbing on the tree and give the tree room to move without growing through the net. Great haul anyway

Very good harvest off such a small tree. I don't know if you follow Woody's Allotment in the UK but I'm always amazed at the apples he gets off very small trees.

Thanks for sharing John. I have tried to grow apples and peaches here. I found it was too much trouble for me. Best wishes Bob.

thanks, I am trying to grow apple trees from organic apples I bought last fall. we use apple pickers here a wire basket on a pole with a cushion to reach up into the tree just sharing link as an example of what it looks like

Keep us up to date on how you go (with your solution), need to prepare my newish trees for next year and am contemplating using retic for either a hoop house (~12 trees) or hoops for each tree. Reports of fruit fly infestations here in WA of late...

Here in Canada we get apple maggot and yellow jacket wasps. Nasty surprise when on a latter

I've just planted a few baby apple trees, can't wait until they start growing apples..... they're just big sticks at the moment.

Top Job Mark... I like your idea about the cage over the tree, it makes sense to me. We don't suffer from the fruit fly over here in the UK - or at least the apple tree on my plot doesn't seem to suffer from any pests. BUT... I dont get 10kg of fruit from it... I might get about 10 apples a year .... which for me is enough. I hope you had a good Christmas and New Year mate. Cheers, Adam

I've never seen a fruit fly invasion like the one we had this year. Not in the garden, in the home, from fruits and veggies from the store or local market!!! I'm still catching them in my house!! They have never been a problem here, and it's terrible now. Just when you mentioned raising the netting, I was thinking the same thing, and when my fruit trees go in this spring, I will be allowing for covering them the same way. Mine are going to be very short trees too. Kind of like how you grow grapes. I'm way too short to be trying to get up to even a dwarf size fruit tree. I can't even consider fruit from the store anymore, it actually tastes terrible. The skin is so tough that I can't even chew it! I guess where I live everyone takes it for granted that everyone can grow a fruit tree, but I learned years ago that not everyone can. I'm so happy that you can have fresh fruit right from the tree, there is noting in the world better than fresh off the tree. Beautiful apples too! Bless, Sheila

Great Video! I am am Your new subscriber. thanks for the video

Great work Mark. I have the same two varieties as you and got my first apple this year. I just bagged the fruit with a netting bag to keep the fruit fly out. Something ate a hole in the bag and gnawed the fruit. As it was the only apple, i picked it, cut off the gnawed bit and shared the remainder between us. I'm aiming to net the tree next year, so will be watching your channel with interest in case you build a frame. I'm aiming to use water pipe over start pickets for a frame. I think the water pipe needs to be 2 inch, to fit over the start pickets.

Could u do an update on This video please mark

Hey Mark great vid when do you net the tree? Also where do you get the nets from for a reasonable price?

Great idea using net to put around your fruit trees. Perhaps you should used a net that wrapped around the fruit individually. I have seen it used on pears. They are like stocking nylon. We don't have fruit flies that does such destruction here in Washington state. Great harvest on your apple.

I love your channel it inspired me to start growing vegetables and fruits. However my zone climate is really hot in summer reaches about 120 would a verity like Reinee des Reinettes apple tree adapt to such harsh weather??

My fruit salad tree has blossoms on it now. When should I net it? Should I leave room for further growth? Fruit fly got to my tomatoes last year ;(

Every-time i watch someone harvest apples from a tree i so wish i could pick a fresh apple & eat it rite there!!

What types of fruit trees need to be netted from fruit flies

to keep the fruit flies out, what about little bags over the flowers/fruit? obviously with a tight enough weave that the fruit flies cant oviposit between the threads. or when I was little my mum used to get little paper bags to put over growing fruit, I wonder if those are still around.

I saw someone take mesh gift bags and put a large one around each young fruit. Might be time-consuming, but your tree wouldn't grow through the cover. You can reuse the mesh bags

I love that crunchy sound Mark....yum! How did the mangoes go? Are they ripe yet?

Hello mark, just came across your videos I live in a tropical climate & wonder if its possible to grow apple tree from seed alone (apples bought in supermarket). Are your apple trees grafted or from seed?

You would love red Macintosh. Tart, sweet, juicy and thin skinned

Nice looking harvest mate. My daughter loves apples but like you I'm unimpressed with supermarket fruit. I usually only buy my apples in winter from the markets when they are in season. Although none of them are In long term storage you can tell they're getting a bit older as Spring approaches. I have a tropical variety too but it's had some die back but still alive. Why don't you stick 4 long star posts in the ground and slip some irrigation pipe over them to form 2 hoops to drape the netting over? Might not be cheaper than a wooden frame but would be quicker to build and last longer.

Nice,i have a dwarf Pinkabelle im in Newcastle will this toye be alright where I am.

Brother of Jon Mosley

So you must have a issue with spotted wing fruit fly too hey ?

Have You looked at Japanese apple bags? They might be more reliable than trying to cover the whole tree.

Can your chickens eat apple seeds?

In the uk, just moved, have what i believe is an apple tree that has what i think after a couple of days researching is commonly called a white woolly aphid, , cut off the lower "newish branches" that were really covered in it, now i would like to know if anyone could suggest a good way to help get shot of most of the rest? The tree was flowering a few weeks ago but none left on the tree now,, its not a big space, has some conifers (one seems dead) and ive got a couple of pots planted, rosemary, lemon coriander, strawberry, mint, peas and beans and a couple of seed potatoes,, this is the first time in uk attempting to grow fruit and veg, but im concerned about the amount of what i think is these woolly aphids, anyone got any advice please? And thank you in advance

Hey so I live in Australia. Is it possible in anyway to plant, grow and harvest apple trees? I really want a apple tree.

You realise we could be making cider with those apples?!

I hate fruit flies they destroyed my whole jujube harvest for this year!