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Extension > Garden > Diagnose a problem > What's wrong with my plant? > Fruit > Apple > Fruit drop

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Apples > Fruit > Fruit drop

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  • Image: Plum Curculio 1
  • Image: Plum Curculio 2
  • Image: Plum Curculio 3

Plum Curculio
Conotrachelus nenuphar

  • Fruit can drop prematurely
  • Adult weevils lay eggs in the apple resulting in distinctive crescent shaped tan spots on the apples
  • Adult weevil is small (1/5" in length), dark brown with whitish-gray patches, bumps on the wings, and a distinctive downward-curved snout
  • Mature larvae are yellow-white, ¼" long, and c-shaped (rarely seen)
  • Adults active in early spring (during bloom)
  • More information on Plum Curculio
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  • Image: Obliquebanded Leafroller 1
  • Image: Obliquebanded Leafroller 2
  • Image: Obliquebanded Leafroller 3

Obliquebanded Leafroller
Choristoneura rosaceana

  • Early season larvae feed inside bud clusters and developing fruit, resulting in fruit drop or corky scars on the fruit
  • Early season larvae feed on the undersurface of a leaf along the midrib or other large vein
  • Late season larvae can scar the fruit
  • Green egg masses are laid on the upper surface of the leaves
  • Adult moth is reddish-brown with brown bands on the wings; larvae are yellow-green and 1” in length when mature
  • More information on Obliquebanded Leafroller
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  • Image: White Rot 1
  • Image: White Rot 2
  • Image: White Rot 3

White Rot
Botryosphaeria dothidea

  • Sunken brown spots on fruit, can grow to rot part or all of fruit
  • Fruit rot is soft, watery and extends to the core of the apple
  • Small blister like spots on branches exude, watery fluid
  • Branch infections grow to cracked, flakey, orange canker
  • Leaves on girdled branches wilt, die and turn brown
  • More information on White rot

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