Apples, when to pick

[dog-tired]

Hi all
I have a flourishing apple tree which is laden with fruit. Only problem is the snails. Every year despite all efforts, there are only a few apples left. Can I pick them early and use them to make chutney? If so I would at least 'sav them' from being destroyed.

[WendyS]

If the snails are climbing up the tree every night to get at the apples I wonder whether somethink nasty like carpet gripper wound around the trunk of the tree would stop them getting to your apples? If they're already up there, there's probably not much you can do about it to protect your apples. If you pick them before they are ripe, even for making chutney, the end result will probably be pretty sour. Are you sure it is snails which are eating your apples? I would have thought it would be quite difficult for them to munch their way through such thick skins. Perhaps you could try picking just enough apples to make one jar of chutney to see whether the early picking makes a product which is worth keeping and eating.

[joanne713]

try putting cheap beer in tubs round the bottom of the tree, snails love it as much as slugs do.

[~owzat~]

Hi dog-tired,

I urge you to go out and buy Fito 'Slug Stoppa Tape', sold at ironmongers, DIY and garden centres. It is an adhesive copper tape, that acts as a barrier on tables, chairs, pots, staging and greenhouses. I have a prized Hosta plant, now in a large pot - originally in the ground - which is haut� cuisine to slugs and snails. The copper tape gives either of these slimy creatures a mild 'electric' shock when they cross over it. So successful is it, that my Hosta has not one leaf chewed, bitten or slimed on! There are trails of them everywhere else, but none on the planter. Have used this tape on other pots for 4 - 5 years now, and only needed to replace/refresh once.

Environmentally friendly - well to us - not the slugs !!