[Animagdon]

I planted an apple tree in my back garden a few months ago and thought I'd killed it as it didn't seem to want to come out of it's dormant state....anyway it woke up and I had loads of gorgeous blossoms but I noticed yesterday that the blossoms were falling and thought 'great - apples!' but I've just gone to take a closer look and the whole thing is crawling with ants  :rambo:

I have no idea what I'm doing as this is my first season of ever trying to grow anything and I'm trying to keep everything on the plot and garden as organic as possible.....does anyone know of a way I might get the little blighters off the apple tree or is this a natural thing that I should leave alone (told you I didn't know what I was doing!)?

 :cherry:

[andyandyjohnson]

I planted an apple tree in my back garden a few months ago and thought I'd killed it as it didn't seem to want to come out of it's dormant state....anyway it woke up and I had loads of gorgeous blossoms but I noticed yesterday that the blossoms were falling and thought 'great - apples!' but I've just gone to take a closer look and the whole thing is crawling with ants  :rambo:

I have no idea what I'm doing as this is my first season of ever trying to grow anything and I'm trying to keep everything on the plot and garden as organic as possible.....does anyone know of a way I might get the little blighters off the apple tree or is this a natural thing that I should leave alone (told you I didn't know what I was doing!)?

 :cherry:

They are farming aphids. the aphids suck the leaves and release the sap. The ants eat the sweet, sticky liquid. You have a few choices:

1. Wash the aphids off all the leaves using a hosepipe.
2. Spray the blighters.
3. Watch and admire the genius of nature, then pop to the greengrocers to buy apples  

[Animagdon]

Andy that's fab lol!  Thank you so much for the reply - I'm going to attack with the hose pipe and I will see how that goes  

My partner just said we can hose ours and eat Tesco's and have the best of both worlds lol xx

[andyandyjohnson]

Andy that's fab lol!  Thank you so much for the reply - I'm going to attack with the hose pipe and I will see how that goes  

My partner just said we can hose ours and eat Tesco's and have the best of both worlds lol xx

Good luck. I opt for spraying the blighters usually, but I am very lazy. Let me know how you get on,

[gobs]

Once you've done that, put some grease bands on the tree trunk and stake and try to locate and lose the ants.