Problem with fruit trees

Hi all, I had a problem last year with my Apple and my plum tree and wondered if you all had some suggestions. I don't like using any chemicals if I can help it so would appreciate an organic solution if there is one.

First is the apple tree. It is now about 4 years old and has started bearing fruit. It is a Bramley. My neighbors have some apple trees too so it gets the cross polination that it needs. The problem is it sets fruit but they start to rot on the tree and turn brown before they are ready to pick. Can anyone tell me what is happening and how I can go about treating the tree so that I can get apples to eat. Thanks.

And now for the plum. It is only a few years old and it did set fruit last summer. Problem with it was ants. They were inside the plums. So I ended up with only a few fruits with out them. Again what can I use to prevent them destroying my crop? Thanks in advance too.

I suggest that the ants on your plums are taking advantage of damage done by something else - possibly plum moth.  You can buy pheromone traps for plum moth, but will probably have to spray as well one week after you get a big catch of moths in your trap.

As for the Bramley I don't really know, but again I think the fruit could be being damaged by some insect pest and then rotting.  Maybe it is codling moth for which a pheromone trap is available.

Thanks Trillium, yes that is what it looks like. Unfortunately the neighbors tree also has it, and they aren't up to doing the pruning. I now have a name to look for more info on it.

Thanks Gillie about the plum tree. It is quite possible, we do seem to get quite a few moths here. On the phernome trap, won't that bring more of them into the garden? In the US we had a problem with Japanese beetles and I used these traps. It seemed like I had more than my fair share of these bugs. Thank goodness we don't have them here in the UK. They stripped all my plants bare. Even ate Rhubarb leaves!