My apple tree is in bloom. When is the best time to spray and what is the best pesticide?

This tree produces great apples, but we lose a lot to worms. We live in California, so some pesticides may not be allowed.


I would also appreciate pruning tips.My apple tree is in bloom. When is the best time to spray and what is the best pesticide?
If you want to control height, you prune in summer and remove about 1/3 of plant height in summer. During winter, you prune for structure such as removing cross-over limbs.





One of the best pesticides to use against worms would be Sevin, and you can buy concentrate from WalMart and Home Depot. You can apply this without having commercial applicators license.





The worms are called codling moths, and I would describe them as worms from hell. They will put a worm on each and every apple fruit.





What I do is when the apples are about a dime size, spray Sevin on the apples directly. You can then spray whenever there is a batch that's coming up, and you monitor this with phermone trap for coddling moths in order to minimize spraying.





But as for me, 7 days after the first spraying, I would then use Ziploc sandwhich bags to bag the apples, as much as I want. Just make a quarter inch hole at the corner of the ziploc bags. This has been proven and works with a lot of apple cultivars. Then you will get perfect apples at the end of the season. Those that you can't bag, you just let the worms have them. There would be enough.





to get worm free apples without bagging, means you have to spray every 15 days, the same amount of time you would have spent if you bag the apples when you count the whole season.