What to Do With Apple Trees in May – 5 Critical Tasks to Ensure a Healthy and Bountiful Harvest in the Months to Come

I was born in April, the month most associated with spring, but it’s impossible not to love May just as much. May is the month of blossoms, when baby birds learn to fly and spring breezes whisper through the new leaves. Life feels easy and everything is coming up roses.

For those growing apple trees, May is particularly sweet. The fruit is set a week or two after the petals fall in late April, so, by mid-May, the tree is full of baby apples. And there’s nothing irksome to accomplish this month, no tricky pruning or grafting.

Instead, the tasks of the moment involve simple steps like looking out for pests and making sure your trees get enough to drink.

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What to Do With Apple Trees in May

Every month has its task list in the garden, but some lists are lighter than ever. When it comes to apple tree care, May is one of the easy months. I always feel butterfingered when I’m pruning and grafting fruit trees, but all these hard jobs are done by May. That leaves basic tasks that do not require step-by-step instructions.

Still, you need to take care of your apple trees in May. Be assured, as you begin, that you will be skipping happily through May’s tasks, not trudging up a rocky road. Here are the five most important tasks to accomplish.

1. Give the Apple Trees a Drink

Apple trees may bud in April, but they begin their active growth phase in May. That means that they need more water, from rainfall or supplemental irrigation. Keep in mind that water requirements for apple trees depend on rainfall. The more rain you get in May, the less you need to water.

Your first-year apple trees will need up to 2 inches (5cm) a week in May. Established trees need about half that much. It’s a good idea to check the soil moisture regularly. If the soil feels dry, provide a little extra water. If it feels moist, all is well. When the earth beneath your apple tree feels wet, it’s received too much water. You can even purchase a low-cost soil moisture meter from Amazon if you want more precision.

2. Clear Weeds from Beneath the Apple Tree

When rain has fallen or you’ve just watered, it’s the perfect time to go weed hunting. Now weeds don’t actually compete with big trees for nutrients. On the other hand, they do provide hiding places for insect pests. Pull up the weeds by hand and dispose of them.

While you are weeding, take time to clean up the area. Rake and collect any fruits that fell to the ground as well as broken branches and winter mulch, if any remains. Add a fresh layer of organic mulch, keeping it a hand’s distance from the tree trunk. You can find Miracle-Gro organic mulch at Home Depot or your local hardware store. Organic is always a good choice for mulches used around edible plants.

3. Monitor Apple Trees for Pests

Common apple tree pests like codling moths and aphids can get started in the orchard in springtime. Your job in May is to keep an eye out for these pests.

Codling moths are about half an inch long, with gray banding and shiny bronze scales on their wings. They can cause real apple tree damage. They like to eat apple seeds, and tunnel into the new fruit to get the prizes, making the apples unappealing and often inedible.

Monitoring for codling moths means more than keeping an eye out for moths flying by. The best monitoring tools are pheromone traps. Put them high in the tree canopy, in the upper third of the tree, and check them every week or so. If you find pests, use organic control methods. You can find codling moth traps on Amazon.

Aphids are the familiar, small sap-sucking insects that are often found in groups on the underside of leaves. On apple trees, aphids feed on sap, causing leaves to curl, turn yellow, and weaken the tree. You can spray them off with the hose, use insecticidal soap, or purchase and release lady bugs, who like to eat them.

4. Monitor Apple Trees for Fungal Diseases

Another “look-out” job in May is to scout the apple orchard regularly for fungal diseases. Even the names sound icky: apple scab, cedar apple rust and sooty blotch! These are easily controlled by fungicides if you catch them early, so monitoring apple trees in May is important.

The three most common fungal diseases are in fact those named above. Apple scab leaves darkened, scabby areas on fruit and foliage. Cedar apple rust only attacks if there are both cedar trees and apple trees in the area, since both are required to complete its life cycle. It presents as bright orange spots on leaves. And, as you might have guessed, you can recognize sooty blotch on the surface of the fruit. Trimming and thinning apples is the main treatment for sooty blotch.

Make a close inspection every week. That allows you to catch these problems early and apply fungicides. Immunox fungicide, available at Walmart, is a good option for treating apple tree fungus issues.

5. Thinning the Apples

If you think that there is no such thing as too many apples, I have to agree with you. I personally can chomp through a small bag of apples a week. But the task of thinning apples is not intended to reduce the crop of apple fruits. Rather, it eliminates the small or misshapen apples in order to limit the harvest to big, healthy fruit.

Now we have to admit here that Mother Nature takes care of this step in large part. I remember my early years of raising apples - how horrified I was to find half of the young crop dropping off and littering the ground beneath the tree. This is known as the “June drop” although it usually takes place in May in my region. And June drop is Nature’s way of giving the healthiest fruit more elbow room, sunshine, and nutrients to fatten up into crisp, juicy fruit.

However, it sometimes works out better when you aid in this process a little. Take a look at the apple clusters and prune out any that are imperfect or noticeably smaller than the others. Then, just keep pruning.

If you are extremely disciplined, prune out most of the apples, taking out all but one from each cluster. If you have a hard time with this, like I do, leave two per cluster. You are sure to get a healthier, bigger crop for your troubles.

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