I have an apple tree at my late father's house that appears to have a bumper crop set on. What is the best way to keep them from getting terrorized by bugs/worms. We sprayed with triazicide today, but wondering what is the best plan of attack to get good apples?

I'm an organic farmer so I'm not going to be much help for you on the chemical side of things, but what I can tell you is have a plan. You can check with your extension service for what a typical spray schedule looks like for your area. For me I would put pheromone traps out and spray when you're getting moths caught. For scab and powdery mildew this is the time of year to be using coverage fungicides. Might be just a shade early for codling moth.

Pruning is very beneficial but I think that's done in the fall. Like Paul Harvey would say....I've already said more than I know....

Apples also need to be thinned if you have a bumper crop. Commercial guys do it with chemicals but for one tree you can do it by hand.

Thinking the same thing. Also many apples tend toward biennial bearing and a heavy crop this year can mean little to none next and set up an on off cycle. Thinning not only helps prevent that but allows the crop you leave to fully size up and have best flavor.

If you have some Sevin spray.........the old kind made with carbaryl.......it helps with several insects and if you apply when apples are about size of a grape, may also help with the thinning. It is one of the chemical sprays that was used for that.

If thinning by hand, look at the fruit clusters. There will be one apple in the middle, surrounded by several smaller apples. You leave the one in the middle (the king fruit) and lose the smaller applies around the bigger one in the middle. One apple per cluster is about right. Doable with a dwarf tree.......bigger tree......thinning by hand not very practical.