bald apple tree

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I have blossom and new leaves on my young apple tree, the leaves are at the end of the branches primarily, and there are both leaves and blossoms further down but there are gaps of about 18 inches where there the branches are bare. Could this be from caterpillars eating the leaves in late summer last year?

It has this chap munching away on it right now.

Isn’t he handsome! Is it a brown-tail moth caterpillar? A recent migrant moving north because of climate change, feeds on trees in the rose family, which would include apple.

Take care, hairs are irritant

Yes, he’s lovely. I think brown tail moth too, having googled. I don’t mind sharing my tree, but would prefer him to eat the lamium that I planted specifically for caterpillars…

Caterpillars are very specific to host plants - in fact one of the scholarly field guides classifies them by food plant.

Yes, I wondered about that. So could that be the reason for the sparse leaves compared to my other fruit trees? It was the only one last year that got munched.

It’s as good a working hypothesis as any