Apple tree inquiry.....

Warning, this is a horticultural blog and probably will be boring and not entertaining. Maybe all of my blogs are boring and not entertaining, please don't say so, but this one is just a plain, is there anyone out there that knows about apples that can help me out kind of blog. So just back peddle after you look at the pretty pictures and just don't read, after all it is Saturday and you have things to do out there.....

I have three apple trees. All three are a different variety. The oldest apple tree characteristically drops it's apples before I ever get a chance to pick them. The three below are from that tree that I have picked up off the ground
I have rarely sprayed these trees before but this year I was right on it, maybe started a couple weeks late but sprayed every ten to twelve days. If I don't spray at all there is an insect that bores holes into the surface of the apple, dozens of time per apple. Some plant eggs for worms to grow and others just cause a deep channel. Because of all of this they also become very deformed, no round sides anywhere. If I don't spray, one can carve up an apple and get maybe one clean slice from a whole apple.

So now that I have sprayed, the deformed shapes are almost mostly gone. I had a couple here and there but not the whole tree. So two weeks ago, this brown stuff starts forming on the apples. I don't think I have ever seen it before but that doesn't mean that I never had it before. This tree near the shed has so many apples but the brown is only on one side of the tree.
As you can see I have many apples, but I do have one point of information that I haven't shared. I did read once that you can't have walnut trees near your apples as the roots put out a fume, gas, whatever it is that it effects the apples. I guess I need to know if that is one of the causes. Another problem is cedar trees and some other evergreen trees cause problems. A tornado storm took out a large walnut tree to the south of my lot a few years ago. My other not so nice neighbor in the alley has a small walnut tree, volunteer of course, and it is getting to be fifteen feet high. It sits opposite of the side of the brown coloration on that tree. The south side of course had a little girl that now has three kids, plant little evergreens all along the lot line. They of course now are ten feet or more taller. I did get them to cut down the volunteer cedar that use to sit next to the apple tree.
These apples sit farther away the walnut trees and they have very little brown scum. You can see an insect got to that bottom apple but that isn't a problem.
This apple is still hanging on the tree and it looks great. I am wondering if I am going to have to keep up the rountine for a couple of years to eradicate all problems. There are a lot of apple orchards in our area and if we don''t have a freeze out early spring and buds are killed, we have bumper crops everywhere. If the walnut trees are the problem, I will probably have to quit even trying to have a crop. If the brown scum is something else that I can treat in the future,then I hope someone out there can identify it for me.
A footnote to those who hate sprays, I have birds everywhere and I don't think this spray is the dangerous kind. We have mourning doves everywhere, blue jays, a pair of cardinals , house finches once in a while and sparrows everywhere. I own inside birds, and if I thought I was harming the outside birds I would just quit the treatments. I actually think that I am the one that is in the most danger as I have to smell it and wash it away after I work with it. It does dry instantly and is safe for animals after it drys. I am at a point though if I can't have an apple crop because of circumstances that I can't control, I will not put any more time into it. I do know that these apples are headed for the creation of a lot of apple jelly and maybe butter. What ever survives should be plenty for me to make lots. Thanks for reading....
Oh I do have some solutions, cut the apple trees down, sell the place and move away, don't do anything and buy apples to make jelly, and go out late at night with my new reciprocating saw and cut all my neighbors offending trees down, they wouldn't notice would they. I will stop, sorry I got too in to this one. Thanks again for reading, or not reading....