The peach trees have lost their leaves so I was going to start a spray or dormant oil and copper. The biggest thing wrong with my peaches last year was bacterial spotting so I hope to wipe that out with copper.
I was going to try to make my own dormant oil as per Scott’s low impact spray schedule. I would use one cup vegetable oil and two tablespoons liquid soap in one gallon water.
I am going to spray on Sunday when there is no forecast of rain and temps should not be freezing.
As per apples and pears, I was going to spray sulfur and the home made oil mix after the leaves fall off (still a lot of leaves on them).
If anyone sees anything concerning about this, please let me know. I will post results once done.
How come you are going with sulfur for the pear and Apple and not just spray copper? That’s what I do. Is sulfur as a dormant spray for Apple and pear more effective than copper? Not questioning your method, just want to find out which one is better and do the same.
I was going off of Scott’s low impact spray schedule. Fireblight was not much of an issue for me and copper isn’t good for the soil apparently so I opted for sulfur.
I guess my question is, is lime-sulfur the same as sulfur? I have sulfur and it says it can be sprayed for rust. A quick internet search said they could be used for the same purpose.
I did spray copper last year in the fall and it seemed to work fine. I am planning on doing copper more toward the spring before the trees leaf out.
If the spot was not bad this year you can skip copper, but if it was bad I would do it both fall and spring. It took me 4-5 years of copper 2x per year before I got the spot under control, now I do only one copper per year.
Make sure you follow a recipe on how much soap to add, I use horticultural oil not kitchen oil so am not sure on your recipe since hort oil needs no extra soap. Too much soap and you have cancelled the oil out, the soap is just to get the oil to dissolve.
Lime-sulphur is viewed as a better dormant spray than sulphur but I’m not sure why. My guess is you can put a very strong dose on, and it is absorbed by the tissues so can get diseases inside the buds better.
Note that it would be preferable to have a sticker like nufilm to keep any powdered copper or sulphur on longer.
Scott,
In your spray schedule you mentioned canola oil over mineral oil because it was heavier. Do they make a canola horticultural oil or is this something you are mixing up yourself?
There are a couple brands of oil which have been “emulsified” (stuff added so it dissolves in water). I now am using horticultural soybean oil, Stoller’s Golden Pest Spray Oil. I also have some canola hort oil but forget the brand. Canola and soy are heavier than the light mineral oils.
So I held off spraying because I purchased a gallon of NuFilm P. I will apply this with my sprays. I did not buy the canola oil due to cost (bought the squirrel tube trap instead, hehe.)
If I’m spraying dormant oil using the bottle you attach to your hose and spraying copper, sulfur, and nufilm using a sprayer, which one should go on first?
Jim,
On the thread called Neem Oil for Dormant Spray, @Olpea gave detailed info about how to mix all these products and an order of what should go in first.
I cannot link it but you can look it up. The answer is there.
Does combining the copper and dormant oil in one tank work every bit as effectively as doing them on separate days?
I had really bad shoot blight this past spring on my apples and pears - it’s the first time I had this problem, is the copper enough to prevent it? Also, if it strikes again, what’s the best way to manage it? Cut off just the black tips?
Is copper enough to also control quince rust? Any tip on what product I can use in only a couple sprays to get that under control? 1-2 ideally lol
Lime-sulphur spray has been unavailable for a few years (in consumer quantities).
Do some searching (here and elsewhere), there is a product sold for treating mange in dogs that is the same active ingredient but more concentrated. That stuff is easy to buy online or in pet stores, and you can dilute it back down to the same concentration as the ag lime-sulphur.
I think its better to put oil and copper together compared to separately as it gives a double whammy. Oil helps smother diseases as well as pests.
Your shoot blight sounds like fireblight? If its that then copper is the best thing to do now. If you get it next year you need to figure out if it is fireblight or something else so you can find the best treatment.
Quince rust is very hard to control organically, I use myclobutanil as I gave up on any organic control for it. Unlike cedar apple rust it effects the fruits badly as well, so you can’t just put up with it like you can with CAR.
What strength copper do you use? Using the max dose doesn’t let me bottle go very far.
I think it was fireblight - but it only got the flowers and new shoot tips. I haven’t seen fireblight before but I want to know how to manage it if it happens again, because my trees were only 1-2 years old and really didn’t have many shoots available to cut it out. And I’m not sure if the disease is gone just by pruning our tips??
How often do you spray your quince with that chemical? Mine are right next to my apples and I had rust galls everywhere on my quince and I think it can infect the apples if I don’t keep it under control. Again I am being introduced to these diseases one by one so I appreciate your advice on conquering them You’re really so kind to be always on this forum helping everyone
I wondered about that. I purchased some powdered Bonide Sulfur last year but have had absolutely no luck finding lime sulfur for fruit trees. I don’t want to purchase a gallon.
Do You have a preferred brand of pet dip along with a recommendation for spray amounts?
Can’t say if it is a preferred brand, I just got it and used some this fall for the first time, but I ordered “Vet Basics Lime Sulfur Dip”, online. It is 98% active ingredient Calcium Polysulfide. The old lime sulfur bottle I had is 28% of the same active ingredient. So just use 29% of the old amount (about 1/2 way between 1/4 and 1/3 of the old amount) .
I had written down that I use 5t of the old lime-sulfur to 1gal of water. So about 1.5t per gallon of the new concentrated stuff.
You’re really so kind to be always on this forum helping everyone