Honeyberries in my part of the world Pennsylvania are not no-spray. There is a cane boring insect (Honeysuckle Flatheaded Borer) that will decimate orchards. Just a heads up.
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Here in southern TN… in addition to the list above…
I grow strawberries, blueberries, concord grapes, figs, and have never sprayed them… and collect good crops.
I do have to bag blueberries and grapes… to keep the birds from eating most of them.
I bag figs too… but not for bird protection… but to keep away other pest, wasp, hornets, yellowjackets, jap beetles, SWD, etc…
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Oh yes. Same here.
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I’m lucky to be in the Mediterranean area of the West coast, so we don’t have to worry about fungal disease in the summer.
Day Neutral Strawberries are bullet proof, don’t even get swd in them despite having a lot around.
Some Asian Pear varieties, especially Yoinashi for me.
Any grapes, about 1 in 4 years we will get mildew, but sulfur controls it completely. Later wine grapes can get bunch rot, but they’re usually fine.
Plums almost never need spraying around here, occasionally will get aphids, but not often. Haven’t had any huge problems with spring fungal diseases.
Pineapple guava, haven’t grown many fruit, but the plants are invincible.
Figs, never any problems even in wet falls we still have no problems in the main crops.
Blueberries, commercial growers get swd, but my in laws have about 100 bushes and have never had any.
Raspberries and blackberries, same as blueberries.
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I’ve never sprayed my Concords or done anything really. Last year, I didn’t get a one because we had a very late cold snap. Apple orchards were wiped out. I guess I was complacent because they’d always produced in abundance here in central Vermont, but, boy, I did miss them. Here’s hoping for better weather this year.
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Never considered concord grapes or grapes in general as no spray fruit due to fungal disease like black rot but I’m in zone 8a maryland. Pierce’s disease can be an issue too. some cooler western MD areas can grow them no spray. its kind of a gamble here I think.
from what I have heard from others on the forum, they are not no-spray.
hazelnuts are not no spray. I’m taking a gamble on heartnuts being no spray.
I would add cornelian cherry and muscadines to the no spray list
Roughly how many times do you spray Surround in one season?
Hi Steve,
It varies depending on the success of getting an initial coat on each fruit. By that I mean that for some reason a sticker does not work with Surround as you might not expect. So I thicken the spray with an extra cup or two of powder for the initial application. This is when fruits are about the size of a quarter. For some of my varieties I can see the majority flowing right off the fruit leaving very little attached, so I go back about 30 minutes again and spray, then the third time after another 30 minutes.
Usually that works and I can see the film beginning to form.
If you get a good initial coat, the follow on applications seem to stick much better.
Thereafter each week thru the majority of the growing season usually until apples are about 80% fully grown. Then I stop. If I get a rainfall I inspect afterwards to determine if I need to spray. I spray the entire tree but the coating on the fruit is what matters.
I recall it takes 4-5 eight oz cups per 2 gallons on that initial application. Thereafter about 3 cups.
Best wishes
Dennis
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Even with electric tank sprayer this has become a hard job for me and each year I wonder if I can do it another year. I bag when they get dime size or a little bigger so only do two or three clay sprays and don’t care to do any more. In a year or two I’ll have too many apples to bag so have to decide: take out some trees, thin off most of the fruit or what?
Understand
Begging is just too much work for me so I plan to continue with surround and my 2 gal hand sprayer
Dennis
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Who has grown a truly tart apple that resists rust, blight and possibly insects? A friend wants me to topwork her tree next year with a no-spray tart eating apple. Any ideas? Z. 8A Maryland.
My dad loved really tart Duchess of Oldenburg but it was a mess here with disease. I suppose pre-ripe Transparent qualifies but they ripen fast and go blah quickly.
pristine is supposed to be really disease resistant. not sure of the tart part. so is williams pride and black oxford. the 1st 2 are early apples. the last is a late.
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I planted two varieties of serviceberry this spring and a Medlar.
Expect them to be ok for no spray.
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Serviceberry can get rust pretty bad, or so I’ve heard. I planted Northline, Martin, and Lee8 last week.
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Seemed like nothing wanted to infect those old “Sour June” Apples. You used to see a lot of big huge sour june trees too.
Sour June
Description: Fruit medium or below, roundish or slightly oblate; skin light green or pale yellow with a light red, grainy wash, and a few broken, red stripes on the sunny side; dots few, russet, some areole. Flesh slightly greenish, fine-grained, crisp, juicy, acid. Ripe July.
History: Sherry R. Everett of Pinetown, North Carolina, wrote to Lee Calhoun: “My mother-in-law moved here in 1933 and said that her neighbors had very large Sour June trees then. She remembers the trunks being very thick. That is as far back as I can trace them in our area. Most of the old folks have died who would know about Sour June.”
Uses: Cooking, Sauce
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those are probably yellow transparents. they are everywhere here on old farmland and roadsides. one of the few apples that could grow here. not the best for fresh eating but make great sauce.
As a child I begged a “Military relative” for an apple off one of the roadside trees. Boy did I ever get what I asked for…Smokey the lady now long past used to tease me if I wanted another Sour June. That was near the North/South Carolina line in the Piedmont.
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we were raised foraging for those apples as a kid. my mother canned tons of them as applesauce and apple filling. i still do to this day. apple sauce with a dollop of whipped cream. is still one of my faves. for a snack.
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not sure if it qualifies as tart but @scottfsmith says the most bulletproof in his orchard is Hunge. he can correct me if I misinterpreted his other posts
