Just finished spraying copper. What a Perfect day, low 60, sunny, little breeze.
Like @maineorchard, removing remaining leaves, even @20% was a real pain. I also took trunk protection off before spraying.
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That’s exactly right Mike. That leaf scar is where the leaf curl fungus supposedly likes to hide. That said I sprayed my leaf curl spray this week, even though there are quite a few leaves still on the trees.
I have to spray earlier than I’d like because I have to winterize my sprayer before the freezes start.
This is the only part of “orcharding” ( is there such a word?) that I hate. …SPRAYING in NY in late fall when it is cold and the sprayer hose gets stiff and uncooperative.
And then I have to rewind the stiff hose and winterize the sprayer, and scrape and oil the shovels and picks and… and… and… and clean and oil the pruners, and all when the trees are going to sleep… feels like a funeral.
But, all the similar type of work in the spring, (when it can be just as cold and rainy etc.) and the hoses are just as stiff and the the sprayers need to be “un-winterized” and brought up to spec just does not feel like such a downer 
Mike .
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Mam, the leaves are still on most of my trees! A little warmer here. Haven’t brought in my citrus yet! Tomorrow. 
Mrs. G.
You are a zone warmer so you should be OK waiting. We have had several nights of temp in the low 30’s. Most of my fruit trees lost all or almost leaves by yesterday. The exceptions were Gold Rush and Fuji. They still had about 50% of their leaves on. It some time to sripped them.
I wonder if ability of certain varieties to hold on to their leaves longer than others has any correlation to how late the fruit of those varieties take to ripen.
Trees still growing, ie more vigorous, hold onto leaves longer. There might be variety differences but date of fruit maturity probably isn’t a factor.
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That’s what I’ve seen too. I’ve noticed this is largely dependent on the amount of nitrogen they receive vs. their need. For peach trees, trees heavily fertilized hold their leaves longer, as do younger peach trees generally. I suspect the younger peach trees hold their leaves longer because they are getting more of their N needs met, while older trees require more N and, in many cases, probably aren’t getting as much N, on a “needs” basis.
I’ve noticed a few cultivars hold their leaves longer than others. I’ve mentioned before Honeyblaze nect. is the last to drop leaves compared to other peaches/nects here.
The different types of fruit trees also seem to drop leaves at different times. Apples drop their leaves much later. Even light freezes don’t seem to affect them. I’ve noticed tart cherries hold their leaves a long time too.
Thank you, Mark and Fruitnut,
It makes sense now. My apple trees that held most leaves are Fuji, Golden Russett and Gold Rush. The first two were planted this year and the GR is two year’s old.
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Well my citrus is now in and it was spritzing rain on and off all day. Not a good day to spray copper, as the wind picked up. Well, the latest surprise is that we are getting snow tonight and the leaves are still on all of my apple trees, apricots, pear and two mirabelle. Unbelieveable. We haven’t had snow at Thanks giving since I moved to Newport, in 2002. Wow!
It snowed here tonight, not much at all,. Nothing stuck on the ground but it’s snow anyway.
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Ugh!
Wet, windy, cold and snowing. Winter has arrived.
It’s been hard to find a day to spray copper. I did once In February but it didn’t work out too well. Anyway, I have to find a time to spray copper but weather is not on my side. Too rainy, too windy, too cold etc. how many days before 0.5 inch of rain should I spray copper for it to be effective? I don’t use sticker. Thanks.
You definitley need a sticker or neem oil or hort. Oil. Hort oil is probably the best way to since you’ll be spraying it very soon anyway. Hope this helps. Just wait for a sunny day and no wind.
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Nice thread.
Since bacterial canker is a thing where I live, I will do a fall spray.
The thing is though trees sometimes don’t ever drop all their leaves here. There is no reason I can’t just manually remove all the leaves before I spray?
I assume waiting until first freeze?
If anyone can recommend a retail copper product and ‘sticker’ it would be helpful to me and perhaps others.
Thanks
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Hi-Yield and Southern AG are two brands I have used.
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Liqui-Cop from Monterey Gardens.
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