I have 3 stonefruit trees in my yard (Saturn Peach, Summer Delight Aprium, and Hollywood Plum) that were planted in Spring 2020. Because the trees are so young, I haven’t yet developed a rigorous spray schedule, mostly because I didn’t know what they would need before they started fruiting. Before now, I had only experienced peach leaf curl on my saturn peach, so I had only sprayed a mix of neem oil and copper on my stonefruits sometime in late winter, before the flower buds opened.
Well, my summer delight aprium started fruiting for the first time this year, and I found out on the disease ID thread that it has brown rot. See: Insect and Disease Identification Thread - General Fruit Growing - Growing Fruit. In that thread, @mamuang let me know that I need to buy Indar to control the brown rot, but it seems that I can only find Indar in large quantities (for a large amount of money!).
I don’t think I need a whole gallon of Indar, and I was hoping someone might be able to sell me a smaller quantity? I live in the suburbs of Philly, if there’s anyone local, but I’d also be happy to pay for shipping if not.
Because I only have 3 stonefruit trees, and I prune them to keep them small (around 8 feet), it only took me 1 gallon of spray to cover all 3 trees when I did the neem/copper spray. I read in this forum that it only takes 1/4 tsp per gallon to spray Indar, so I think a pint (or even just a cup) would last me for a while. If anyone could sell me a pint (or even just a cup) of Indar, I’d appreciate it!
Can I use it on fruit trees, especially now that the apriums are already almost the size of a golf ball?
Pics from the disease ID thread for reference:
EDIT: I Just fount more information on infuse. l148.pdf (plytix.com). It says to NOT use on any fruit trees for one year before eating fruit. Has that been the common practice for people who use Infuse on their fruit trees? Or do people eat the fruit they spray with Infuse? Are there any ill-effects?
EDIT 2: I misread the label… I was looking at the information for non-bearing fruit trees. Sorry!
Is there any benefit to using this for brown rot? I was concerned that the apriums are already pretty big, but this says it can be used up to the day of harvest. But, I don’t want to use it if it’s not really beneficial.
If I still have my empty bottle of Infuse I’ll take a pic of the label. It definitely used to be labeled for fruit trees because we had a discussion about it stating “not to be used on Stanley-type prunes” but it was listed as ok for other plum/prunes.
Group buys for Indar happen from time to time on the forum. Keep an eye out for them or organize one youself.
Infuse that was recommended above is good idea. Some alternatives are Captan by itself, Captan mixed with Infuse, Captan mixed with Indar or Captan mixed with Immunox. If you do decide to add Captan be aware it requires acidic spray water.
I am pretty sure commercial peach growers use Captan at 1/2 the maximum rate mixed with Infuse (or a similar compound) or Captan at 1/2 the max rate mixed with Indar. Perhaps @Olpea could comment he grows peaches commercially.
@Ahmad Could you share your experiences with apricots and Captan burn? I know Captan is labelled for apricots and I remember an old forum thread that discussed the issue of burn. If I remember correctly most people had not experienced Captan burn on apricots but you were one of the unlucky ones which I am curious about the conditions you experienced burn.
I noticed this post of yours made about having problems with damage after spraying Captan with copper. Have you had burn after spraying Captan by itself?
I remember when I started out I was concerned with the risk of Captan burn on sweet cherries but I was reassured that it was rare by advice given on the forum. Here is the thread.
Before you ship any kind of chemical, look up the SDS sheet for the product in question. If section 14 says anything other than “Not Dangerous Goods” I would strongly advise against shipping it. The penalties for incorrectly shipoing dangerous goods are severe. Source: I used to ship dangerous goods professionally.
I use B.Amyloliquefaciens as an all purpose fungicide in my vegetable garden. It works nicely and I wouldn’t hesitate to give it a try before spraying harsh chemicals. Double the dose and mix a couple of teaspoons of un-sulphured molasses (dissolve in some warm water and pour into the tank), 1 Table spoon of hydroslyate (like Neptune harvest), 1/2 teaspoon of dish soap and spray every other day.
If brown rot pressure is high, it’s not unusual to tank mix a couple fungicides. Captan is a good all around fungicide for most stone fruit. I don’t grow apricots anymore, but my understanding is that Captan only has a negative reaction with the fruit of apricots (mostly once it gets close to harvest) not the foliage.
Early in the season, we use the full rate of Captan, Then we generally reduce the rate and add a DMI like propiconazole, or Indar. Once we get closer to harvest, we completely do away with captan and just use a DMI (Indar, etc.). If pressure is super high, we might use a combo premix like Inspire Super.
Thanks @olpea! Unfortunately, my apriums are already almost golfball sized, and are so I would likely not want to spray captan on them:
That picture is from the weekend, but I found maybe 5 or 6 more infected fruit yesterday. I picked them off and threw them away.
I could not find any small-scale-source of Indar, so I went ahead and purchased Bonide Infuse, which contains 1.55% propiconazole. It should arrive in the mail tomorrow, so I will spray as soon as I can after that (although it might not be until this weekend).
Given how big my Apriums already are, and that I have to wait 21 days to re-spray Infuse, I was not sure if I would be able to get a second spray of Infuse in before harvest (I’ve never harvested the apriums before, so I don’t know when they should ripen, and I can’t tell if they have the more than 42 days before harvest necessary for a 2nd Infuse spray). So, I also went ahead and also purchased some Bonide Revitalize, which is 98.85% Bacillus amyloliquefaciens strain D747, since it can be used up to the day of harvest. My thought ws that the Revitalize could supplement the Infuse, if necessary.
Questions:
Can I mix the Infuse and the Revitalize together in the same tank for the initial spray? Or, should I spray Infuse first, and follow up with Revitalize sometime after (and if I should wait, how long should I wait)?
Is there anything else that I could or should mix in the tank with either the Infuse, or the Revitalize, or both? Per @Oregon_Fruit_Grow’s advice above, I can add molases and dish soap to the Revitalize (I’m not sure yet what hydroslyate is, but I’m looking into it). I wasn’t sure if anything else would be helpful.
At home, I currently have Captain Jack’s Neem Max and Monterey Liqui-Cop, which are what I had used to spray for peach leaf curl back in late-February. Should either of those be mixed into any spray tanks with Infuse and/or Revitalize? Or should I do a separate spray of those? Or skip them as ineffective?
Although my saturn peach and hollywood plum do not yet show any signs of brown rot, should I go ahead and spray them too, at the same time(s) as the aprium, just in case?
Thanks so much for any advice or help! Brown rot is a new issue for me, so I hope I can tackle it in time to actually eat some apriums this year!
I see no use spraying Bacillus amyloliquefaciens if you’re spraying with chemicals. The chemical will kill the amyloliquefaciens instantly, it doesn’t differentiate good and bad pathogens.
Other option is to spray something like zerotol it’s hydrogen peroxide with peroxycetic acid which kills pathogens on contact. Yet safe for humans since it breaks down fast with day light. Your can probably make something similar with food grade hydrogen peroxide and vinegar. There is a recipe on this website if you search.
Ah, thanks for that info @Oregon_Fruit_Grow, for some reason I thought the Infuse would only kill fungi and not bacteria, but it makes sense it would kill both.
But, I can still use the Revitalize in my veggie garden and on my other fruits, so at least it won’t get wasted.
I’ll look into the zerotol, I hadn’t seen it mentioned before! Would that be something to use in addition to, or as a replacement for, either the Infuse or Revitalize?
I am not an expert in fruits but I have managed diseases in vegetable garden without using any synthetic products. If I were you, spray Zerotol late in the evening when the light is dimming and it has all night to act, this would control pathogen that is on the surface. Later in early morning before sun comes up I would spray revitalize concoction in double dose (with some molasses and you can exclude fish fertilizer if you find it smelly) and let it overwhelm the bad pathogen. Do this for a week and see the disease is under control before going to chemicals.
