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.
People in the west coast can get away with mostly organic and/or much milder chemicals to combat pests and diseases.
It is much harder in the east coast, if not impossible.
My thinking is this, if @scottfsmith has difficulty controlling brown rot organically in MD, I don’t have a chance to do it organically. I have grown fruit trees organically and with minimal spray for my first 5-6 years. It was a losing battle.
I’m planning to spray the infuse soon, I just wasn’t sure if it would be helpful to spray anything else in addition to the Infuse (either in the same tank or in sequence), since I might only have enough time to get one infuse spray done before harvest.
Usually by the time you spray for brown rot, you will need to spray pesticide, too.
People have different opinions and preferences of chemicals they use. I use the new Sevin with zeta-cypermethrin as ingredient, not cabaryl. You can mix them in the same tank.
Use sticker/spreader like Bonide Turbo helps chemical sticks to plants surface longer.
Here are my notes from May 15, 2018 when I applied the spray and started seeing injury the following day: “Temperature in the seventies and it has been raining for the past two days and rain is forcasted for the next 10 days with temperatures ranging in the 60’s-80’s, so I prophylactically sprayed all fruit trees with a mixture of Cu Octanoate (2 Tbsp/gal), propioconazole, Bonide Tree mix (Sevin, Malathion & Captan) and Nufilm. Main targets for spray are Bacterial Spot, Brown Rot and OFM. N.B. No symptoms for any of these pests have been observed so far.”
Captan was there unintentionally, I needed the insecticide that was premixed with it. Infuse was the main fungicide that I added for Brown Rot. Copper was in the mix, and could have contributed to the apricot fruit injury. The main reason I attributed it to Captan are cautionary statements from the University of California about spraying captan on apricot fruits, see the link below:
I picked the single Summer Delight fruit on my tree last year on Sep 15, and it was slightly under ripe. So for you, I would expect the fruits to ripen some time in the first half of September.
For future reference I would suggest you investigate a KNF ( Korean Natural Farming ) practitioner in your area and obtain a JADAM remedy JWA + JS that will deal to Blackspot completely. It is an organic preparation that can be sprayed on your trees as a preventative, or if infected, a stronger solution will stop any further infestation. It is safe to use and fruit can be eaten immediately with no witholding time.
Regrettably I am not in your area otherwise you could have had a litre at no cost to you. It is very cheap to make.
I’m not sure about that, but my guess is that’s it’s probably OK to mix. Some compounds are both bactericides and fungicides, but some are either or. For example something like oxytetracycline will treat bacterial spot, but has no effect on fungal pathogens.
My gut feeling is that group 3 DMI fungicides will have no effect on bacteria. I say this because humans use group 3 azole fungicides for various fungal infections, and to my knowledge they have no affect on bacterial pathogens.
But I couldn’t find any research from a quick internet search, so combine the two at your own risk.
I’ve little experience with biopesticides, but some dish soap contains anti-bacterials. At one time I used some recommended home concoctions (when I had a backyard orchard only). I recall one concoction burned the leaves.
If you want something additional for brown rot for apricots, you could consider Elevate. It’s expensive per acre, so I haven’t used it much. But it’s fairly cheap for a 2 lb package, something a little over $110 currently from Keystone. The rate is 1.5 lbs. per acre so it’s too expensive to spray on multiple acres. But for a home orchard, it’s probably a good option. Scott Smith has mentioned he has used it on his home orchard.
You could also consider Topsin-M. It’s cheap and effective, assuming the strain of M. fructicola you have is not resistant to it. I would not use Topsin by itself, even in a home orchard, Normally home orchards don’t have to worry about developing resistance issues, but apparently it is very easy for fungal pathogens to develop resistance to this compound. That’s why I would recommend tank mixing Topsin with a different class of fungicide (like your propiconazole).
Copper is fairly phytotoxic to most foliage, except at very low rates, so I wouldn’t use that. I’ve not used neem oil, so I don’t know about that. Oil by nature can be phytotoxic to foliage, so I would use caution, unless the label says it’s OK.
You can. We spray for scab anyway, which also gives us some early knock down of M. Fructicola. Most of the time, if you are just spraying for brown rot, you spray closer to harvest. The caveat is that since you are having such big issues w/ brown rot on your apricots, you may want to try to get ahead of the disease on your peaches/plums which may indicate some early sprays for it. I suppose if yours was my home orchard, I would probably spray the peaches/plums along with the apricots.
!
I did not expect that, given how big the apriums already are. For example, my saturn peaches are maybe dime-nickel sized, and they’ll ripen sometime mid-july to early-august here. I had assumed that the apriums would be much earlier since they are so much bigger.
It’s maturity date in CA Central Valley is July 25-Aug 5, Philadelphia has to be at least 2-3 weeks later. When I lived in Wilmington, DE, fruits used to ripen for me about one month later than Dave Wilson’s maturity dates.
Call it a hype if you like, but you will never know the effects until you try it. Being an organic grower I never use fertilisers or ‘cides’. I ‘did’ have the occasional problems with outbursts of pests and diseases due to the weather, but these were infrequent, - and a nuisance more than anything. If you investigate JADAM and can dispense with his philosophy and concentrate on the remedies, I believe you are in for a pleasant surprise.
CAVEAT. Keep strictly to the formulation and application rates. To diverge is to invite failure.
