Never sprayed orchard before, have apples, peaches, pears, sweet & sour cherries, plums, grapes. Had some fire blight on apples & pears. Fruit usually has defects? Want to start spraying regimen. Live in zone 6 (WV). Know I need to spray in fall, then in late winter/ early spring when dormant before buds swell, then again. What I need to know what do I need to buy? Recommend brands and when to use what? You said you wouldn’t recommend Bonide? What do you recommend. Thanks. Connie
Never sprayed orchard before, have apples, peaches, pears, sweet & sour cherries, plums, grapes. Had some fire blight on apples & pears. Fruit usually has defects? Want to start spraying regimen. Live in zone 6 (WV). Know I need to spray in fall, then in late winter/ early spring when dormant before buds swell, then again. What I need to know what do I need to buy? Recommend brands and when to use what? You said you wouldn’t recommend Bonide? What do you recommend. Thanks. Connie
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On Feb 22, 2019, at 5:37 PM, Andrew Fignar via Growing Fruit <noreply@growingfruit.org>
Nothing wrong with Bonide as a brand, but when you use a mixed product, you end up with products you may not need.
Fireblight is best controlled with pruning and streptomycin while the trees are in bloom.
Peaches need a dormant spray of copper. Stone fruit and grapes need prevention of rots closer to harvest
Insect pests need to be sprayed when the fruit is developing, depending on the pests you have.
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I think I meant Bonide’s one product called “Fruit Tree Spray”. Their other products are very good. Actually even this one is fine,if used before fruit is mature. I don’t grow apples or deal with fire blight so I can’t help there.
Does any of you fruit rot and fall off? Worms in the fruit? Both?
If you have both a simple program would be to us Bonide Fruit tree and Plant guard every 14 days starting after petal fall. For dormant sprays use Kocide copper and refer to this sites Spray Amounts guide,
If you still have insect pressure you can add another spray 7 days after you use plant guard, use Malathion or Sevin, Sevin is easier to work with. Follow label instructions and how many times you are allowed to spray in a season. That should help you. My sprays include a 2nd fungicide and are rather complex. I keep a log of all sprays.
It’s also important to use a sticker and Nu Film is excellent. You should be using acidified water too. Add a tablespoon of vinegar. First put water in, then vinegar, then whatever pesticides, then the sticker. Always in that order. Keep a log of sprays. Here is a sample of my log.
2018 03 17 Sprayed Kocide copper 2tbsp/gallon with Nu Film 17 sticker.
2018 04 22 Plant Guard (4tbs) can be used every 14 days 4 sprays left (Nu Film is used in all applications)
2018 05 18 Infuse (2tbs) 3 sprays left, and Fruit Tree Spray (2.5 tbs) 21 days 2 sprays left
2018 05 24 first PC strikes (plum curculio beetle)
2018 05 24 Ortho Flower, fruit, and vegetable (3 tbs) extra for trees because of bad PC. need to find something else.
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You have fruit trees that will need spraying to protect against diseases and insects. Like @ltilton mentioned, some spray is done at a dirnant stage, some at an active frowing stage.
On the upper right hand corner of the page, you will see a symbol of a looking glass. That is the search function. Put in key words like “spray for peaches” , “spray for plums”, etc. Many threads on these topics will show up for you to peruse. People ask these questions all the times.
It may be overwhelmed at first. After a while you will get a hang of it.
I think @speedster1 also lives in WV. His advice would be most applicable to your climate.
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Also, if you look in the Reference section and the Guides section, there is some good information in there about what to spray, when to spray it, and where to get it.
Here is a post from the reference section on where you may be able to get supplies (including sprays).
Here is Scott’s low impact spray schedule.
Here is Alan’s low impact spray schedule.
As Tippy mentioned, there are lots of other spray schedules people use, which can be found using the search function. Also as Tippy alluded your best bet for knowing what pests are most problematic in your locale, and how to deal with them are other members in your area.
@speedster1
@thecityman is in TN which is probably a similar enough climate to be helpful to you.
@blueberrythrill is in NC
@subdood_ky_z6b is in KY
@Hillbillyhort is in WV
@SpudDaddy is in VA
@BlueBerry is in KY
I’m sure there are others close by which I can’t think of right now and left out.
Continue to watch this thread. I imagine some of the people pinged will post info about the pests they deal with and their spray schedules.
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Thanks to everyone for advice. I have over 30 fruit trees ranging from 40 yrs to 1, 13 of which are 3 yr old espaliers I started. Never really sprayed before. So I’m a newbie to spraying, pruning etc. One thing I’m reading is don’t combine copper & sulfur in same tank to minimize risk of damage to tree bark. Does this mean I can’t use the same tank… that I need one for copper and one for sulfur or just don’t mix them together in an application? Thanks
If spray when trees are dornant, it should be fine.
This. Clean tank well between sprays and do it right after finished. I use copper in the spring, and sulfur in the fall. Sulfur is nice as it is low impact. Our advice is a general guide. Only you can determine what works for you. The pH is important and should not be skipped. Often not mentioned. Some sprays don’t like acid, but none I mentioned need to be alkaline. Why is it important? We the half-life of the pesticide is greatly increased. Such as malathion in basic alkaline water is effective for about an hour. In a acidic solution of 5.0 it is effective for 30 hours. This could be the difference between failure and success.
I live in Northern WV but I’m far from an expert. I grow many of the same fruit as you. My biggest spray concern is for PC. When I started my orchard I mainly used mainstream pesticides and fungicides suck as Triazicide and Bonide sprays. I found Triazicide was not effective at all. I bought Infuse for brown rot and Imidan for PC control this past summer so looking forward to seeing how effective it is this spring. My other big pest is Japanese beetles which I’ve controlled partially with carbyl but I hate to use it because it kills beneficial. Last fall I put down milky spore so I will see this summer if it helped.
My spray routine is pretty generic. Like many, I like to spray copper or sulfur in the fall when the trees go dormant. I also have sprayed copper and dormant oil around Valentine’s day. I’ve not had any problems with PLC so I didn’t bother this year.
Only one small bit of fire blight a few years ago on an Asian pear. Nothing since.
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With Japanese beetles I added the new BT strain of bacteria and within a few years they went from 700 to 7 last year. I also spread crab shells around to attract chitin eating bacteria which parasitize grubs. We will see if this holds up in the forthcoming years.
You can wash out your tanks.
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I have not had any issues with Bonide products for the last 4 years I been using them. Just my 2 cents worth. I do wash out my tanks with a tank cleaning solution each time and only use certain products in different tanks just to be safe and no have a possible issue of cross contamination , even with the fact I clean my tanks out. One cross mess up and you have the possibility of burning your fruit. IMO. Better safe than ruining a whole years worth of fruit.
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Is there a special tank cleaning solution or make your own? Or just soap (Dawn) & water?
I don’t recall having ever used Bonide Fruit Tree Spray.
I will give this testimonial: I killed an entire lawn so we could start over with seed and straw two years ago.
I intentionally tried 4 products side by side in the same yard…using dye in the sprayer to see where each was.
Glyphosate was the chemical of choice in this case.
I got better kill out of Bonide grass killer than Roundup, Spectracide, or the other one that I’ve forgotten already. (Part of what was being killed was nutsedge and crabgrass, along with lawn grasses and a few scattered weeds.)
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I think they make a spray tank cleaner. I have used it for three years now. Put the solution in with water, let it sit for 15 minutes then empty. I put some pressure in the tank and spray the solution through the wand and nozzle as well. So far so good.
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Only trouble I have noticed using Dawn is that the soap foam takes many, many cycles of rinsing to get it all to run clear. Plus I think they have changed the formula in the last few years. I notice to get the same cleaning done I have to use a lot more of their liquid.
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I wonder if the He soaps would work better - they’re made to be low-suds
They have taken the phosphates out of all the soaps so they are a lot less foam than they were before. I just know that even to clean certain things with Dawn I have to use a lot more liquid. Probably X 2. We used it in the fire service to clean a lot of our items and it was great. Just now the amount we use is crazy high.
Monterey Lg1140 Spray Tank Cleaner, 1 Pt is what I use to clean out my spraying tanks. It has been working for me the last few years. I do not use Dawn because I feel if there is residue left over it may effect the chemicals I am putting in the tank to use next. Maybe that is something I should not worry about but in my mind it makes sense.
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