I am quite frustratedly with my Romance cherries. After finally controlling leaf spot and brown rot, they all got fruit fly worms. I plan to spray with Spinosad this year after the petals fall, trying to stay organic when possible. Will this work? Should I mix in Surround also? I have about 15 or 20 bushes, 8’ tall, but have yet to get a usable crop, just many gallons of spoiled cherries. So far they are just reaching full bloom. The Juliets bloom first , then CJs, then Romeos. The wowza has its first blossoms this year. I also have a dozen or so hummingbird feeders in my orchards to eat SWDs.
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i dont like hearing this. mine just started fruiting last year. i have sprayed fungicide and copper but no pesticide yet. i guess i better!
I think you will want to spray Surround. I believe spinosad is mainly effective on insects that chew on the fruit and leaves of your plants. It’s less effective on insects that just lay eggs in the fruit.
If your going to spray Surround I think it would be worth it to buy a sprayer with a built in agitator since the Surround tends to settle over time. Also some people pre-mix the Surround with water and pour it thru a strainer into their sprayer to help prevent nozzle plugging while spraying. One person mixes the Surround in a 5 gallon bucket with a drill that has a paint mixer attachment and finds that works well.
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Spinosad is good for cherry fruit fly. I never had any and it is probably due to the spinosad.
I didn’t spay my romance cherries for a few years but they started to get rots so they are now on the usual spray treatment. They don’t get as thorough a spray though.
@mroot I think it is Bt you are thinking of for chewing insects.
Spinosad can kill insects on contact.
So do I need both Surround and Spinosad, or is the Spinosad with Nufilm enough. I have both on hand
I got hit with the SWD last year for the 1st time in 20 years. Got both trees - ruined all the fruit. This year I’ve set up traps and plan on spraying Spinosad as soon as the cherries start to turn color.
You could spray spinosad only or Surround only or both. You lost 100% of your cherry crop last year right? It seems you insect pressure is high and because it is I would be aggressive and use both. If you’re successful this year you could then go to a single one either spinosad or Surround or reduce the number of sprays once you have a better understanding of how effective your spraying is.
@scottfsmith I was thinking of this reference when talking about reduced effectiveness of spinosad by contact vs ingestion.
https://wegmansnursery.com/care-guides/general-information/spinosad.html
“Spinosad is active by ingestion and contact. Control via ingestion is 5-10 times more effective than by contact. SpinoSpinosad sad works by paralyzing the insect which stops feeding within minutes. These insects may remain on the plant for up to two days.”
If you do Surround and Spinosad, do NOT add Nufilm in the mix.
You can do Spinosad with Nufilm.
I agree that if you have heavy pressure use both Surround and spinosad. I am applying Surround all spring on my cherries for curculio control anyways (I used to not spray the cherries with Surround, but then the curcs would all migrate to the cherries and I got tons of damage; same with pears, now everything gets Surround-ed).
Scott, does your recommendation for surround apply to Bush cherries and Nanking cherries?
I don’t have any real cherries.
I do have a number of young Bush cherries and some Nanking cherries. Last year they had half a dozen very nice fruit. This year they are loaded with hundreds of fruit.In my orchard I had Several apricot fruit which were tiny, less than dime sized and green. And they all got semi lunar shaped incision from Curculio 
Before I got a chance to put down surround. I removed all the affected fruit, which was all my fruit on the apricot.But I’m worried that my bush cherries maybe attacked
I would watch them and see. Sometimes the curc stays off the cherries. I had a few on my bush cherries though so they get some spray… not a lot but enough to let the curc know she is not welcome there.
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