Hello fruit-growing Friends! I’m new here and looking for advice on dealing with scale infestation in my pluot and pear trees.
6yrs ago we bought our home with an established orchard, the trees were neglected and in a state of decline due to older owners who basically only watered to keep things alive for several years - but everything has been greatly improving since taking over, such as not really seeing any more fire blight show up in the trees - yay!
This year there seems to be a lot of scale in multiple trees compared to previous years, enough that I’m concerned. What I’m seeing this year are high concentrations of very small scale bugs on the ends of branches, I don’t know what type but visually it’s similar to pics online of ‘oystershell scale’. Not sure if it’s the same type of scale, but there’s also much larger scale bugs that have the shiny protective shell around 1/8" diameter. The smaller scale is in a Dapple Dandy pluot, on a Fuji apple, and on a D’Anjou pear; the larger shiny scale is on the same Dapple Dandy and the D’Anjou only for the most part. Oddly, adjacent trees don’t have any scale on them.
I only spray the fruit trees in dormancy, using Bonide copper, Bonide all seasons horticultural oil, and a dash of soap - three sprayings, one at leaf drop, middle winter, last one I try to time just before buds break open. I don’t really spray anything else on the trees.
Though I read it’s not recommended on edible crops, 3yrs ago I did use Bonide Systemic Insecticide on our Dapple Dandy pluot tree - mainly because it had what I believe are plum gall mites in addition to scale. The systemic did seem to do something, as there were much less galling and it seemed to knock down the scale populations a bit. My inlaws also have a very large Dapple Dandy that suffers from scale infestation, so I need to deal with that one too as my MIL is ready to cut it down because of scale; I want to save it because it’s at least 20yrs old and makes giant pluots that are delicious.
So yeah - advice on dealing with scale?
I’m guessing I’ve missed the Spring time spraying to help deal with them, and the next opportunity is sometime later in August/September? Was going to try using Tanglefoot this year and see if controlling ants has any results. Anything else to try?
Thanks!
