Good morning. I am very new to growing anything. I have been using a copper spray by Bonide the past 6 weeks, spraying every 10 days and after rains. I have extreme pest pressure so I mix in a little malathion. Nothing is going to fruit this year.
Is this one way to spray? What do you do?
Where are you located. Copper is fungicide. It is not insecticide. Most fruit trees have issues with both diseases and pests. How much pressure depends on where you live. If you include your state and county, others will have a better idea what you are facing.
There are two tutorials on spraying in Guide
A low spray, mostly organic by Scott.
An a synthetic spray by Alan.
For new fruit growers, there is a lot to lesson. Start by reading topics relevant to your fruit trees will help you a great deal.
I want to bring up something about copper most people dont bring up, which is that it is a heavy metal. I think you’re going to get too much exposure to copper doing what you are doing using it as an anti bacterial spray. If your doing that because it is organic consider another thing like sulphur instead. Consider orchardist used lead arsenic for years which we know is very bad. Copper is something i would limit to spraying twice a year at the most. There are better alternatives. Copper is very effective once in the spring pre bloom against fireblight.
Thank you, Clark. I wondered that. Can the sulfur be mixed and sprayed?
My use is as an anti fungal. Hadn’t thought of bacterial.
I’m going to let @scottfsmith @mamuang give you some more great tips on organic fungicide management. My pears can be grown spray free. Yes sulphar can be sprayed on as a fungicide. In early spring pre bloom copper is a great treatment for blossom blast and fireblight before it gets started. Copper is very good at slowing down bacteria such ss these. One thing i ask from you if it is possible. We would benefit greatly from pictures of the problems your having or if your having no problems and your spraying as a preventive please show us photos of your trees so we can help out more.
Sure. Photos, of course, when I run into problems. Right now it’s preventative.
Plum, pear, apple, there’s two peach in an overgrown area I’m going to try and save, and grapes.
That’s 16 total trees and 8 grapes. Also 3 American Persimmon.
If sulfur is going to be sprayed,use the micronized type.The regular kind,will clog the tip.
I would stop spraying the copper, it has limited effectiveness. I only use it for certain diseases, fireblight on apples and bacterial spot on stone fruits. It’s not all that useful on many other diseases and it can build up in the soil over time. I used to spray a lot of sulphur, it can be sprayed frequently and in fact it needs to as it is very weak in its power. But if your trees are not fruiting they probably don’t even need it… it also only helps with a few diseases. Young apples can get CAR and scab on their leaves before they fruit, and neither copper nor sulphur is a big help there… but sulphur does help early in the season for scab if sprayed around every rain event. Once the scab is out there is no more reason to spray, it’s too late. So from now on there isn’t really any reason I can think of to spray sulphur on trees that are not fruiting.