I’m in the ‘not’ camp.
Maybe I would use oil. But am too lazy and too busy with other things to screw around. If a tree won’t produce unless sprayed, I cut it down.
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I am in the NO spray camp. I only grow figs, kumquat, blueberries, Pears (for the squirrels), and sweet lemons. All my fruit trees have been eliminated
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I’m not interested in spraying. I’m willing to put forth the work to remove any rotten fruits and bury them four feet deep so that the coddling moth and apple maggot populations don’t build up too high. I’m also willing to eat the imperfect fruits: I cut out the wormy bits and slice up the rest to eat.
I figure as long as I practice good orchard hygiene like that, the pest bug populations will never have the chance to get too high. And as long as I don’t spray, the predatory bug populations can build up enough to keep the pest populations reasonably in check.
If I ever wind up with a particular tree or bush or something that seems to do nothing but attract bugs and never gives me a worthwhile harvest, I will remove it and replace it with something that seems more promising to me.
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My orchard is too young to tell how things are going to play out for me but I am no-spray and growing like 90+ apple varieties, asian pears, euro pears, persimmons, jujube, mulberry, loads of different berries, sour cherry, and letting the chips fall where they may. If it doesn’t survive I will remove it. I live in VA and see wild apple trees all the time growing just fine with no maintenance, tasty fruit, minimal bug damage that can simply be eaten around. If I can get a few things like that I’ll be content.
I also wonder sometimes if having a full size tree with full root system is part of the reason those “wild” trees are able to fight off problems. I grafted one of them from a friends pasture, over 100 years old, to a dwarf rootstock and its the ONLY tree I’ve had fireblight on haha! Who knows, I just know you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.
Additionally, I wonder if spraying trees actually weakens their defense system - just like humans who aren’t exposed to pathogens young and develop antibodies etc. If we are always codling everything we’ll never let nature make them strong, or weed out the weak. Just my two cents.
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I do not spray any fruiting trees or shrubs.
We never sprayed any of our feed or forage crops while growing up on the beef farm, and I intend to carry that quality forward in life.
If it will not survive without that intervention, I don’t need it.
Yes. In upstate NY, you can’t grow decent apples or stone fruit long term without spraying. I try to minimize my spraying to surround, spinosad and will add propiconazole to my stone fruit as brown rot seems to be a major issue here.
I don’t spray my blueberries, raspberries, strawberries and will still get good fruit. Asian pears will probably give me a decent yield even without spraying though likely not the others. I’m sure I could get persimmons and pawpaws without spraying but I don’t like them as much.
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Would not have an edible apple or peach without spraying in south AR. We do grow figs, muscadines, and blackberries without spraying
I’m 8 miles from the Pacific coast in California’s southernmost county, zone 10b. We only have a few days in winter when the predawn temperatures drop into the upper 30’s. Many varieties of pests are active here year-round. In addition, there are many different species of plants cultivated by residents here and so the pest pressure is high.
I have several kinds of fruit growing in-ground. The walnut and pears only need treatment for bacterial disease. The peach is the only Prunus requiring dormant spray. I rarely have to spray the other Prunus. About once per year I’ll spray my apples for emerging colonies of aphids. The pomegranate, mango, white sapote, blackberries, figs, dragon fruit, and ornamental roses require fungal treatments. Thrips are problematic with white sapote and camillias. White-fly will invade the blueberries and gardenia in the summer. The Citrus are pest-intensive year-round. The avocado, bananas, pineapples, mulberries, and fruiting myrtles are pest-free.
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I went into this saying “no” to any synthetics/anything designed to wipe out microbes and “Yes” to biofungicides, compost tea, oil and surround. To take the approach with the ecosystem that I take with the body: build up a balance and that system should sustain itself. That said, I haven’t read anything to say that the biofungicides don’t skew the microbiome on the plant in a way that might turn out to be negative. I find it hard to believe that pumping one microbe into an area only decreases unwanted microbes…but, I’m trying it. Also, I think this approach works when what you are planting is a natural part of the landscape or well mimics something that is. Given that a lot of the edibles I’ve planted are NOT supposed to be here, I don’t expect pretty or clean fruit and do expects failures. I just hope to be able to get enough to make the trees worth the space, try varieties of favorite fruits when we’ve only had grocery store standards, to ease dependence on the grocery store and create of space of wonder and learning. I have been firm with myself that problem “children” will be removed and as such, have a plan B, C and sometimes D for most things/areas I’ve planted. Too little space and time to waste on disease or bug magnets. Ask me in 10 years how it went. I’m new.
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That’s interesting, I didn’t realize you had much of any fungal issues. Is it the proximity to the coast?
@Eme
It depends on the plant 
.
- pomegranate - primarily a coastal effect.
- mango - spraying is also required in Miami, but not in southern India.
- white sapote, citrus - they exude a defensive compound on their leaves which is a great substrate for certain fungi native to western states.
- blackberries - prone to a systemic fungus (nationwide) that flourishes in Rubus here.
- figs - I am treating for fig bud & leaf mites and the fungal diseases they propagate.
- dragon fruit - they are prone to a systemic fungus native to North and Central America, which is hosted by other species, including our native Artemisias.
- ornamental roses - the coastal effect magnifies their susceptibility.
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I am doing a minimal spray schedule for fruit trees. i do nto spray my brambles, roses, or shrubs generally.
I dont intend to spray my persimmon, paw paws, asian pear, mulberry, or figs. I dont have any fig mites right now but if I get them they’ll i’ll do a sulfur spray.
For my apples, cherries, service berry, peach this is my plan:
| Timing | Fungicide spray | Insect spray |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-bloom | Myclobutanil | 1% horticultural oil |
| Petal fall | Captan + myclobutanil | Surround (every 10 days x 3) |
| 2 weeks later | Captan + Infuse (stone fruit) OR Captan + myclobutanil (apple/serviceberry) | Surround (2nd spray) |
| ~10 days later | Surround (3rd spray) | |
| July | Captan + Infuse (stone fruit) |
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Sounds like we deal with similar pests. Can you combine infuse and surround in the same sprayer ?
Full disclosure, i havent done it yet this is just what i worked out through research and talking with alan. Starting on the low side and will add more as needed for sprays
as far as i can tell, yes:
Compatibility: Most other insecticides, miticides, and fungicides do not generally affect Surround® WP. However, the user should test tank-mixes before use. When mixing with other products, make up a small batch and observe slurry and film characteristics. Curdling, precipitation, lack of film formation, or changes in viscosity are signs of incompatibility. Do not tank-mix with sulfur or Bordeaux mixture fungicides. Always add tank-mix pesticides after the Surround® WP powder has been added. Use of anti-foaming agents is not recommended. Do not tank-mix with other mineral particulate products like diatomaceous earth. Applications of Surround WP over such products or over-sprays of such products over Surround® WP are not recommended, as post-harvest wash-off may be impaired.
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I’ve been told by several people in my city, “I used to have a peach tree, and it was wonderful, and then some kind of bug killed it.” I eventually learned that was the peachtree borer. So I was originally very concerned about planting peach trees, even though they grow extremely well here.
Then I had a conversation with Joseph Lofthouse. He pointed out that peach trees are pretty short-lived by nature — dying at about seven years old isn’t uncommon, usually because of pests — and also very precocious, with most starting to bear fruit within three years from seed. So he recommended embracing the short-lived nature of peach trees and just always having two populations: the current ones that are bearing, and the seedlings from them that are currently growing up to replace them. That way, even if older trees die, the next generation will be all ready to step into their role.
An additional benefit to that approach is that it greatly raises the chances of finding trees that are resistant to whatever your local pests and diseases are. And even if you want to keep on having the same named varieties, you can always take scionwood from your older trees and use the seedlings as rootstocks.
So I thought that was a nifty idea, a really neat alternative to fighting the pests. Especially for growers who really like starting trees from seeds anyway. 
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If I want any type of decent apple, peach, or pear in my orchard I HAVE to spray. I used a different spray one year , new company spray, and it was horrible. I had no fruit worth using. I just stopped spraying the fruit because it was so eaten up by bugs. It was a lesson learned. “ spray or no fruit”
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Beautifully said! This is precisely my goal too 
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I’d lose every single plum to curculio if I didn’t spray for it. The curc even does major damage to apples here, and I’ve got CAR for what survives the curc. CAR does major damage to pears too.
My peaches get shothole so bad I’d get no fruit there either. You might be able to go no spray in VA if you carefully curate what you plant, but I want stone fruit.
This isn’t theoretical either, as this is exactly what happened before I started spraying. And no amount of spray made cherries work for me. Maybe copper could have stopped the late shothole, but EVERY cherry cracked and rotted.
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If you would never spray,then you could never grow peaches..at least not where I’m at.
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I don’t think it’s a bad idea to have multiple peach trees as backups but I don’t think only 7 years is a normal life expectancy for peaches. The peachtree borer is native to the eastern USA and Canada and naturally feeds on wild plums and cherries so it’s possible that peach trees just have poor defense against it and succumb earlier.
They are a pretty bothersome pest IME. I have 2 young trees and one I already removed a couple of larvae and the other one I see the frass and gum but haven’t been able to locate the larvae.
Scott has recommended painting the trunk with neem oil so I will be doing that this year.