Hi There,
Believe me, there are a lot of us here who have felt like giving up, one time or another. If growing fruit is not difficult, we would surely see people growing fruit instead of flowers
Most of us need to spray to get fruit, both fipungicide and insecticide. If you don’t mind soraying, you are on a good track. For spraying, it is both what to spray and when to spray. I choose a low impact spray sonit is more time consuming as it needs to be done more frequently.
In case you have not seen those options. I posted them here for you.
Yes. Timing is as important as what to spray. This spring it rained so often. When it did not rain, it was too windy to spray. My riming was quite off but as long as it will be dry 24 hours after spraying, I’ll do it.
Using sticker helps but I can’t use sticker whenever I spray Surround.
Struggles never end but don’t give up. You are not alone. We are here to help one another.
You mentioned earlier that you won’t spray dew soaked or rain soaked trees. I do it all the time because morning is the best time to spray and also because I need to spray at every opportunity in the small window- I just make the spray about 30% more concentrated (I’ll be using that much less material anyway). I also spray in very light rains when the radar shows it’s about to clear and when rain is coming in a couple of hours. An hour of good drying time to set is all that is needed for synthetic apps- I don’t know about surround.
I have been told by a commercial grower that it takes over a half inch of rain to lose protection even when it comes before the app sets and my experience has not contradicted this.
I think a lot of hobbyists are too reluctant to spray in imperfect conditions. Some seasons you just have to take what you can get.
My fruit trees aren’t in full production mode yet, so I can’t entirely relate to your issues. But, I feel like you when trying to grow vegetables, we had a storm blow through last night and damaged quite a few of ny tomato plants. It is quite frustrating to have to deal with so many factors when growing fruits or veggies- storms, heat, humidity, rain, insects, diseases, varmits like deer, squirrels, rabbits, it never seems to end. But, eventually we will get some fruit or veggies that’ll make it worth it.
I suppose Porter peaches are just getting into full swing now? Do you know if they ship any of their fruit to local stores for sale? My Mom lives nearby, and she’s coming to visit us soon, so I hope she can bring us some.
I’ve had to spray once a week since shuck split because of the rain, except for the last spray I’ve done which was 12 days from the prior spray. It’s just been so much rain, the insects are blooming. Other commercial producers around here have been spraying as often this year.
Around here we are forced to say, “It’s the pests or the pesticides.”
Yes Porter is in full swing. Been a good year for them. I need to make a trip out. They do sell them at Reasors stores locally but I don’t know about shipping. White cloud and Red Haven is what I’ve seen them post about being available right now.
They have quite a few varieties. They usually post on their Facebook page which varieties they are harvesting. I added cresthaven this year because sit was one of their only ones to keep fruit after last years late freeze (spring 2018). Seems like they don’t send any to the stores until later in summer.
Ive been teying to raise a few fruit trees,myself…just two each,of apple,pear, and peach. But the one pear tree is the only one of the six,that has produced well.
I had a problem with deformed fruit,last year,and asked a local pear grower what he did about it.
He said - nothing. He doesnt spray, or dust. He says the trees are stronger when they form their own natural defence. Good years,bad years will even out as the trees mature.
@Faygo look on google images under “deformed pear viruses”
… one of my prior great pear trees (at least 15 years old) now has this virus. I think i introduced it by grafting branched on to it.
I lost half of an old apricott tree, half of a 25 foot high monstrous Windsor cherry tree, all of a fantastic plum tree, and black knot all over another plum, all of another smaller sweet cherry tree.
It has been a very bad year.
I have it easy. Way too easy, no spraying (except dormant), squirrel, bird or significant pest problems. No rain here since May, none expected until October. It’s about location, location, location. I have a tiny urban orchard in Silicon Valley CA, once the prune growing capital of the world 100 years ago. Don’t give up!
I don’t KNOW WHY I was thinking of this commercial by Stan Freberg before tuning in to GrowingFruit.org: Today the pits. Tomorrow the wrinkles. Sunsweet marches on.
I don’t have near the pest pressures you guys do. Year after year of freeze outs and crop failures help a lot.
I’ve become a big believer in the tried and true. If you have the ability to reliably grow citrus, by all means do so. So what if it’s everywhere? Bet blood oranges aren’t everywhere. Kumquats are $3 a pound in the store and a truly excellent, low maintenance small landscape trees.
You can grow small fruit? By all means do so.
I suspect that if you get past the organic thing and settle on a planned spray schedule you can get into a not-too-difficult routine. If not, there’s still plenty to grow.
I feel this way every year but still keep trying. This is how my grapes look like after dormant Kocide 3000 sprays and immunox in the spring. I’ve decided to give up on grapes. No way to do it organically here. Even with immunox it’s just too many sprays.
Concord seems to work in CT. Plenty of edible grapes from neglected plantings in yards around here. Not perfect, but most of the fruit is good enough to eat and no one is taking care of them.
same here in Maine. my father grew them for decades with no spray. theres a old abandoned property that is so over run with grape vines it completely covered a 15ft. apple tree! i pick loads of fruit off it in early oct. makes great preserves!
Have you tried lime-sulfur? This worked well for me halting the rot right in it’s tracks. I did a dormant spray with oil in the fall, and in the spring I sprayed it without oil at lower doses and it worked. The dormant spray didn’t stop it, but one spray once it started did work. It may be a different fungus and not work for you.
Grow lower maintenance stuff… Stone fruit are one of the highest maintenance fruits Ive grown except I just dont spray etc, i may get into that one day but not for now… Share with the pests and focus on low maintenance trees… Yes citrus are much lower maintenance, i once grew a lot of them in Louisiana…
For the midwest the lowest maintenance stone fruit must be the pie cherry…
Other very low maintenance fruits that should do good in OK are cold hardy kaki persimmon like saijo, miss kim and the new hybrids, the colder hardy figs, mulberry, pears, che, cane fruits, jujube, and i am hoping the disease resistant types of apples prove ok…
