After that crazy so called 70F"winter" and so called 14F “spring” we finally getting to the more up to the season weather. But nothing comes for free - it comes with rain. Only dry window I see in the forecast will be just 3 days long.
I need to prune grapes, peach, gooseberries, currants and spray all above plus sour cherries, plum, apple and apricot. Is 3 dry days enough of a dry window to do that?
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Sure. In our are there is a saying. Get-ur-done
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I probably stated my question incorrectly 
. I can do it in one day. But is 2 dry days after that enough to make sure pruning will not make disease situation worse and spraying will not be useless washed down by rain?
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Galina,
Re. Spraying, once the chemical you spray dry, it should be OK. Light rain does not hurt it. If it is heavy, downpour rain, you have to re-spray. Using sticker will help chemicals stay on longer and withstand rain better.
Pruning, people with large orchards, lot of trees cannot wait for a better time to prune. They prune when they can. For backyard growers with not many trees like us, you don’t have to get everything done all at once. You can try to do it at the " right" time. Apple pruning in late winter/early spring helps shape your trees, stimulate growth. Summer prunig helps calm the trees down and creat fruit spurs for the next season.
Peaches can be pruned even when they are in blooms. Cherries are recommended to prune in the summer to avoid wet spring which would invite more diseases, etc., etc…
i agree that we should avoid pruning if rain or wet weather is expected. We are small time, backyard growers, we can afford to wait to prune if needed.
On the other hand, don’t wait for a “right” time to spray. It hardly ever exist 
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Yeah, I figured it out 
! Thanks !
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This small-time backyard grower has a job and he sprays and prunes whenever it will fit in, optimal or not. Pruning in the rain? Sure! Its a glorious feeling! Spraying with a headlamp at 11PM? Why not?
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I am still feeling I am giving wrong impressions by my comments. I mean - is it OK for TREES, not for me, to be pruned in rain? For the spraying, I already got answer googling - 24 hours before it rains is enough. For the headlight - I am totally on board!. 
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@scottfsmith,
I don’t have a lot of trees so I usually wait to prune.
I do take days off from work to spray. My boss often laughs hearing that.
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I manage many, many non-commercial orchards and occasionally small commercial ones. I am not aware of any research that indicates pruning shortly before or even during rain is hazardous to trees, although during fire blight season it would logically be a danger to susceptible varieties and should be avoided. But you are a long ways from FB season.
After 25 years of spending half of my working hours pruning fruit trees- sometimes in rain, sometimes even in a blizzard- I’ve never experienced any related problems to pruning wounds exposed to rain. I’ve been doing this in more or less your region. Of course trees are going to be resistant to infection in the rain- when do most big limbs get snapped off of them?
I would also agree with most of what Mamuang was saying as far as pruning goes- even if things have dropped their petals you can still prune- it will only reduce vigor of trees somewhat. There is virtually no time in the seasons that is inherently bad for pruning even if that is not what I was taught in hort-school.
How much drying is needed for pesticides? I’ve had half an inch fall immediately after app (no drying time at all) and still gotten protection (several times)- a commercial grower told me long ago not to worry about half an inch or less. In good drying conditions, sprays can actually set in about an hour and I never respray for any rains that come after spraying, unless there is a real downpour immediately after. This grower is second generation and loves to put down Captan when it is drizzling- claims it helps spread it.
When you spray around 100 orchards with a reduced spray (number of applications) program you can’t afford to be excessively careful, or it would drive up prices terribly. You also can’t afford to lose control to insects or pathogens.
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Alan, thanks a lot! You just made my day! I am going out for pruning and spraying tomorrow! There should be some good windows between rains. Though I first will need to shovel some snow from bellow my peach tree to be able to spray all the way to the ground
I don’t need to spray until April. The weather is too depressing right now.
Let’s hope it stays depressing, if that includes cool. I think most buds here are still vital and a typical arrival of spring would be extremely welcome. I hope oil spray will be about mid-April. Last year it wasn’t much past mid-March.
Actually, it feels great to be out! I come out for an hour after work second day in a row - haven’t been that happy whole winter long. Pruned my concord grapes, apple tree(ha-ha, two pencil thick twigs), pruned and espaliered my gooseberries. Snow is still on the ground, but it is already working spring atmosphere! Tomorrow I am planning to prune peach tree, Reliance grape, black current and do some spraying. If weather permits I may start to prepare new sites for apple tree and persimmon.
I have to be on the road almost everyday. I think earlier this week I almost got blown off a sidewalk, so windy. I am not cold tolerant
At this point, I am working on sharpening blades of my grafting knives and pruning shears. Need to find my sprayer, too.
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Alan,
I wrote “Cherries are recommended to prune in the summer to avoid wet spring which would invite more diseases, etc.,”
I’ve read that a few times on various sources.I know you like to see research papers on it but sorry I can’t remember where I read it.
In this Michigan State’s web page about cherry pruning; http://msue.anr.msu.edu/topic/cherries/horticulture/pruning_and_training
The last item titled: “Things to Think About When Pruning Sweet Cherries on Gisela rootstocks”. It says to prune when dry weather is forecast. Anyway, you are the expert. I surely am not.
You are right, summer pruning of cherries is recommended where canker is a big problem, and I’ve actually started primarily pruning cherries in summer, even though I’ve dormant pruned them here in the northeast, often very aggressively, for decades, without any canker problems to speak of. The reason I’ve switched to summer is that it works better for controlling size and creating more small bearing wood, even on free standing Gisela rootstocks. It is also a good time to remove excessive flower buds on varieties that over bear.
Yesterday afternoon I did my first Summer pruning ever (3rd leaf for most of my trees) and 8 hours later it was pouring down…first rain in over two months (im)perfect timing. Thanks to this post, (especially Alan) I am attempting to:
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At least your neighbors that wanted rain can thank you for providing the incentive.
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