Hello everyone, I’m new to the forum and was brought here by someone’s recommendation on Houzz.
I have the two trees listed in the title and am seeking advice for a spray program. I want to minimize what I spray and try to garner some information so that I can use the proper sprays. I’m in coastal Maryland, zone 7b.
In the past, I have used myclobutanil as a fungicide and triazicide as my insecticide. I feel like I manage peach leaf curl and fireblight well (had problems once before). I use copper spray just before bud break and in the fall. Otherwise, I start my routine spraying before blossom time, stop during bloom, and then resume. I try to go two full weeks with my spraying.
I have issues (I think) with apple scab and peach scab. In the past, my apple has struggled with fire blight but I don’t see any major issues anymore. As far as bugs are concerned, PC is my biggest issue on the stone fruit tree (apricot, plum and peach all on one). My friend loaned me some kaolin clay and it still did not control PC completely. Ok, so smother me with advice, please. Lay into me
Welcome, Brian! Congratulations on finding your way here. I appreciate those who help others find their way here. I hope you enjoy this community. There is a lot of cumulative knowledge among the members.
I wish I could give you some easy-to-follow sage advice that would give you abundant harvests of pristine fruits growing on healthy, thriving trees, but I’m more of a student than a guru, myself. Your routine, especially with the addition of the kaolin, actually sounds pretty good to me. You could possibly try bagging some of those stone fruit to reduce the PC hits even more.
There are members here, including the owner, who live in your general area. Most of them have more experience and understanding of the effectiveness of all the options available. I expect they will eventually chime in. I know nothing about scale, but they do.
I received one of those fruit cocktail trees as a birthday present several years ago. My favorite thing about the one I was given was that the section labelled “apricot” was the largest section on the tree. It turned out that the entire tree, every graft, is some type of Japanese plum. There is no “cocktail” in my tree!
OT - Your screen name - Is it the reflexive form of ‘to make hot’?
The ingredient in Spectracide should work on PC as long as it hasn’t been on the shelf too long and conditions aren’t real hot in early to mid spring when PC does its damage. I would think that combining that with Surround would seal the deal. Spectracide provides no info on date of manufacture and if it doesn’t move from the factory to your sprayer within 24 months it could lose efficacy.
Timing is crucial- are you getting it down early enough- right at petal fall?
If price isn’t an object, you could spring for some Avaunt from a chemical supplier via the internet. It is expensive, but probably holds potency for at least 10 years and is used by commercial growers to effectively control PC and most other apple pests (not stinkbugs).
To fulfill the requirement of its label, you would have to sell some of your apples (or at least have the intent to, right?).
Some serious hobbyists here have bought life time supplies of Imidan on line, but it’s a PIA to handle in small batches and smells like the serious poison it is. Not very dangerous for an organophosphate though but the label forbids spraying within 100 feet from a home. It is extremely effective against PC.
C,
You have only two trees, I do not know how much more insecticide you want to buy. What you have should work. Alan is right about timing. When you start to spray insecticide and how often is the key.
I think you have both PC and OFM. PC’ attack would last about a month but OFM could last the whole summer. Surround would work if you time your spray at petal fall and spray well on fruit, branches around the fruit in all directions including underside. It is protectant that irritate the pest. It does not kill the pest.
For apples, you can spray Surround or Spectrazide once or twice, then, bag the fruit with a sandwich bags. You can google bagging apples to see how it is done.
Like Muddy said, Scott Smith, a creator of this forum, can probably give you the best advice as he is an experienced grower who lives inMD
My biggest part of the tree is a red plum variety. It’s a beautiful orange inside. Never had apricots make it past the pea size. It’s only a small branch. I believe it is Moorpark. The host tree is a Belle of Georgie peach I believe. The nectarine variety and the other peach variety branches both died. The plum is so vigorous it has taken over the tree! If I can get PC under control then I’ll have lots of plums. If I can control peach scab then hopefully I’ll have better looking and tasting peaches.
I have considered bagging, but honestly believe that insect aren’t my problem on the apples. They were fine this year. If anything needs bagging, it’s the plums and peaches. Is this possible without breaking them off?
I am wondering about your timing- there is nothing better for apple scab than Immunox, unless you live near an orchard with resistant strains of scab (very unlikely, IMO). It doesn’t do much for peach scab or brown rot, though. Monterey Fungus Fighter is good for brown rot, but I don’t know how good it is on peach scab.
For Bagging for stone fruit such as plum and peaches, sandwich bags are not recommended for fear of rot.
Some people use mesh bags for peaches. I use bread bags for plums suggessfully. Bagging for stone fruit is still an experiment. I am going to use Cornell paper bags this year.
Also, Surround is not insecticide. It is crop protectant. Insects are irritated by Surround powder and leave the fruit alone. If you do not cover the fruit and branches near them well, insects can get on the fruit.
Walked outside this afternoon and BAM the buds are swollen, some about to burst open on the peach and apricot. I sprung into action. I pruned real quick and sprayed my copper and all seasons oil really quick. Man was that a scare. I almost missed getting that copper on in time!
I had the same scare a few days ago. My apricots are all set to pop and one or two flowers already did.
I think I was responding to your post on the other forum - if you want to stick with Surround see
for my personal approach to getting Surround to work. Its a lot more challenging than other products, but if you keep at it you should be able to get it to work. Let me know if you have any questions about Surround application.
For peach scab I find sulphur in the dime to nickel size works really well. I don’t get apple scab here, I remove susceptible varieties and the heat tends to burn it up.
Hi Scott. Thanks for the info. I found that thread after so posted and will be using it. I need to switch to Sulphur but I just sprayed the oil so will it be ok the apply it in a month at nickel size? Is sulphur the Monteray spray? I’m getting everything confused as far as what each spray is good to control re fungicides…
Anything beyond basic for Surround I’d be interested in seeing. ok to spray right at petal drop or at the 90% mark. We are a little cooler here because of the ocean so I start seeing PC perhaps a week later than you, just guessing. It’s usually not until nickel size for the peaches.
Aren’t apples too tough for PC. Mine come out so late I think PC is winding down by the time they are big and soft enough to penetrate. Is this probable? I also spray it hard with the once and done but I’m considering just keeping both of the trees WHITED OUT this spring healthier for all involved
You can spray sulphur a couple days after oil. Its the other way around you need to wait longer as sulphur lasts longer on the tree. Any spray compound saying sulphur on the label is good, there are many of them.
Apples are too tough for PC to reproduce in since the growing fruit often kills the worm, but your fruit will get completely ruined if you don’t control well - PC are as big a problem on apples as they are on plums.
There is no “cocktail” in my tree!
healthier for all involved