30+ orchard, mix of peaches, apples, pears
Last two years have dormant sprayed with Monterey Liqui-Cop and oil, fall and spring. Still had some PLC, bacterial spot and Shothole on peaches. Scab and blight on apples/pears. Somewhat controlled, but more than I’d like. Also had some rot on anything that fruited.
OFM and twig borers were my hardest pests, although I have just about everything. I use Scott’s low impact schedule for the most part.
Planned to switch to lime sulfur/oil this fall and Kocide/oil this spring. Brandt lime sulfur is the only one I can find and has me a bit nervous. It lists it as being fatal twice (skin and inhalation) and blindness. Recommends to discard garments and a full face shield with respirator ???!! Is this stuff really that dangerous or is this just over the top CYA?
Thanks for any input!
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Once it is mixed in the tank it is dilute so no big worry. Do be careful when mixing and storing as it is highly caustic. The pet dip stuff is identical, read that label for more realistic guidelines. They recommend wearing gloves for example.
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Ok. Thanks Scott. By identical, do you mean identical once diluted? If so, maybe I should just buy that instead?
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Before diluting. It’s the exact same stuff from what I can tell.
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Maybe Im confused. How can you put it on your pet if it’s so caustic?
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If it’s not on the skin so long it’s not so bad. I have gotten it on my hands and no fingers were lost 
These chemical manufacturers are so CYA it’s hard to see where the truth lies on these things. Getting in the eyes and ingesting is definitely super bad, but otherwise it doesn’t seem that bad to me.
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Ok. Guess I’ll see whats cheaper and go with that. Thanks a lot.
Any advice on the OFM. I lost just about every peach tip on 16 trees. Worst I’ve ever had. Oil/BA/Spinosad/BT every 10-12 days.
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I had almost no OFM this year, I used spinosad Surround Bt Madex Grandevo Venerate in every tank after petal fall… probably 4-5 sprays. I also spray high to let the spray come down on the tips. I used to also use mating disruption but after stopping I didn’t notice much difference.
I probably don’t need to spray so many things and will try rotating some of them out as I run out of supply. My wild guess in terms of order of importance it is spinosad then Madex then Surround then Bt and not sure if the others help much at all.
Note that I don’t spray after early June, if they get hit hard early you can rest. I do a similar thing for diseases.
Totally forgot to mention Surround in every tank with all the other stuff. I wish I could stop spraying in June. Our OFM doesn’t even show up till then and ramps up through July. 6a Ohio. Plus besides the jap beetles and diseases, I spray into August. Haven’t heard of Madex, Grandevo or Venerate. Have to look em up. Maybe my Spinosad is a weak brand, Monterey? I sprayed and sprayed, the flagging tips just kept coming week after week.
Last year I was able to buy the Brandt Lime Sulfur and have it shipped to me in CA directly from Brandt website. Not sure how that happened, but now I have 5 gallons of it should anyone close to me want to get some. I am in San Diego.
My small orchard did smell like sulphur for quite a while (surprise), and I wasn’t totally PLC free but I only sprayed once and the PLC wasn’t very bad.
I wore a 3M N95 mask and some safety glasses, nothing else.
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I use Entrust but it should be the same as the Monterey stuff. I think I paid $200 but its lasted me for 15 years.
I would suggest trying Madex along with what you have, it is more narrowly targeting just moths. Things have gotten better for me in the last couple of years when I added it.
You probably are a couple weeks behind me. Once you get the OFM more under control you should probably be able to slow or stop spraying in mid/late June. I can also stop spraying for rots in Early June since Indar works so well. Only apple diseases seem to need later sprays.
Thanks for all the feedback guys. I’ll definitely look at giving Madex a try. And sulfur this fall. Scott do you do all your spraying with a backpack sprayer? I have a 4 gal Solo. Starting to think about a lager tank with battery power.
I bought an eight gallon battery operated sprayer a few years ago. It has been a big win, fewer refills and much faster spraying due to the higher pressure it can put out.
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