There were Blister mites on a young Asian Pear of mine.After reporting it on this forum,Scott Smith wrote that he used sulfur,with success.So I tried some and it clogged my sprayer.Someone let me know,to get the micronized kind.It cleared up the issue for the season,with one application.There were flowers at the time.The next year,the tree needed some again,but it did solve the problem.
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I’m psyching myself up to spray the pears with oil + sulfur tomorrow (Bad pear mites last year). A little nervous because suddenly I have green showing! Most stuff says don’t do any type of sulfur (lime or plain) with oil once you have any kind of green. But I can see from scott’s schedule (and what others have said) that some green is okay for pears.
Can someone tell me if my buds are too far along to spray oil+sulfur?
I most of my pears look like this or swollen with no green:
One looks like this:
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I have sprayed at that point… I try to do at the former stage but sometimes have done like the latter. No damage noticed.
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I used dormant spray for the first time this winter.
It rained the next day, so I’m hoping it’ll hold.
I appreciate this site for the great advice!
I just did the same… I used Southern Ag’s copper diammonia diacetate with an all season oil. We’ll see how it goes.
I also have used this spray during the “green stage”, with no damage. Mid-Missouri zone 6b.
At this stage, do I need to sit tight or can I treat for leaf curl, canker and any other diseases? Photos not loading.
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I spray at this stage. We get a LOT of rain and rain showers here. So I make sure I get a few sprays on because of the amount of rain we get during this month. Just my 2 cents worth.
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I’m re-reading your initiation post here in this thread. What a great writeup.
Since I’m so new to the idea of spraying, I was again getting lost in the weeds trying to find some direction.
Since all the blooms in my trees are gone and whatever fruit that has set had been determined, I’m at a point where I’m not sure if I should spray as a preventative for things or wait until I see symptoms.
My only fruit to set to speak of is about 50 Flavor Grenade pluots that are about the size of elongated ping pong balls now. They are unmarked as is the tree.
I’ll have to dive into your writeup again to see what t says.
If your trees are relatively new it takes a few years for the curculio and moths to show up. But you will slow down their arrival by spraying so I would get on it now. A similar case holds for brown rot – if you control it early it can stay at a low grade but if you wait until it gets bad you will have a rot fest on your hands.
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Thanks. Now I’ll read up on what to spray. After work. 
I did spray oil+sulfur the day after that post. It then poured rain 12 hours later. But so far, things look really good!
By this time last year there were reddish blisters on nearly all of my pear tree leaves from mites.
This year I already have some PC and some other mystery thing- but it’s definitely an improvement and far fewer trees are affected.
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Hey Scott, I know you mention (above) using neem on plum to prevent borers… do you do that regularly on plums (for instance, on M2624 or K1), or mainly on peaches and trees on peach roots?
I mainly use the neem on peaches or peach roots but will do any plums showing borer damage at the base. I only use neem at full strength right out of the bottle on the tree bases.
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They have arrived. Saw my first curc’s and damage today. They probably got going on the weekend when I was busy. I’d applied some surround, but we had some good rains and a good deal of it got washed away. Just got done reapplying a good coat. There appear to be a couple things that are different with my northern area. For one, they Love Pears here. That’s the number one hit crop for them. If I don’t spray they will completely pucker every last pear on the trees. I say pucker because the ones that survive end up all puckered and deformed with lots of grit cells. The other odd thing, and this may be true for other Northern Growers, is that they seem to attack at least some during the day. I was 34 last night, and the last couple nights before that have been pretty cold, (in the 40s’), yet when I went out this afternoon when it was in the 70s’ if found damage that wasn’t there Friday, as well as several females which I promptly crushed.
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“Neem Bliss - Pure Neem Oil Concentrate - 100% Cold Pressed Neem Oil” is a good one too.
Spraying a synthetic on bark after most peaches are done and gone seems to me toqbe the surest way to get the job done.
The stuff in toothpaste will kill you quicker than controlling PLB with chemicals.
@scottfsmith Hey Scott, when do you consider “late blooming” in your area (like which month, or what marker do you use?).
I assuming you are referring to the late blooms on apples re: fireblight. These are mainly straggler blooms, well after the apples have generally stopped blooming. It is usually much further into fireblight season by then and so the odds of getting strikes through the flowers is very high.
There are very few apples that bloom late enough for it to matter, most apples bloom in a similar period. I had one called Reinette Armorique that was super late, and also European cider apples are often super late. but just about everything else is fine in terms of blooming early enough to not fall into peak fireblight season.
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