I didn’t do nearly as well with the 3 spray last summer as I did in previous years. More than half my apples were no suitable to me. We had a lot of apple fly maggot and probably coddling moth later in the season probably much worse than usual.
I may spray 5-8 times next year.
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Yup, apple fly maggot and codling moth come later and sometimes require more sprays. However, AFM usually goes after biggest and closest to ripe apples so if you keep your eyes open you may be able to control them with a single, well timed spray during summer. I have here. CM is mostly a critical problem here with Russet varieties and Asian pears in my experience… so far. .
I’ve also lost entire crops of Indian Free to OFM when I’ve long since stopped monitoring.
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I’ve been mostly doing just a 3 spray schedule for about 10 years, or at least since you published these guides. Some years I have had totally clean fruit, other years maybe 20% loss at worse. last summer it might have been close to 75% loss.
I might have to learn how to monitor for these things.
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Do you usually do a dormant oil spray in most of your orchards? I haven’t had much issue with fungus or mites/scale as of yet. Not sure if I should be more proactive here. (In Canada we only have copper or lime sulphur no synthetics for fungicide)
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50-50 I’m most inclined to do it where scab pressure is high, or if mite or scale were an issue the previous season.
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Keep in mind that synthetic ≠ non-organic.
For example, Kocide (copper hydroxide) is considered synthetic as it is manufactured by chemical processes in a factory setting. However, for several crops it qualifies for USDA NOP.
On the other hand, the consumer product Liqui-Cop which is essentially copper hydroxide dissolved in an ammonia does not qualify. However, it is the less toxic of the two with regard to humans.
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I should add that color of flowers I’m referring to is apples. Sometimes the peach trees are showing quite a bit of pink at that point and I used to fear spraying them but have cautiously learned that if they aren’t open hey are not seriously damaged from a light oil. That is the oil itself, not the amount of spray. I have heard of using oil for flower thinning, so I obviously have a lot to learn about the exact potential of damage to open flowers from an oil spray.
If anyone wants to pitch in from their own experience on this I’d love to see it.
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Thank you for this post. I have been researching what to spray…and when… for twenty peach and apple trees in our yard (zone 7A) so this is very helpful. If I understand correctly, I should wait for all the petals to fall off the peach trees …probably next week…to spray. For the apple trees, since it is early in the season and the green buds just started to appear, I should spray with Captan almost immediately. By the way, since our biggest problem is birds and squirrels having a feast the night before we plan to pick everything, we are still trying to find hanging wind reflectors…cheap ones. Twenty years ago, my parents used a twisting corkscrew-type aluminum foil reflector that did the job very well. Cost about $10 for twenty. We hung them on our Christmas tree. Just cannot find anything like it anymore.
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My early business almost died due to squirrels pilfering the fruit of my customers. There was little useful info at the time but I noticed some people around using duct pipe which I found difficult to work with so I ended up inventing this system (not that it wasn’t invented before by someone else- it’s not rocket science). The thing is the trees have to be trained high because the buggers will jump between 4 and 6.5’ depending on I don’t know what. It isn’t state of hunger or anything in the appearance of the more athletic squirrels. Out of over a hundred sites only a couple I manage have or had squirrels with that kind of Olympic ability.
Those things your parent used probably only work when the squirrels have limited interest in the first place… never worked here.
Don’t mix Captan with oil.
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I will just pitch in a little of my own experience. I have done the math and it turns out that both Avaunt and Assail are very cheap on a per spray basis. The up front cost is high, but as you say since they are both granulated they should last a decade or more.
It takes 25 gallons to spray my entire orchard and the cost per spray using rates mentioned here I pay $7.20 per spray for Avaunt and $8.43 per spray for Assail.
For reference Imidan costs me $8.90 per spray.
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The only problem is to get control of all my spring pests, including plant bugs and psyla, I have to add Assail to the same tank with Avaunt at highest rate.
For me, money of pesticides is a relatively minor issue- the mark-up for my service is pretty high. The old saying is “prune for show, spray for pay”, but I also get a good wage for pruning. I count on my regimen to protect the fruit regardless of rain in-between, and it has served me well in this regard. I never alter my schedule no matter how much rain in-between.
I’m not sure how much my Tactic sticker plays into the success, and I’m not apt to research that.
I manage many acres of orchard if you add it all up.
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I didn’t account for the expense of mixing the 2. When mixing, do you still use the highest legal rate?
Also, do you spray the mix more than once per year? I am currently working out my spray schedule for the year. Thanks
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I mix them both at highest rate and spray trees twice with it if stinkbugs don’t show up in summer.
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Thanks
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@alan I wanted to say thanks for your simplified schedule. I was initially discouraged about my hopes of having stone fruit but 2 sprays 2 weeks apart seems to have suppressed the PC/OFM in my yard. I am beginning to see a bit of damage now but 90% less than the same time last year (essentially all my peaches/nects were affected).
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@alan I have Avaunt and assail available, am I correct your 2nd/3rd sprays are Captan+Myclobutanil+Avaunt+Assail? You tank mix all 4? I’m spraying peaches and apples.
Thanks for the great resource.
yes
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Actually for the 2nd, and usually final, insecticide spray, I replace myclo with Indar to get better control of brown rot for early ripening stonefruit.
Alan do you use a sticker with the dormant oil, myclobutanil and captan sprays?
I don’t use sticker with oil. Myclo doesn’t need a sticker, it is a systemic - Captan would be helped and I use a sticker for my summer brown rot and Marsonnina sprays.
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