Blossoms opened and were worshipped by all manner of pollinators.
It is my first year of preventative spray.
@scottfsmith has done pre-bloom fungicide spray to lessen severity of brown rot. I have followed his advice this year.
I sprayed a combo of Luna Sensation and Indar pre-bloom. I skip a small apricot tree that is in between a plum and a nectarine tree. I couldnāt recall why I intentionally skip the apricot tree.
It has worked well as a proof of this preemptive spray. All plums and nectarines set fruit well with no sign of blossom blight (I had it for the past several years). Only the apricot tree got some blight on it. It probably got some spray drift from both sides.
It is the first year but I like the result. I think spraying it with potent fungicide like Indar and Lunar was helpful, too.
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Doesnāt blossom blight kill the blossoms before theyāve completed their cycle? The only species Iāve experienced that with is cherries. and for them fairly often. Apparently myclobutanil does not prevent them from suffering this affliction.
When I started spraying Indar in my delayed dormant spray and then also in every Surround tank after, I ended my rot issues. I never had much blossom blight anyway, and pretty much only on twigs.
This year I am including Luna in some tanks mainly for apple rots but it also helps a lot with brown rot so it should also be good for the stone fruits.
My recent philosophy on disease sprays is to hit early and hard, and then mostly coast through the summer. I am curious how early Luna will help with the apple rots. Usually I get a great deal of rot on some apples; I wasnāt spraying anything for it, Indar is not very good for apple rots.
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Thatās been my approach for quarter a century, but I need to spray nectarines a maximum of a month before harvest and on exceptionally wet years about 2 weeks. For quite a while I have replaced Myclo with Indar in my second post petal fall spray. Iām working under the assumption that before petal fall fungicide doesnāt help much with brown rot because Iāve so many customers that I add myclo with oil at a point where peaches are often showing pink and it doesnāt appear to provide much advantage over many other orchards where I only do post petal fall sprays.
In general, I succeed with a single summer fungicide spray and two spring ones. Year after year after wet year. For many orchards I now need two summer fungicide sprays to control Mars leaf bl. In those I spray late ripening stone fruit at the same time for extra protection- it itās more than a month before their harvest. It surprises me how much cleaner the apples are as a side affect.
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At least for me myclo didnāt help much for brown rot. So myclo not helping is no surprise for me. I may not need the Indar at pink but given how my rot is finally under control after years of suffering I donāt plan on leaving it out.
My āunderstandingā is that blossom blight is early stage brown rot and myclo is credited with controlling that stage.
At any rate, I suggest you hold off to post petal fall on the Indar on a single treeā¦ I mean, you are a LEADER. 
Myclo gets a ā4ā in the CA guide and Luna and Indar get a ā5ā. That should not be such a difference and it had convinced me I was fine going myclo only, but I was still having pretty bad rot. Since you were having such good rot control with Indar I decided to try it maybe half a dozen years ago ā¦ and that was the end of brown rot for me. Indar is much, much better than myclo for brown rot in my orchard. I still love myclo, for CAR and scab on apples and for black rot on grapes I have found nothing better. Just not for brown rot.
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Agree with you. I have use myclo for many years. It has been effective with rust and scab, like you said but brown rot was still a big issue. Once I have switched to Indar, it has been significantly better, maybe, 80-85% better, not as completely as your result. I want to see how well it will be with Luna added this year.
@thecityman just mentioned that he has sprayed Myclo with Captan but still gets serious brown rot issue on his stone fruit.
What do you use to bag the fruits to protect from ear wigs and stink bug? I got some Clemson paper bags but the design in pretty challenging to get it right.
Glad to see this discussion on Brown rot. Just today I was walking through my orchard extremely disgusted. I sprayed copper and oil at the end of dormancy, then sprayed a combination of Captan and Myclo pre-bloom and post bloom and about every 14 days since. In other words Iāve kept a good schedule this year, and I suspect when my peaches ripen Iāll lose them to brown rot. Every single baby peach I have that gets a scratch or bird peck or has any issue, it almost immediately is covered with the brown-rot fuzz. Same with all my plums and other stone fruit. I honestly donāt see how it could be any worse at this early stage. And if my hard, green fruit with minor problems are showing this much brown rot, Iām certain that my ripe fruit with more sugar will be 100 times worse.
Iām ready to go to indar, but let me ask you all thisā¦is it completely useless to buy and use it now? My limited understanding of brown rot makes me think that the spores are already all over my fruit and in my trees and on the ground and so on, so there isnāt much that can be done now. Is that true? My peaches are golf ball size now. I also have a fair amount of myclo and Captan left that I sort of hate to not use, but if you folks think indar would still save my fruit or make a big difference, please let me know and Iāll try it.
BTWā¦I have to believe part of my problem this year is that last year I didnāt spray a single tree and single time. I lost almost all my fruit to an early freeze and then had life things happen and just took a year off. Iām guessing that really let brown-rot get a super-strong foothold on my orchard. Iād have thought my careful schedule this year would have overcome that, but it doesnāt look that way.
Too late for Indar?
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I do have the Clemson ones and also large organza bags,plus another bought on Ebay or Amazon,that is some kind of fabric.
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Of course Indar is much better than myclo for later stage brown rot- the question is, is it useful before petal fall.
One of my main goals as an orchard keeper since I began spraying chemicals is to try to figure out the least apps I can make to get similar results. Here I control brown rot with a single Indar app included in my second (late May to first week in June, depending) of two spring insecticide apps and a 2nd in early to mid July, most years, most varieties.
Of course, what works for me may not for you.
Kevin,
From what I read, itās suggested that we spray for brown rot up to three week before harvest. When are your peaches ripen?
I think it is important that you pick up infected fruit from previous years off the ground. It is a lot of work but orchard sanitation will be helpful.
THanks Tippy. The 27 varieties of peaches I grow ripen from the end of May until September, so Iāve got months to go on some. Most, and the best, ripen here in late July and early August.
I think Iām going to give something else a try. Our friend @Olpea was kind enough to make some other recommendations and Iām going to try one of them. Thanks.
Mark is the best. Good luck, Kevin. I am trying to thin my one nectarine tree. I am exhausted. Not sure how you could thin 27 peach trees.
Most of my trees have a decent load on them. I donāt have any stand-alone nectarines, but the grafted branches seem to have good sets.
Iāve been thinning for most of the last week and am just about done with what I can reach from the ground. I need to bring a small step-ladder around to finish up. Iām sure things are not perfectly thinned, but itās quite a bit more than Iāve done in the past.
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I just finished my Freckle Face. I was on a six foot ladder but I still had to crane my neck to reach some branches. My neck is not happy right now.
Here is what Iām doing this year for peaches/nectarines: 3 and 1 week preharvest. So spray dates are related to when peaches will be picked. Best also spayed at full bloom but I missed that one. Iāll do Idar & Captan combined with water PH= 5. Luna Sensation is also good for brown rot control.
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So, those organza bags work for earwigs and stink bugs? I see they much easier to put on the fruit.
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