It is from North Carolina. Although the guide is for commercial peach growers, the info provided can be useful for backyard growers as well. I particularly like the two charts comparing effectiveness of chemicals used to control pests and diseases. Some of those chemicals are the same ones used by backyard growers. It is helpful to see how effective they are against common pests and diseases.
@Olpea, @blueberrythrill , @maineorchard, et al, have you seen this guide?
I’m in NC so it’s the foundation of what I do.
EDIT: Should have mentioned that a similar but more comprehensive guide for the South East also produced through UGA.
Disheartening to see that two products l use copper and sulfur are “good” at best controlling fungal/bacterial diseases.
What you use is a kinder, gentler approach.
I’ve struggled with what I should use for all these years. If (more like when now) I move over to harsher chemicals, I will definitely try to be very careful not to harm beneficials insects (or myself and my neighbors) 
I do think I can go harder on spraying. I spray all my trees with one gallon. Probably don’t do a good enough coverage. I feel bad about adding copper to the soil so I try to stop before “drip point”. For me disease pressure hasn’t been too bad yet. Mostly because I haven’t had much fruit thanks to squirrels.
Proper variety selection and orchard hygiene can go a long way towards achieving quality fruit. Of course, nectarines in the South, are brown rot magnets for most varieties, to the point where, I’ve removed most of them.
On the other hand, peaches are much easier to grow. The only thing I spray for is PC. I’ve never had to spray for fungal diseases,
Very interesting Tippy.
I had not seen NSCU’s guide before. Interesting how they rate some insecticides and fungicides. They show Indar and only good for brown rot. I guess I’d expect that compared to some of the new pre-mixes. Still, for a backyard orchardist, I would expect very good control of brown rot with indar.
The herbicides were particularly interesting to me. We spend too much time battling weeds here, so there were some good ideas in the guide.
I’m going to bookmark this guide. Thanks!
You are welcome, Mark. I think Luna Sensation has an edge to Indar because of the two main ingredients. But the price of it is insane.
This guide is very new. I am going to print out those two charts for a reference (I like reading hard copy, not digital).
If it comes in powder form you can bring it when you visit!
I’ve had almost 100% success using copper in late winter for leaf curl. Most articles say to use it in late winter when tree is dormant. For Bacteria Spot they recommend use from late winter to shuck split. I do remember reading a research article that recommended using copper from pink to first blossoms open for Leaf Curl also.
Good isn’t bad. Right now its all I have to work with but you do have a way to purchase Indar. Or something better, Check on a group buy as all of these products are expensive.
Copper is fungicide and bactericide but it is not a cure all for several diseases peaches has for growers in the east coast.
Copper helps with peach leaf curl and bacterial spot but is not helpful with brown rot. Sooner or later, you will encounter brown rot in peaches (cherries and plums, too).
If you cannot find a group purchase of Indar, Bonide Infuse (propicanozole) is a good alternative and affordable. For a few trees, I am less worried about a fungicide resistance problem.
Of course, for apples Cornell considers it very effective for scab and CAR as well. This is why I can use Indar in my second post petal fall spray in an attempt to reduce brown rot inoculum. After that a subsequent summer spray of Indar or Pristine is often all I need to counter brown rot in the orchards I manage.
Fungicides that don’t wash off in the rain are extremely helpful in the east where we tend to get rain throughout the growing season.
Indar basically eliminated my brown rot problem. Propiconazole was good, Indar is great.
Are any of the more highly-rated things not too expensive (and not in group 3)? I am using Elevate as my alternating chemical with Indar to keep resistance down, I bought it due to price. I think I have another year or two supply of it before I will be looking for something to replace it.
On a cost per acre basis, I don’t know of anything cheaper than Indar and Propiconazole.
Captan is the next cheapest. It runs something like $20/acre. I think Indar is closer to $15/acre. As you know, propiconazole is even cheaper.
I tank mix propiconazole with a 1/2 rate of captan for very good control, at a very reasonable cost.
Mark,
Your combo of propiconazole and Captan is reasonable-priced so we don’t need to mortgage our houses to afford pesticides .
If I use food grade vinegar, is it a tbsp of white vinegar per a gallon of water for Captan?
Hi Tippy. Sorry for answering so late.
It depends on the concentration of acetic acid in the vinegar. It also depends on the pH of the water and the alkalinity (ability to resist acidification).
For my water, one teaspoon of citric acid per 16 gallons of water, will bring my pH down to 5.9, which is about where I like it for Captan, or any other pesticide subject to alkaline hydrolysis.
Vinegar of course can be used as an acidifier, but it takes about 24 times the amount of vinegar (by volume) as it does citric acid. So one teaspoon of vinegar will acidify about 2/3 of a gallon of water at the 5.9 pH level. Vinegar is convenient and cheap enough for small batches of spray, but it gets a bit pricey for large volumes of spray.
What is your pH to begin with?
Mine is very high. It starts out at about 9.4 pH.
Wow, so my 7.2 pH water should probably only need about half a teaspoon for my 25 G tank. I’m thinking of using it instead of the chemical penetrant and acidifier I’ve been using. I’m not sure I really need the penetrant, although I tend to go for overkill. The crap can be dangerous if you splash it into your eyes.