That is what I have gathered from all the posts from experienced growers. Makes me consider spraying at night, if I could light up the trees well enough to see! 
From posts above, I read Mark uses Actara for his first 2 sprays. I haven’t invested in that product yet. I do try follow his comments, even though he is several hours east of me. It’s helpful to know pest activity and timing of sprays etc,
Question: would an unsprayed orchard work for cider apples or would PC cause most of the apples to abort and drop prematurely?
Planning future of my trees- too much for me to handle with clay and bags.
Question: My apricot is in shuck fall. But my night temperatures are still in 40s, should I spray for PC?
PC damage in apples usually does not cause apples to drop. Often, apple cell expansion will squish the eggs. Coddling moths also like apples.
Worse, you will have cider with extra protein!
A friend had an ancient apple tree they never sprayed. It was always filled with gnarled apples with curc tracks all through them. Fortunately they didn’t rot, and they would probably have pressed up fine. I think it was a Grimes Golden but was never sure.
Yes, coddling moth may be a bigger problem. Would it render apples unusable for cider (without carving damage out of each apple)?
Edit: I found a great thread so am all set:Codling Moth Worms/Maggots OKAY In Cider? - #2 by marknmt. @Hillbillyhort has a good approach to his cider. Sounds like CM does not ruin all the crop.
The main problem with CM is if you don’t process them quickly they will rot. Curculio infections happened earlier in the summer and are less likely to cause rots around and after harvest.
Generally I wait till shuck split to start spraying, but PC does show up before then. I wait till shuck split because the shuck protects PC from egg laying. The shuck doesn’t protect against stink bug, so some stink bug feeding can occur before shuck split, which later causes the fruit to be catfaced, but it’s not been enough to make me spray before shuck split.
I’m betting the ranch here that the very hard, very late Belle de Boskoop, Goldrush, Sundance and Hauer Pippin avoid at least some PC and CM damage. Many years of testing varieties leads me to these four for taste, blight resistance here in 7B and possible insect avoidance.
I’ll test a branch of unsprayed/unbagged Goldrush and Hauer this year, the other two in future as they start bearing. But also have to contend with European Hornets and birds.
@hambone I know this is off topic from the plum curculio thread, but Goldrush in my 7b setting has been hit hard by fireblight nearly every year. Also the summer rots have been a problem
Are people seeing PC activity in the mid-Atlantic area? I have a 3 locations, with one area seeing a lot of PC bites, the other areas zero.
They are active for me now. We had enough rain to wash off my apricots and plums and it was warm enough right after the rain that I had a few hot spots of bites before I could re-coat. But it cooled and I re-coated so hopefully only minimal damage in the larger scheme of things.
I am using Grandevo and Venerate this year which supposedly are somewhat effective against PC. I should know in a month if there was any impact. I used them last year but not consistently.
What do people do when it’s warm and rains every day during prime PC time? I have 75 and raining in the forecast for the next 7 days in a row.
Depending on how much you have to protect and how the nightime temperatues are going to be, I would spray anyway with a sticker.
Michael
@haldog Interesting. We haven’t had a bad blight year here for five or six years. Here in a bad year Goldrush will get some blight but after cutting it out (using Ugly Stub method) it sails right along. No rots on it here even in zip lock bags. What’s your rootstock and is it pruned to very open center with full sun?
“Pyrethrin is a natural insecticide, derived from the crude extract of the Chrysanthemum flower (Pyrethrum). Pyrethrins are the active chemicals in pyrethrum. “Pyrethrum” and “pyrethrin” are often used interchangeably. Pyrethrum is a fast-acting contact poison that “knocks down” susceptible insects. Pyrethrum induces a toxic effect in insects when it penetrates the cuticle and reaches the nervous system leaving the insects paralyzed. Pyrethrum may also have a repellant effect. Since pyrethrum is a contact poison, the target pest must be present and hit by the spray.”
Insect Pest Management for Organic Crops: Botanicals for Controlling Insect Pests
The disadvantage of pyrethrum is that it does not persist for long, but, when bad weather is imminent, this is not so great a disadvantage. Spray on a warm evening after the bees have gone to bed. Any curculio out walking around is a goner.
Hi Olpea, Can I tank mix Actara with Immunox?
I’ve not personally mixed the two, simply because I don’t use myclobutanil (Immunox) much. That said, I wouldn’t be the least bit worried about tank mixing the two. I’ve tank mixed other locally systemic group 3 fungicides with Actara, with no problem whatever.
Just remember when tank mixing the order is 1/3 water, then dry compounds (i.e. dry flowables, water dispersible granules) agitate to mix the dry compounds. Add another 1/3 of the water. Then add water soluble liquids. Then add emulsifiable concentrates and mix. Lastly add surfactants. Then finish filling the tank with water and mix.
Those are all the recommended steps. Do I follow those to the Tee. Generally not. The agitation on my airblast sprayer is so vigorous and aggressive. I can skip some steps without any issues of clogging, or clumping.
Hey I wanted to follow up on the Grandevo/Venerate virus products for curculio. Grandevo supposedly sterilizes the eggs so mamma curc is just shooting blanks. I am seeing some very strong evidence for this now… early on I didn’t use it, and only the apricots have live curcs in them. All the apples and plums I have taken apart except for a single plum don’t have any trail after the bite… the egg never hatched. I took apart over a hundred fruits to check.
Originally when I bought Grandevo and Venerate they were only talking about Venerate for the curc, but based on what I am seeing this spring it might be that Grandevo is the better of the two. I used Venerate from the beginning on the apricots, and only added Grandevo later when I found it was also now labeled for curc.
I am generally seeing about 1/3 of the usual curc activity in terms of bites. Some of this could be due to a long trend of cooler than usual weather this spring, but some of it I would put down to the Grandevo and perhaps the Venerate.
Anyway, overall I am getting optimistic that the Surround/Grandevo combo could be a very effective one-two punch for the curc.
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