Im not going to use the clemsons anymore. The fruit i used them on either dropped or rotted. I didnt spray fungicide with them, maybe i should have but i didnt enjoy putting them on. Too much leaf damage and i just sucked at getting them to sit right.
I did other trees with organza. Bug free! But the disgusting sooty blotch. I mean horrible.
Back to plastic again. I always bought the cheapest zip sandwich bags. This year all i could find were Force-Flex.
I like em. They poof away from the fruitlet snd stay poofy. Were easy to put on.
I was gonna lay down sulfur but didnt.
Did you use Clemson bags on apples or peaches?
I never use Clemson bags on apples, too much work. Only use them for peaches. For peaches, you need to spray fungicide and insecticide combo the day before putting Clemson bags on, per Clemsonâs instruction. To me, Iâve gotten better with practice.
For plastic sandwich bags for apples, people here mentioned buying them from Walmart as they are the cheapest. Iâve bagged apples in 1000 so cheap is good 
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I did organza and some clemson on apple, clemson on peach. I could not get them on right! Lost too many leaves and it never felt like it had good contact to me. There was a lot of salty talk thst dsy.
I agree the peaches rotting was likely bc no sulfur. I havent done my bearing peach yet. I may just net the whole tree.
I had to get the sandwich bags on amazon no stores here have had any.
I am expecting the plums to be fully ripen by the of the month, when should I stop spraying permethrin? My last spray was 6/3.
I also realized that I did not thin enough. In the past 2 years the fruits would drop a lot due to PC damage. But this year I started using permethrin and it may have worked or the weather was helping, anyway most fruits stayed. I only see a few on the ground.
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Thanks!
Wow! I thought they would stop attacking the plums when the plums are big enough. Now these plums are about 2 inches in size. I am planning to spray on 6/13, and 6/23. Then stop and wait for the harvest, probably on 6/30. Is it a good plan?
I found a PC eating a plum yesterday. I immediately mixed up a 1/2 gallon of sevin and spayed the trees. One of my lower branches are also so loaded they bent horizontally.
My first 3 peaches drops occurred recently non of which showed a PC bite but the bastards where definitely inside when I examined it. I only have 12 peaches set I hope the rest make it.
Really? That is a big warning. I better keep spraying. Who knows. Like you said, they might be inside already.
Hope your peaches will survive. How old is your tree? Which variety is it? I have a ultra dwarf peach tree planted this year. I only kept 3 peaches on it. Maybe I shouldnât keep any and let it grow for a year first. But I am so interested in the taste and couldnât wait.
Those bites are really old, or they might not be PC bites at all as they are really big (I assume because they are old and the fruit grew). I donât think you are getting any new bites now. Next year look at the bites carefully, you can get good at estimating how old they are with experience.
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That exactly what i thought too scott, figured they grew as the plum did.
Thanks Scott!
That is what I thought too. However the bite on the right was fresh wound. Juice was bleeding out from there. That is why I asked. Maybe the bite was originally caused by PC, then the something else bite the same place again? I donât know. I will keep an eye on these fruits and see if more damage will occur.
My guess is the curc bit there several weeks ago and then something else munched in the same area after it had grown out a bunch. Curcs only make small half-moons, and they are always about the same size.
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Got it! Thanks Scott!
Hopefully PCs have stopped their attacks. I will know in the next few weeks if these fruits were affected or not. I am planning to count the good ones and see how many I will be able to harvest this year.
By changing color prematurly, Santa Rosa plums let me know when inhabitants like pc take over inside the plumâŚgreen plums, from dime to quarter size (so far) starts looking like its ripening, turning redishâŚthat when i know something inside plumâŚi hope plums ripen soon because I pick off about 10 premature bug infested colorful plums everyday⌠Iâm running out of plums!
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When PC or OFM attack fruit, they seem to do an incredible amount of damage in a night or two.
When I first had Euro plums, the purple/blue kind setting fruit, I was excited that some turned purple quite quickly. Turned out those were infected by either PC or OFM or both.
If you did not pick those off, they would likely dropped early anyway. As you know, best to pick all dropped fruit to throw them out with trash.
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Iâve cleared all plums on my plum tree. No damages caused by PC this year. I felt really good. My last spray was 6/13. I Learned a lot from this thread. Thank you all!
I counted. Total 571.
But 80% were eaten by squirrels. This number obviously does not include the ones stolen and hidden by these squirrels. So I estimate the total should be 800-1000. Next year I need to do a better job protecting the fruits as well as thinning.
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Anyone else weigh in on shelf life of insecticides?
If the $130/bottle Actara could store for decades, I could afford that because for my 1/3 acre orchard, that is a lifetime supply.
Other sources on the Web suggest that Actara along with other insecticides have a 2-year shelf life. Is this for real, or are âtheyâ trying to sell you more product?
The âtwo yearâ shelf life is just a concoction, imo.
Phomet (Imidan) has a shorter half life in soil than thiamethoxam (Actara), yet it remains very stable in the package. Many people have purchased âlife-timeâ supplies of phosmet.
I purchased some chemicals which were about 20 years old from a grower who went out of business. They werenât even stored well. Stored in a barn. The only problem I had was that some of the dormant oil had separated, and some of the open containers of some liquid insecticides had discolored.
Everything else was fine. The liquid lorsban I purchased looks and smells like it was brand new.
Dry formulations like Actara should easily last decades.
I know of one instance where a grower had about a 40 year old 50 gal. drum of oxytetracycline. He had it checked for potency by a lab. Turned out the amount of degradation in the barrel was negligible.
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Hi Pea,
Have you used Actara to treat PC? I have them pretty bad on my plum and some apples,
Triazicide doesnât seem that effective for me. I tank mix it with Immunox, two doses after petal fall