For those who spray surround after petal fall, are you including it in every spray tank? Is there such a thing as too much surround? I have seen it recommended to spray it at a higher rate to build up that initial coat and then a lower rate to maintain it.
Do you guys always have some in the tank even if you don’t necessarily need it? What if you find that you need to spray fungicide again for disease, but your surround coat is fine as it is? Do you usually spray it anyway?
Some of the organic/biopesticide materials I planned on using next year have intervals as short as five days when disease pressure is high. It seems like overkill to spray surround every five days. Will it hurt my surround coat to apply a spray without it?
@scottfsmith I’d love to get your two cents as you seem to have a good deal of experience with Surround.
I only spray it when the coat is thinning. I also don’t use it much from June onwards as it’s annoying to have on picked fruit. For the other things I spray in the spring they piggyback on the Surround sprays not the other way around.. when it looks like I need to spray Surround I will also put other things in the tank.
Biofungicide applications for blight mostly take place during bloom. Same for immunox for CAR.
I generally spray my trees once every two weeks. If it’s so dry that you don’t need Surround, it is likely you won’t need fungicide either. Bitter rot is wet weather issue. Apple blotch tends to be a secondary infection due to CAR. Glomerella doesn’t seem to affect fruit much. July through mid August is only spray if needed for me in NC. Mid August onward is Captan season. I keep the Surround on heavy after mid August as well to confuse pests.