@thecityman I got a chance to look at my trees closer. My large Elberta with the most fruit seems to be decimated. Every fruit has a puncture mark or crescent scar. My early peaches which were larger - Desiree, Reliance and Red Haven seemed to have faired better. I read somewhere that PC leave the fruit alone after the pit has formed, not sure if that is correct.
Next year I am definitely doing a portion of my peaches with bags. I meant to do it this year but ran out of time.
This is my first year of using Imidan, so I cannot speak to the kickback, I have seen University charts that indicate it is curative.
What I would really like to understand is what I did wrong spraying. On Sunday before I left I sprayed my large Elberta drenching it with Imidan/Captan. My orher trees had been sprayed two to three days prior. I used Sticker, Spreader, PH Balancer to get it to the water to the right PH level. What do commercial orchards do when it rains 3 or 4 days in a row to keep the insecticide effective?
Can you share which product you are using with Imidacloprid and the application dose? I have not heard of this for PC so I will research it. Thank you for sharing/recommending.
@speedster1 have a friend who lives in Southern WV with peach trees and she applies 1 to 2 sprays of surround each year and almost zero damage to her orchard. Not sure if that will work for you but maybe you have less pressure being further North/West.
I definitely didn’t spray down the trees like they say to. I spot sprayed the foliage below the fruit and the fruits themselves. It worked well on hit plums!
We’ll see if it’s curative on OFM (probably) in peaches because I’m leaving those 2 peaches that got hit on and I sprayed again with it for this spray (I sprayed the peaches too when the plums got hit hard).
Does anyone know if Redhaven peaches do a biennial type fruit production?
I have one Redhaven peach tree that had a lot of peaches on it last year. It was the first year of fruit production. This year it has only a few peaches on it. I have two Contender peach trees that were planted at the same time and right next to the Redhaven peach. The Contender peach trees have a lot of peaches on them. Just as they had last year.
I’m not sure of this is a fluke year for the Redhaven or if this is perhaps normal for this variety.
Has anyone else noticed this or have had the same situation happen?
Mike,
Peaches do not really go biennial like other fruit trees. I think what you see is the result of either winter kill or early spring freeze of Red Haven flower buds. You are in zone 5, a chance of that happening is high.
Contender is one of varieties that is known for bud hardiness. Other varieties that are often mentioned are Reliance, Madison, Veteran, to name a few. i think many varieties are still up to debate. Here’s one of several threads about peach bud hardiness.
I haven’t used any of the above mentioned sprays other than surround for the last 20 years. When I did I applied it just before bloom and just after petal fall. After that it was applied on a seven day interval unless it rained. The sprays as I remember worked well as long as I didn’t extend the time intervals. Just my opinion that the intervals by manufactures are the longest periods with ideal conditions but as we all know perfect conditions seldom exist. These are just a few of my thoughts and opinions.
“On Sunday before I left I sprayed my large Elberta drenching it with Imidan/Captan. My other trees had been sprayed two to three days prior.”.
My guess about what went wrong in your case was the timing. If you sprayed Elberta a few days earlier like you did other trees, you may have had it covered. Don’t forget, even a day late is too late. These pests can ruin a lot of your fruit in an overnight. It is not an exaggeration. I have experienced it. I have had several “I should have, could have sprayed yesterday” moments.
As they say, timing is everything. Right spray, wrong time, it won’t work. That’s why people suggest monitoring PC/OFM/CM’s emergence so you can time you spraying better.
Guys, how often are you spraying in the early season? PC is a real bugger to control (as you have seen). The commercial spray guides all say to spray every 7 days early in the season, which is what I do.
There is generally a lot of rain to wash things off, and the PC pressure is so ridiculously high here, I get a spray on once a week. If it’s windy, I wait till it’s dark to spray when the wind dies down (or spray when the sun comes up). Obviously you can’t spray in the rain, but if there is a break in the rain (long enough to let the spray dry/set) I spray with a good sticker to hold it on as best as possible.
Even if heavy rains wash the spray off a day or two later, at least the contact insecticide you are using will kill all the PC on the trees, so at a minimum at least more PC will have to move in to damage fruit.
I can’t afford to lose a whole peach crop I’ve worked so hard for, so the spray gets on once a week. Even with intense spray schedule, I still sometimes get a few PC scars on plums (PC’s favorite fruit).
I just put the chemical in until the water turns purple (per instructions).
I used NuFilm 17 as the sticker, 1 teaspoon per gallon.
For Imidan I used 1 Tablespoon per gallon.
I have been rotating fungicides. This time I used Captan 50 2 Tablespoons per gallon.
I use a 4 gallon Chapin sprayer to spray. For my large Elberta I sprayed late Sunday afternoon, using 2 gallons of mix (more than I normally spray) to drench the tree.
My other trees were sprayed on Friday (5/11).
We have been getting heavy rains since Tuesday evening. I had been spraying every 6 to 7 days.
I don’t think you are using enough. From memory (check the label) I think the rate is 5 lbs./ac.
If that’s the case, assuming a full dilute spray of 200 gal./acre, that would mean you would be using 0.4 ounces of imidan per gallon of water.
I don’t know the density of Imidan, but generally powders are considerably less dense than water (like almost 1/2 as dense). If that’s the case, you are only spraying at 60% of the labeled rate.
I’ve not ever used Imdian, but have talked with many commercial growers who have had good results with it. If the rate is correct, and it sounds like the frequency is correct, and sounds like you are mixing a fresh batch each time, if you are still having problems, there could possibly be some resistance issue.