So I am trying to squeeze my spring spray schedule into the weather we have been getting. A fairly typical spring, a few warm days interspersed between the occasional snow storms. Right now it is warm, but there are still 6-12" of snow drifts at the base of some of my fruit trees. And it seems just when the snow is about gone, another storm rolls in. (Forecast is for another 4-8" of snow this Friday)
I have been putting off my pruning (getting a bit late for that here) and spraying as a result. But I am wondering if the trees might be better off if I just pruned and sprayed what I could even if some of the bases are still in snow.
Just curious as to what folks think the best way to deal with this sort fo spring weather is.
I tend to wait til late, and it nearly always works out. I am ahead of you, the apricots are showing pink now. But the peaches are still not there so I am waiting to spray. The later you wait the more effective the doormant spray is, when the bugs and diseases are waking up they are more vulnerable.
My first spray will probably be sulphur on the pears for blister mites, I could do that in the next day or so as the buds are starting to swell.
Here In Southern WI I have already sprayed peaches with chlorothalonil for prevention of peach leaf curl. I debated using copper as I have that too but chloro has worked well for me in the past on this issue and I really don’t use it for anything else. A pint of this stuff lasts me for years.
I will be trying copper at white bud stage on my tart cherries since I got hit last year on one of them with bacterial blight. Hope it works!
I just planted my stone fruit this year. They have all leafed out already. Do I need to spray anything the first year or wait until I see if there are issues?
Is there a beginner’s guide or quick reference guide for to problems to look for? I am afraid I’ll miss something that isn’t obvious.
I know that most people in my area do need to spray copper for peach curl, but so far my peaches look fine.
Have you had peach leaf curl before? I had peach leaf curl two years ago. I thought the only thing that would get rid of it was using copper sprays. If this chlorothalonil works to prevent it, once you have it, then I will switch to that instead. I hate using copper since I have a pond and creek on my property.
Yes I have had curl before. The first 3 years I grew peached I did not spray for it and never had curl (I was warned it would happen). The next year I had a lot of curl! Since then I spray chlorothalon every year sometime late February -April 1s depending on the weather. Often when I spray we still have a few snow piles on the ground but as long as the wind is low and the temps warm enough to spray I like to get it on early.
It has worked well for me. I did find that if I use the same bottle each year that it works good for about 7 years only. If I use it older than that I do not get good results. I learned from experience best to date the bottle after purchase.
Took advantage of this warm dry window of the last few days to get out there and prune and spray. Put on the spring lime-sulfur spray with sticker spreader, so hopefully it will survive the upcoming rain and snow.
Conditions varied quite a bit, some trees in bare ground, on others I was up to my knees in snow. I was surprised to see some of the trees had begun bud swelling and even made some real progress to that end. did not seem to matter if they were in bare ground or covered in snow. Guess the air temps matter more for this than ground temps.
Chlorthalonil is recognized as more effective than copper to control leaf curl. I generally try to spray it in the fall sometime after at least about 80% leaf drop. With that treatment I rarely see any leaf curl. When I do, it’s only a few isolated leaves.
I suspect MikeC is worried about persistence. If that’s the case, chlorothalonil has a half life of anywhere from days to months depending on the environmental conditions. Copper never breaks down.
Ideally you’d want to spray for leaf curl before the bud scales loosen. I sprayed the orchard last fall, but didn’t get time to spray my backyard orchard until about a couple weeks ago.
I generally just do one spray of chloro and it takes care of PLC. The last couple years I sprayed a little copper in the very early spring, but that was to try to get the ice nucleating bacteria down, not for leaf curl.