Today I sprayed lime sulfur spray mixed with dormant oil on my apples, pears, cherries, and plums, plus a few honeyberries and blueberries. The sulfur really stinks. I got to thinking, might that smell drown out the fragrance of the blossoms when they open and keep some of the bees from finding them? Hopefully the smell will be gone by then. I have been sick, so there was no way to spray them sooner. Have a few left to do yet tomorrow. There are actually blossom buds on my Lapins sweet cherry this year, so maybe I will actually get my first taste of them, after waiting since 2008, if we don’t get any late frosts. The tree is much too big to cover. Things are still pretty dormant here, except the honeyberries, which are starting to show flower buds coming.
You should be fine, it’s plenty early enough. I just sprayed copper here in zone 6. I did yesterday though see the first bee which was very cool! Flowers have colors we cannot see, but bees can, so smell is only one way. And as you say, it will soon dissipate.
North,
I sprayed lime sulfur with Nufilm on Sat. Today, I walked around my orchard, I have not smelled a thing. Granted, it’s also quite windy.
Good luck with your Lapins. You are one patient man. If you want other sweet cherries to graft on your Lapins, PM me next winter.
Thanks, Mamuang. I don’t think there are any other sweet cherries with any chance of ripening this far north, except Kristin, which I have. As you have seen from my post, even the Lapins hasn’t given me any cherries yet to eat. There were a couple cherries that seemed to have been forming here and there over the years, but they always disappeared long before they were ripe. Not sure if they just weren’t pollinated, or if the birds got them when still small and green. Even the Evans and Meteors disappeared when about a quarter inch in diameter. I have also planted about 20 Romance cherries, but this year a large dead tree trunk we left up for the woodpeckers fell and totally crushed the oldest two that were just reaching bearing size. I assume they will recover eventually, but it really set them back! I have netting I ordered from Seven Springs Orchard ready and waiting for this season, which looks promising so far, although the Lapins tree is rather large to totally cover…