What chemicals are being used in larger orchards

General Fruit Growing
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My father and I have been working in our Pennsylvania orchards with off-the-shelf chemicals with our PTO-powered roller-pump sprayers. While I’m not knocking Bonide, I feel like, at some point, an orchard gets to be too big for little 16-oz and 32-oz bottles of chemicals.

So, I’m asking a couple of things here:

  • What chemicals are being used in orchards that have more than something like 30, 40, 50, or more apple & peach trees?
  • Where are you getting these chemicals?

My grandfather and great grandfather had larger orchards but were able to be rather successful with their sprays however, neither are alive so, I can’t ask them what they used. I’m sure what they used is no longer made due to the EPA restrictions these days. I’m pretty sure they used some sort of a wettable powder from time to time - based on the residue I used to have to wash off the apples around the time we’d pick them.

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Here is a fungicide for a start

https://www.keystonepestsolutions.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=602

Here is a common insecticide

@PAHillWilliam

It would be best to use keystone since they are in Pennsylvania. Shipping is much of the costs when your getting 30, 40, 50 pounds at a time it will be much cheaper from a nearby supplier. The savings buying by the pound is huge! Some of these chemicals may require an applicator license.

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It really depends on what you are spraying for.

Some list of chemicals for curc I’ve used:

Actara
Belay

For OFM I’ve used:
Assail
Delegate
any pyrethroid class, like Mustang Maxx, Warrior II, Brigade, PermUp, etc. Those are also effective on stink bug.

For various pathogenic fungi (check the label)
Bravo weather stik
Captan 80
Tilt
Indar
Inspire Super
Ziram

For herbicides I’ve used:
Glyphosate
Glufosinate
Chateau
Alion
etc.

I’ve gotten some chemicals from Helena (there is a warehouse about 30 miles from me).

Deerfield supplies in KY

Pinnacle

Premier Ag in MO

MOKAN chemical

Some suppliers just carry row crop pesticides, not specialty crop pesticides. You just have to check. Many chemicals are labeled for row crops and specialty crops (like Mustang Maxx).

Lots of this stuff requires an applicator license, so I suggest you get your private applicator license.

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I have 50+ trees and they are mostly large.

I order what I can from the local farm co-op but mostly, in my area, they don’t have what I need so I order from keystone.

I have looked at the recommendations for commercial orchards in VA (where I am) as well as the recommendations for home gardens. It took me a very long time to figure out what to do. I do everything by the label.

I also got my certified private applicator license. Basically just so I could buy the more concentrated versions of things - it’s much cheaper than buying 10 diluted 16oz containers.

As an aside, I have a much less fancy sprayer than you and wish I had something nicer (and a tractor).

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Yes ago, back in the 70’s I could get smaller containers of Imidan and Captan. I do not believe I can find smaller containers of Imidan. I can still find smaller containers of Captan. That was basically all I used to spray my trees back then. Good or bad? I have no idea , all I know is that it seemed to work for me back then. I got that recommendation from a local big orchard owner in my area.

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UC IPM is a good resource for spray recommendations. Or Google “Peach fungicide efficacy” or whatever you’re looking for, there are plenty of tables with recommendations. When it comes to fungicides you’ll need to have several to rotate through different groups as well as multi site (M_ group) ones. Same goes for insecticides as well.

My recommendations would be for insecticides, I’m on the west coast though so we have much different issues.

Assail (very flexible label, takes care of a lot huge range of pests, we use it for beetles primarily, but also rotate it in for codling moth it also takes care of a lot of pests during dormant sprays)

Altacor (Primarily for caterpillars. You can replace with Voliam Flexi, which takes care of aphids as well, but it has a neonic in it as well so you would need to be careful using Assail as well. You can also use Exirel, which is much better than Altacor, but very expensive. Exirel is supposed to be excellent on SWD, but we’ve never used it for that.)

Delegate (Primarily for caterpillars, but also very effective on SWD)

A pyrethroid, but those are all restricted use a need a license

Some sort of miticide, not usually a huge problem for us, but we have them just in case. Assail and pyrethroids can cause flares.

I wouldn’t recommend Imidan, because it has a very long reentry period, we only use it for codling moth, but Altacor and Delegate work just as well. Their reentry is 4 hours instead of 7 days here.

Again these are just for west coast pests, but it covers caterpillars, beetles, SWD, scale, aphids, mites.

Fungicides you can get away with one of the premixes

Pristine
Inspire Super
One of the Luna’s (Check the labels, some crops aren’t on some of them)

And then one other with a different group number. Or just get two premixes with 4 different group numbers.

Then also Bravo or Ziram, I much prefer Bravo because it’s much safer. We don’t use copper anymore because it can flare bacterial canker around here.

This takes care of most stuff. Occasionally there is a particular problem that requires specific fungicides though.

For herbicides we use

Roundup
Glusfosinate(I just get whatever generic Keystone is shipping)
Aim(Venue is probably better if you’re only doing orchards because Aim drifts a lot, but I use Aim for a lot of other purposes.)
There’s plenty of pre emergent options that vary a lot in weeds controlled and price, so that takes a lot of label reading based on what your biggest problems are.

Finally there are adjuvants that must be added to some sprays to improve their efficacy. These can also burn crops, so again this takes a lot of label reading. We mostly use a non ionic called preference, but with herbicides we use crop oil. I just started using one called Dyne Amic which is supposed to be very safe on crops, but I’ve only used it with herbicides so far and it works great.

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How do you like chateau? I need to get some for garlic, so I might put some on the orchard as well. I was going to use goaltender, but had a lot of damage in my onions with it this year due to the weather, so I’m hesitant. So happy I started using Glusfosinate, works better than Roundup for a lot of our weeds and with Powermax I’ve occasionally had damage even though I only use it dormant. Thinking about moving to a glyphosate without all the myriad of surfactants included in Powermax. I’d rather add my own, so I know what’s in there.

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I like Chateau. It does a good job on our weeds for about the first 2-3 months of spring, depending on how much rain. I’ve mixed with with Prowl before, and it works a little better that way.

Chateau is in the same group as Goal and Fomesafen. I use Goal on tomatoes and Fomesafen on pumpkins. They all work about the same, as far as I can tell.

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If you are in driving distance of commercial orchard or vegetable production, a Co-op or Farm Supply store will have the products you need in open case quantities. Especially fungicides that are labeled both for fruit and vegetables.

Penn State’s Tree Fruit Production Guide covers everything you need for commercial production. Especially useful is the vast info on every labeled chemical by trade name and active ingredients.

If you are using a simple handgun to spray, be mindful of not over applying and leaving residues. All these fruit sprays just need a fine mist and not spraying to runoff. Customers are not going to want to see white stuff on their fruit even though it might easily was off.
A tank mix of Imidan, Captan and Topin M is fine in early season but late cover sprays are going to be a mess. At least today’s extremely low volume brown rot sprays don’t leave visible reside on peaches.

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Yeah we use fomesafen on pumpkins as well. Goaltender works fantastically on brassicas, and I hadn’t had problems on onions before this year. We had a lot of rain and heat in the spring and had some soil erode to a low spot in the field and everything there got a lot of damage. We had some volunteer pumpkins come up in that spot too and I left a few to see what would happen, they had some crinkling when they emerged, but are now doing just fine, much better than the onions…

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You said Keystone was in PA but, on their Contact Us page, it lists an address in ID. Are you sure they’re in PA? With a name like Keystone, and the photo of the whitetail on their page, I thought the same but I always check the Contact Us page on these sites and, as I said, I found an address in Idaho.

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I’m mostly looking to deal with pests and disease. I too use Glyphosate; I typically hit the area within the dripline of my trees and the fencerow twice a season.

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I am, in fact, using a spray gun. So far, the stuff I’ve used says to spray until runoff but, I get what you’re saying. However, I do not plan to sell my fruit; I’m just looking to provide for my family. I’m selfish like that. :grin:

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Yes, one thing I use also makes use of an additive that helps it do its job. I use Reliant (Agri-Fos) with Pentra-Bark and, I must take great care not to get any on the leaves of my trees. It helps me control Fire Blight but, it’ll burn those leaves with the quickness if I’m not careful.

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If you are using Bonide products or other pesticides sold to the general public, they are very dilute even before being mixed. So they take into account homeowners spraying.

I can’t think of the chemical but one I used said do not spray to run off or it will burn the leaves. The main point is to read the entire label for application directions on the commercial products as they assume the products are being applied with airblast or other low volume equipment. My brown rot spray of Quash was only 4 oz to the acre. Expensive stuff that work good but gets more expensive trying to put on by hand and not waste it. I am fortunate to still have my orchard sprayer from my years past as a commercial grower. Fun seeing the Japanese Beetles blown out of the trees in a deadly mist of Carbaryl. Worst year ever for those!

Martin’s Produce Supplies in Shippensburg, PA is a good place to get chemicals that Keystone might not have.

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I would check out a spray guide for commercial Apples and Peaches from PSU.

I’m not familiar with the guide for your state but the guides I have seen tend to be pretty complex. Don’t let the complexity overwhelm you.

I would start by identifying the insecticides and fungicides that are registered for both Apples and Peaches so you don’t need to buy so many different chemicals. These guides normally have tables that list the efficacy against various pests. Pay attention to the pests you need to manage and the efficacy of the various chemicals against those pests. Check out the signal word and the PHI. You will need a private applicators license to purchase some of those chemicals. The test for the license is not hard and it will give you some of the knowledge you need to succeed and to be safe. Chemicals normally come in a size that will last many years on a small orchard which is why you want to look for chemicals that can be used on both Peaches and Apples.

We have used many of the same chemicals that I see on Olpea’s list.

A PTO powered roller pump type sprayer sounds perfect for your objective. You can turn the pressure up high enough to go a good job and even construct a type of vertical boom with mulple nozzles. Goodluck!

You can price the chemicals through a local supplier and also through a mail order supplier. Shipping is expensive and when comparing prices including shipping we are able to buy most of what we need from a local vendor for less than mail order.

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I really failed to control PC this year on apples using Assail. I have to wait quite a while for bloom to finish in a mixed orchard. I have been using Neo-Nic at petal fall thinking it’s systemic nature would be best to control OFM / CM that might have already laid or hatched eggs.

I will try Actara or Belay next year if you think they would give the best PC control. Belay is about half the cost pre acre but the $500 price tag per container is a hard to get past.

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They dont really advertise it

Screenshot_20240716_131707_Samsung Internet
Screenshot_20240716_131707_Samsung Internet1080×1890 307 KB

See the red print @PAHillWilliam

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They ship from both locations depending on stock. I’m in Oregon and they’ve shipped to me a few times from PA. They have much lower prices than the agronomy center we usually use even with shipping added. They have really good shipping prices as well. I’ve got 10 gallons of stuff for $50 shipping. eBay is also worth checking. I’ve got some Movento for less than half the normal price there.

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They’re using neonicotinoids here for the very large tomatoes fields now. An emergency order because of a leaf hopper spreading tomato wilt. Money rules California. Not a word about the bees or pollinators that will be dead.

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