What chemicals are being used in larger orchards

General Fruit Growing
22

Though I did a lot of research my plan ended up being very close to @alan’s Synthetic Spray Guide. I had to change a few things because:

  1. I have pears (which aren’t on the label for many things)

  2. I went with some more local recommendations in a few ways

  3. I went with chemicals that came in smaller water soluble packets (turned out not to matter because EVERY SINGLE PACKET was broken when they got to me).

  4. I added oil+sulfur spray in fall and spring for pear leaf blister mite which was OOC

  5. I added spray for fireblight as I had several pear and apple hit very hard last year and lost two big trees and there are two which I had to cut very severely and they are not well this year. 6.

I am also using a handgun. I tested to see how much water I would need to spray an acre in the manner the label told me to (I don’t have an acre of trees but I did 1/8 acre and multiplied). Then, I mixed according to the label and followed the instructions. They’re pretty specific about how to apply it (to runoff, wet each leaf, etc. ) I haven’t had problems with burning leaves or seeing residue on anything.

This goes with the previous - you figure out how much water you need first. I use more water when the trees are larger and have more leaves. Some of the pesticides do give amounts based on tree size (eg. large/standard vs smaller) or density. I think this is becoming more common because of IPM and you want to use the least amount possible but still completely control.

Also, I got a food/postal scale to measure the chemicals by weight because even with 15-40 gal of water the amount of each chemical I need is still very small.

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