One spray chemical for apple trees

[bigboreblr]

Swampcat,

with the plums, try plucking off 1/2 of the flowers of them and see if they get bigger fruit from less stress on the tree.

I am probably past the 1 spray limit already. I forgot the exact one, but I bought fungicide for my spruce trees. I am seeing those orange octopuses on my cedar trees already, apple cedar rust...... Think I bought chlorothalonil

 

[SwampCat]

Swampcat,

with the plums, try plucking off 1/2 of the flowers of them and see if they get bigger fruit from less stress on the tree.

I am probably past the 1 spray limit already. I forgot the exact one, but I bought fungicide for my spruce trees. I am seeing those orange octopuses on my cedar trees already, apple cedar rust...... Think I bought chlorothalonil

Just went by my biggest plum tree - it has died in the last three day. Typically, my plum trees make it three or four years and then die. This one following the same path. I think I will give up on the plums.

 

[bigboreblr]

Just went by my biggest plum tree - it has died in the last three day. Typically, my plum trees make it three or four years and then die. This one following the same path. I think I will give up on the plums.

I went with asian plums. Supposedly, they dont need to be caged up. So far the snowshoe hares have been nice to them.

 

[TreeDaddy]

Just went by my biggest plum tree - it has died in the last three day. Typically, my plum trees make it three or four years and then die. This one following the same path. I think I will give up on the plums.

Have you tried chickasaw or sand plum?

bill

 

[SwampCat]

Have you tried chickasaw or sand plum?

bill

I just got some chickasaw and American plum this year

 

[Native Hunter]

I eat a few of my apples sometimes.

 

[b116757]

I would never tar feather anyone for spraying my not spraying is as much a function of laziness as anything else so I choose trees accordingly for my lack of care and they better be tough.

 

[R.E. Gould]

OK - At the risk of being tarred and feathered by all of the "Absolutely No Chemicals" practictioners, I will post a spray schedule which I found on the Michigan Sportsman forum several years ago. Most of my apple trees are strictly wildlife trees so, like many of you, I don't really worry too much about spots on the apples - the deer care even less. That being said I do also have a "People Orchard" where we grow apples (and a few cherry trees) for human consumption. We eat them fresh (Honeycrisp & Wealthy esp), my wife freezes a lot of them for pies (Cortland and others), and she also dehydrates and vacuum seals a lot of them for gifts. I don't want any spots or insects chewing on these apples so we do spray them.

Some of you may recall a series of articles authored by Bill Mayo in Quality Whitetails magazine many years ago. One thing he mentioned that I took note of was that if you are only going to spry once, the most important spraying would be the "Dormant Oil" spray prior to bud break. I also like to spray a fungicide (Captan - also recommended by Bill Mayo) once, prior to bloom. I personally don't spray anything when the trees are in bloom or blossoming as it is critical that you avoid killing any pollinators (bees primarily around here). After petal fall a MultiPurpose (including insecticide) spray is recommended. Commercial growers will spray at this point every 10-14 days as indicated on the spray schedule below. I like to spray at least once or sometimes twice after petal fall = especially if I note any insects in the trees.

View attachment 43094

These are the products I mostly use. Bill Mayo also recommended Imidan for an insecticide and I used to use it but the last time I read the label they were recommending almost a full HazMat suit while applying so I have shied away from it in more recent years.

View attachment 43095

Who doesn't like sinking their teeth into a nice beautiful home grown apple?

View attachment 43096

or cherry....

View attachment 43097

View attachment 43098

or fresh cherry pie....

View attachment 43099

or pie alamode?

View attachment 43100

Sorry guys...but I really enjoy eating these things so if I have to drag the tank sprayer out once in a while to get great eating fruit... I am OK with that.

Amen! I grafted about 40 no spray wildlife trees this spring that will be on their own, but if you want access to a lot of great varieties, you have to spray. Captan is great for scab, but doesn't work on rust, which is a huge problem in my area for a lot of apples. I use Immunox starting with the second spray at the pink stage and a few thereafter. Mancozeb works great on rust, but that 66 day pre harvest interval creeps me out, and it has the consistency of runny peanut butter. After petal fall I use Malathion for plum curculio, along with Immunox. I got my hands on some Imidan, but decided that 7 day - RE-ENTRY! - period made it way too hot for my backyard. Usually my petal fall spray is my last one, but this year I think I'll keep on going with Captan for cosmetics (controlling fly speck and sooty blotch).

 

[NorthWI]

Great info here so though i would add some questions instead of starting a new thread. I planted 70 apple trees between 2019 and 2020 and only started seeing bad insect damage for the first time this year, so I want to start spraying. I'm in Northern WI zone 3-4. I have a 25 gallon UTV sprayer ( from fleet farm) that has a spray wond. Is it ok to put the dormant oil through that? Will it glog up? Does dormant oil come in concentrate as well? Thank you in advance.

 

[homerj1]

Great info here so though i would add some questions instead of starting a new thread. I planted 70 apple trees between 2019 and 2020 and only started seeing bad insect damage for the first time this year, so I want to start spraying. I'm in Northern WI zone 3-4. I have a 25 gallon UTV sprayer ( from fleet farm) that has a spray wond. Is it ok to put the dormant oil through that? Will it glog up? Does dormant oil come in concentrate as well? Thank you in advance.

I personally won't use the same sprayer for fruit trees that I use for spraying herbicides.

Most fruit tree oils now aren't "dormant" they can be applied at pretty much anytime of the year as long as you follow the label. I'm not aware of any oil concentrates. Oil shouldn't clog up your sprayer as long as you follow the directions.

 

[Wild Thing]

Great info here so though i would add some questions instead of starting a new thread. I planted 70 apple trees between 2019 and 2020 and only started seeing bad insect damage for the first time this year, so I want to start spraying. I'm in Northern WI zone 3-4. I have a 25 gallon UTV sprayer ( from fleet farm) that has a spray wond. Is it ok to put the dormant oil through that? Will it glog up? Does dormant oil come in concentrate as well? Thank you in advance.

As Homer says - you may want to consider a dedicated fruit tree sprayer, however, you can use your ATV sprayer for your fruit tree spraying after spraying herbicides, as long as you thoroughly clean it out, including the spray wand hose, prior to spraying the fruit trees. You might consider cleaning your sprayers with this cleaner from TSC:



I often use Bonide fruit tree spray concentrate on my apple trees...


but I noticed that after rinsing out my backpack sprayer there would still be a while film in the sprayer tank...


but after cleaning it out with the TSC cleaner, it came out clean as a whistle.


I decided to clean out all of my sprayers this year. I mixed up enough for about 25-30 gallons in my 110 gallon 3 Pt sprayer and let it sit overnight. The next day, I set some empty jugs under 3 of the spray nozzles and collected some of the cleaner and then used that to clean out my backpack sprayer and some other 1 and 2 gallon sprayers as well. They all came out clean and it seemed to clean the nozzles as well.


I have used Gordon's Dormant Oil Spray concentrate in the past...


But the most economical spray I have found is Hi-Yield - 1 gallon of concentrate makes 42 gallons of spray - for only $20. Some folks use regular vegetable oil so I don't think you need to get too fancy with the dormant oil spray. It doesn't clog up your sprayer but you do want to clean the sprayer after use. Years ago I read an article by Bill Mayo in Quality Whitetails magazine. He said if you are only going to spray once per year - the most important spraying in his opinion would be the dormant oil spray.

 

[homerj1]

As far as using tank cleaners go, just be double sure you follow the instructions if you've used the sprayer for 2-4D or 2-4DB. They can oftentimes leave residue in rubber hoses/fittings even after cleaning the tank.

 

[Peeps]

Not a fan of chemicals either, but if I want any apples to grow to maturity I need to spray imidan early and often to take care of the plum curculio. These pest are more common in orchards near wooded areas or trashy fields. They hit the fruit when it’s just forming and can do major damage.

I don’t care how disease resistant your apple varieties are, you still need to do some pest management, and while your spraying for pest you might as well mix some fungicide as well.

Imadan and Captan mixed together

 

[yoderjac]

Not a fan of chemicals either, but if I want any apples to grow to maturity I need to spray imidan early and often to take care of the plum curculio. These pest are more common in orchards near wooded areas or trashy fields. They hit the fruit when it’s just forming and can do major damage.

I don’t care how disease resistant your apple varieties are, you still need to do some pest management, and while your spraying for pest you might as well mix some fungicide as well.

Apples for people...I agree. Apples for wildlife, not so. There are wild crab apples that are used by wildlife. I have plenty of DR apples that have lots of pests and would yield much better if I pruned and sprayed, but I don't, and they are still a good wildlife food source.

 

[Teeder]

After trying for 3 years to get trees from Blue Hill, I'm sure as heck not letting the Japanese beetles wipe the new babies out in their first year! I'm gladly spraying to kill every one of those damn buggers. Once the trees get established, I'll likely not spray anymore.

 

[Wild Thing]

Imadan and Captan mixed together

I used that for quite a few years but the Imidan label kinda scared me off so I have been using milder insecticides which work pretty well also.

 

[NorthWI]

As Homer says - you may want to consider a dedicated fruit tree sprayer, however, you can use your ATV sprayer for your fruit tree spraying after spraying herbicides, as long as you thoroughly clean it out, including the spray wand hose, prior to spraying the fruit trees. You might consider cleaning your sprayers with this cleaner from TSC:

View attachment 44954

I often use Bonide fruit tree spray concentrate on my apple trees...
View attachment 44956

but I noticed that after rinsing out my backpack sprayer there would still be a while film in the sprayer tank...
View attachment 44957

but after cleaning it out with the TSC cleaner, it came out clean as a whistle.
View attachment 44958

I decided to clean out all of my sprayers this year. I mixed up enough for about 25-30 gallons in my 110 gallon 3 Pt sprayer and let it sit overnight. The next day, I set some empty jugs under 3 of the spray nozzles and collected some of the cleaner and then used that to clean out my backpack sprayer and some other 1 and 2 gallon sprayers as well. They all came out clean and it seemed to clean the nozzles as well.
View attachment 44955

I have used Gordon's Dormant Oil Spray concentrate in the past...
View attachment 44959

But the most economical spray I have found is Hi-Yield - 1 gallon of concentrate makes 42 gallons of spray - for only $20. Some folks use regular vegetable oil so I don't think you need to get too fancy with the dormant oil spray. It doesn't clog up your sprayer but you do want to clean the sprayer after use. Years ago I read an article by Bill Mayo in Quality Whitetails magazine. He said if you are only going to spray once per year - the most important spraying in his opinion would be

As Homer says - you may want to consider a dedicated fruit tree sprayer, however, you can use your ATV sprayer for your fruit tree spraying after spraying herbicides, as long as you thoroughly clean it out, including the spray wand hose, prior to spraying the fruit trees. You might consider cleaning your sprayers with this cleaner from TSC:

View attachment 44954

I often use Bonide fruit tree spray concentrate on my apple trees...
View attachment 44956

but I noticed that after rinsing out my backpack sprayer there would still be a while film in the sprayer tank...
View attachment 44957

but after cleaning it out with the TSC cleaner, it came out clean as a whistle.
View attachment 44958

I decided to clean out all of my sprayers this year. I mixed up enough for about 25-30 gallons in my 110 gallon 3 Pt sprayer and let it sit overnight. The next day, I set some empty jugs under 3 of the spray nozzles and collected some of the cleaner and then used that to clean out my backpack sprayer and some other 1 and 2 gallon sprayers as well. They all came out clean and it seemed to clean the nozzles as well.
View attachment 44955

I have used Gordon's Dormant Oil Spray concentrate in the past...
View attachment 44959

But the most economical spray I have found is Hi-Yield - 1 gallon of concentrate makes 42 gallons of spray - for only $20. Some folks use regular vegetable oil so I don't think you need to get too fancy with the dormant oil spray. It doesn't clog up your sprayer but you do want to clean the sprayer after use. Years ago I read an article by Bill Mayo in Quality Whitetails magazine. He said if you are only going to spray once per year - the most important spraying in his opinion would be the dormant oil spray.
View attachment 44961

Thank you for the good info.

 

[yoderjac]

After trying for 3 years to get trees from Blue Hill, I'm sure as heck not letting the Japanese beetles wipe the new babies out in their first year! I'm gladly spraying to kill every one of those damn buggers. Once the trees get established, I'll likely not spray anymore.

Yep, if you are dealing with a handful of expensive trees it makes perfect sense. For wildlife, I went with getting cheap scions from GRIN or other sources and grafting to cheap rootstock. The only real investment I have is time to graft, plant and cage. Cages cost more than trees. I'm shooting for trees that will produce for wildlife for many years after I'm gone. Some will get hit and die, but those that survive and produce will do so with no care long after I'm gone. For those that don't make it, I'll reuse the cages. I have way too many balls in the air. If I had a small property or were planting a few trees for attraction, the strategy of maintaining them to maximize production would make more sense. I'm looking for lower intensity more distributed food for long term food rather than concentrations for attraction.

 

[R.E. Gould]

I used that for quite a few years but the Imidan label kinda scared me off so I have been using milder insecticides which work pretty well also.

Yeah, I got my hands on some Imidan but that 7 day *NO RE-ENTRY* period along with that fierce organophosphate stink that made its way through multiple ziplock bags scared me off from using it. I put the triple bagged pouch into a heavy duty plastic container, sealed it tight and brought it to the hazardous waste drop-off.

 

[Derek Reese 29]

Instead of spraying some type of 'cide' on my trees, I hit them with a micronutrient foliar spray a couple times a year. Has worked so far but will be tested this year as I'll have more trees hitting production size.

I'm going to start planting guilds around my trees in hopes of further lowering the need for any 'cide' sprays.

can I ask how it worked this year?