What sprays or treatments do you use in your home orchard/wildlife plantings?

b116757 said:
Only thing I will spray for is cambium minor attack under the bark and that’s only if I catch it early enough otherwise my fruit trees receive no spray at all. It’s sink or swim for my tree’s.
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If I didnt spray, all 50 of my trees would sink. They barely produce fruit with spray

While I spend an inordinate amount of time with my fruit trees and thoroughly enjoy Every fruit produced - I would advise others in my area to never plant a fruit tree.
 
I hear you swampcat I’m zone 6b and I’m probably about on the southern range of most apple varieties range without a bit of help even I struggle with the cambium minors killing trees that where I grew up was a complete nonissue with apples, pears and crabs are a better choice for me here and even pears have to be very FB resistant to make it. I can drive around very old homesteads around this area and find old pear trees you will not however find any old apple trees around here unless they see some sort of human intervention to keep them alive left on their own and they will be toast in about 10 years with no assistance.
 
We all want a little more than just food plots. Results for your effort, they are much more efficient.

Malathion I'm pretty sure it's 1.5oz per gallon. I up ti to 2oz/gallon with my backpack leaf blower sprayer. My young trees can still be taken care of with a 4ft exension wand. 3 year old spring bareroots. Probably can go 1 more year with that setup on a solo 2 gallon pump bottle. Can also use a ATV sprayer wand with a good high pressure 12v pump. Got a pentair 4gpm 90psi as plan C.

Juicing up the bonide fruit tree works good too. MAke it 50% heavier when you need the fungicides. When bugs are more the problem june-august use normal ratio, but add 1 to 1.5oz of malathion. Here in zone 5/6 NY, japanese beetle traps last weekend in june / july 1st seems to be the sweet spot. They come out of the ground, so the more you spray, the less they'll be ext year, or so it seems for me.

Spray neighboring vegetation and the grass around it too when things get bad.

Personal experiences, spray mid may, watch for a good time in june if not mid june, then spray early july when you see japanese beetles cming around. Spot spraying caterpillar spots helps too. I have used wasp spray. I think it locally damages the leaves, but saves a good chunk of the tree. Hard to tell for sure, that area is usually in bad shape before the spray. Think they are light oil based.

fireblight isnt a big issue here in NY. CAR can get bad. Scab is probably the most expensive treatment both time and money. Going to fight that with macoun empire mcintosh granny smith some and I think golden delicious. These are my home apple trees. I bring malathino to camp and hit them when I can, between 1 and 2 sprays. Much more nature up there and less AG. Soo natural bug population is higher there in general.
 
I spray with liquid fertilizer I've made from Comfrey and other vigorously growing plants available at the time like red clover, lambsquarter, wild lettuce, and ragweed. My intention is to provide my trees with nutrients to make them healthier, like calcium, magnesium, sulphur, boron, copper, manganese, and molybdenum.

I'm of the opinion it's much more beneficial to try and make my trees as healthy as possible, rather than using repeating sprays of poison.

It's also wise to choose tree varieties that are known to grow healthier.

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Barndog56 said:
I spray with liquid fertilizer I've made from Comfrey and other vigorously growing plants available at the time like red clover, lambsquarter, wild lettuce, and ragweed. My intention is to provide my trees with nutrients to make them healthier, like calcium, magnesium, sulphur, boron, copper, manganese, and molybdenum.

I'm of the opinion it's much more beneficial to try and make my trees as healthy as possible, rather than using repeating sprays of poison.

It's also wise to choose tree varieties that are known to grow healthier.

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I would guess it is easier to grow most fruit trees in WI than the deep south. I have tried - and had no success
 
I'd guess to grow stone fruit and apple trees in the southern and southeastern US you'd need to really up your fungicide game. Immunox is weak against brown and other rots. Indar is a better choice. Luna may be better yet. Tank mixing them with a protectant fungicide like Captan or Topsin M is always recommended. Adding a spreader/ sticker also helps to extend protection. Tactic and Nufilm are both good quality offerings. Making sure your spray tank water is acidic is also very important. Captan drastically loses effectiveness at much over 6 on the ph scale.
 
Interesting Homer, thanks for that bit of info. I thought it would be easier in the south. I am in 6b I believe.
 
hunts_with_stick said:
Interesting Homer, thanks for that bit of info. I thought it would be easier in the south. I am in 6b I believe.
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6b would be about the northern edge of the areas I mentioned. Depending on where in 6b, it may be quite easy.
Clearly, it's easier to grow peaches and many other stone fruits in 6b than it is in 4b and lower. Reasons are very different though
 
Good pruning can offset fungicide and antibiotic use on trees. Lets them dry out.

Several member here spray only on younger trees. Although I do spray my mature trees, they get much less damage than young ones. A few whacked branches and a young tree is behind a year or maybe dead.
 
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bigboreblr said:
Good pruning can offset fungicide and antibiotic use on trees. Lets them dry out.

Several member here spray only on younger trees. Although I do spray my mature trees, they get much less damage than young ones. A few whacked branches and a young tree is behind a year or maybe dead.
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Your first sentence is inaccurate.
 
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