Around The Farm And Home

A number of calls and visits come into the Extension Office at this time of year asking what to spray on fruit trees so they have good, clean fruit. My stock answer is that if you go to your local garden center and ask for an "all purpose fruit spray," this will probably do the best job for you as a backyard fruit grower.

The most important part of having good, clean fruit is timing. Because of this, 1 am incorporating a spray schedule in with this news article. We have already missed the dormant spray, but we can be ready for the pink and bloom sprays. I am putting it in the news article simply because the time to spray and pest control is so important in stone fruit. This schedule will not provide desirable control of brown rot unless Benlate is used in addition to the fungicide in the GPMix, or in addition to Captan. Benlate may also be used after harvest on cherries. The chart is laid out in the following categories: Time to Spray: Materials

for 2.5 gal. spray; Pests to be Controlled. Follow along under' these three headings.

Dormant, before green — 5 tsp. of copper sulfate a"nd 7 Tbls. spray lime and 1 CM soil — leaf euro, scales, mites.

Pink, just before blossoms open — GP mix or 3 Tbls. Imidan 50 percent WP, 7.6 Tbls. Imidan 12.5 percent WP and either 1 Tbls. Benlate 50 percent WP or 5 Tbls. Captan 50 percent WP

— brown rot, aphids.' Bloom- 1 Tbls. Benlate 50 percent WP plus 5 Tbls. Captan 50 percent WP

— Brown rot. 'Petal Fall — Same materials as pink — brown rot, cherry leaf spot, fruit moth, bud moth, curculio.

Shuck Fall, when most shucks have fallen — Same maerials as pink — Same as above.

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