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Fruit Tree spray schedules and early gardening tips
By John Fulton

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[March 28, 2015]  Home Fruit Tree Spray Schedules  - The first regular spray of the year is applied when the green tissue is ½ inch out of the bud. This spray for homeowners usually consists of a multipurpose fruit spray (and sulfur if needed for powdery mildew).

Multipurpose fruit spray has been re-formulated to include malathion, captan, and carbaryl (methoxychlor was eliminated from the mixture several years ago). This same mixture would be used when the fruit buds are in the pink stage (when fruit buds show color). After that, persistence and consistence pays off as you spray with the same mixture about every 10 days until we get to within two weeks of harvest. In our area, we need to continue spraying this late because of apple maggot and sooty mold.

This spray schedule will also control borers on apples and pears, if you also thoroughly spray the trunk and main limbs of the trees. On non-bearing, young fruit trees where borers have attacked, you can spray the trunks every two weeks during June and July with a multipurpose fruit spray.

The spray schedule for peaches, nectarines, apricots, and plums varies a little bit. The dormant spray for them uses captan fungicide. This is the only spray that controls leaf curl and plum pockets. The next spray is when fruit buds show color with captan, followed by captan at bloom. When the husks begin to pull away from the base of the fruit we would then spray with sulfur, captan, and malathion. This mix would then be used every 10 days or so to within a week of harvest.

For borers on the peach group, you can spray or paint the trunk only with carbaryl (Sevin) on June 15, July 15, and August 15. We walk a tightrope with the loss of some of the insecticides since carbaryl can cause fruit drop or thinning on the peach group and some apples.

Fire blight has also been prevalent the past few years. Spray programs to combat this bacteria usually include spraying fixed copper as a dormant spray - or when green material is visible, but before a half inch out of the bud, and then a follow-up of streptomycin beginning at bloom (and on a four day schedule for no more than four sprays total). And, this is after you did a great job of pruning out material infected by fire blight to begin with.

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 Garden Reminders

Any time now, when soil conditions permit, it is time to plant things such as asparagus crowns, leaf lettuce, onions, peas, potatoes, radishes, rhubarb plants, spinach, and turnips. It is spinach sown last fall has been thriving this spring!

Give it another week or two and it is time to plant such things as broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower. As with most things, a little bit of planning goes a long way in preventing problems later on.

Questions abound regarding fertilizing the garden. The rule-of-thumb rate for fertilizing flower or vegetable gardens is about 15 pounds of 10-10-10 per 1000 square foot of area. This is without soil test information. If you are using 12-12-12 or 13-13-13 fertilizer, use about 12 pounds per 1000 square foot. Soil pH may need to be adjusted due to the addition of lime and sulfur, which are acidifying. Generally, about 4.25 pounds of lime neutralizes the acidity from one pound of nitrogen or sulfur. Beware of pH requirements for different plants before you go out to apply lime. Surrounding plants are also affected. Examples would be blueberries, rhododendron, azalea, pin oaks, and many evergreens.

[By JOHN FULTON, COUNTY EXTENSION DIRECTOR SERVING LOGAN, MENARD, AND SANGAMON COUNTIES]

 

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