Evil. Pure evil. Straight from the bowels of H E double hockystick. Geez.

As I understand it, my best CAR weapons are Ferbam and Immunox. According to Scott & Jellyman, the Ferbam is sprayed at bud break and pedal fall. I was always confused about the term "bud break", but after seeing a landscaping show on TV, they said "bud break" is when the leaf bud starts to emerge and you start to see green. (That might be obvious to everyone else, but I was able to imagine bud-break meaning many different things) I have now translated this to be basically green tip. Hopefully others agree. This is when I'll be spraying Immunox too. If you are already beyond that, then I'm not sure if it will help or not. Though, if I had either, I might try it anyway. Do you have Immunox or Ferbam? If not, then youÂll probably want to get one of the two for next year.
-Glenn

I have Rally, which replaced Nova. My local nursery fella uses it on his orchard with great success.

Nice shots Thomis, how long ago was your last rain? I think it takes rain to get those demons to start releasing their devil spawn. You can expect them to continue doing so for weeks to come, oh joy! Don't feel too bad, my tiny little town is in a sea of cedars surrounded by many square miles of cedars in pastures. Thanks for reminding me to go gall hunting, no rain in the past month or more but soon. I expect one of these next rains will awaken those devils from hades. My apples are starting into green-tip slowly. Immunox worked well for me last year, the 1st I tried it. It's application schedule can begin at tight cluster from what I've read and continue on 7-10 day intervals through 1st cover, a protectant fungicide is recommended tank mixed with Immunox.

Some at this site haven't had any problem with resistance to Immunox. For what it's worth, Immunox is a sterol-inhibiting fungicide that apparently can have resistance problems if not rotated with another class of fungicide, like one of the strobilurins. I guess ideally you'd spray a SI then rotate to "Stroby" then back to Immunox, etc.. I think all the Immunox label says is to not use it more than 12 times in one season. Personally, I don't want to screw up the best tool I have (my wife ruins all of my tools for me), so I mix in a protectant with the Immunox. That is currently the best I can do.

Hi Michael357-
Can you clarify what you mean by adding a "protectant"? Which protectant are you adding? I was planning on just shooting it straight. Also, I wasn't planning on spraying it anywhere near 12 times. I was hoping to just use it twice like my Ferbam... though, perhaps I'd need to do it a few more times to take me from Petal Fall to 1st cover at the 7-10 day interval.

Here's an embarasingly simple question. Can you define "First Cover"? I know it is the stage after pedal fall, but I havn't been able to find out exactly what it means. I'm sure it has something to do with the leaf, but I'm not sure what. I've been Googling for the last 20 minutes with no luck yet. It's not on my Critical Spring Temperatures For Fruit And Bud Development Stages or my Apple Growth Development Reference. I'm now waiting for an embarrisingly simple answer. :-)

Thanks in advance,
-Glenn

P.S. Thomis - I love the fact that you took the shotgun to it. Awesome.

Fellas, our last rain was a doozy. It rained from Thursday through Saturday. We got 2". I saw the gall Sunday morning after the rain stopped. I contacted my local tree supplier, he is fairly close in proximity, and deals with the same issues that I do, so I take his advice and expertise very seriously. He said even though the gall had been avtivated, it wasn't releasing spores yet and that it's not too late to spray but I should do so in less than a week.

I don't know what first cover is and I don't use Immunox so I cannot comment on the protectant...

And yes, it felt good to blow that thing out of the tree!

Glenn,

First cover is about a week to 10 days after petal fall, depending on pest pressure. A protectant is a non-systemic that offers no "kick-back" action. Kick-back is where the fungicide will kill the fungus once it's established on/in the tissue because of systemic action. SI's and strob's are systemic. Captan is an example of a protectant, which prevents infection (of scab, not CAR) but has no kick-back.

Thanks Olpea!

Ok, got it. I'll be spraying the Immunox from tight cluster until 1st cover.

I had already planned on spraying Captan to prevent PC at Petal fall and again 10-14 days later, so at least for some of the time, I might as well mix the Immunox and Captain to get the protectant function. Perhaps I even work it into the earlier Immunox sprays for the same reason... But, if I do, I need to make sure to avoid the dormant oil spray by 2 weeks to avoid phototoxicity.

Hopefully by next year I'll have this spraying thing down to a calendar science. With dates, pictures, reasons, and notes.

Thanks as always,
-Glenn

Thomis: your shots inspried me to go out CAR huntin this afternoon. Found some that hadn't gotten their wetting yet and they looked like they had short dark spines. Then, I put one in water and, within a couple of hours, the spines started getting longer and thicker and turned rust colored. I'll leave my experiment running for a few more days to see what happens. One source I read said that leaves are most susceptible when they are 3-7 days old making sprays most important from pink until 3 wks post bloom. I guess the danger period could extend until the galls are done sporulating around you or until all the leaves are mature enough to fight off an infection(?), whichever comes first. Rust does require a wet plant surface to take hold I read somewhere else. Two years ago I discovered that Jonafree was not very tolerant of CAR and that Freedom was. The poor Jonafree took a whoopin! Last year I didn't have my feces congregated early enough to spray ahead of infection and got symptoms starting to show up. Sprayed w/Immunox + Captan and then again 7 days later. No more CAR! I think my spraying was done for the seeason by then. Freedom does show faint signs in the leaves but I think those go away, can't remember.

Go get'um

Michael

Hey CAR fans: I found this one waiting for a little rain for the first time yesterday and put it in water, 30 hours later, this is how it looks. It started out with dark grey spines about 1/16" long, those swelled up and started elongating within 1 hour immersed in water. Sorry about the focus, still learning.
{{gwi:69023}}

I'm far from experienced here but from what I've read, this is the first time conditions are ideal for CAR in this area. Its been dry and when we did get some cool rain it was a little before the CAR galls woke up yet, in late March. Right now its raining, windy and ~57 degrees. I think its later than usual for conditions to be right. I think I'll tack on another spray in a week or so.

Can anyone suggest a "STICKER" to add to my RALLY (Nova) spray?

Thanks

~thomis

thomis: did you see this post?

Michael

Here is a link that might be useful: Gall pics and observations

I somehow missed it. But I just looked and commented. How'd that one slip by me? I must not have been wearing my gerdenweb ninja outfit that day.

Thomis: I'm not sure if it is too soon to tell but, have you seen any symptoms of infection yet? Did you apply any fungicides, if so, what, and at what growth stage(s)?

Michael

Since there has been a lot of discussion on the best fungicide for CAR, I thought I'd post this table from Cornell. It's more about scab, but the table also rates fungicides for CAR. Interesting Immunox/Rally/Nova gets the best rating (4), and Ferbam, which has worked so well for Don, gets a (2). Just shows what works one place, doesn't another.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cornell fungicide table

That is a great link Olpea. Thanks for sharing it!
-Glenn

Along the same lines, the table that I've always used until now (shown below), also says that Immunox/Rally/Nova should work better than Ferbam for CAR. We'll see if my results from this year show the same. -Glenn

Here is a link that might be useful: Effectiveness of Fungicides for Control of Tree Fruit Diseases