Generally you start to spray after the fruit has set on the tree...once the little petals on what were the flowers start to fall off (petal fall)... a spray (pesticides) for plum curculio that are very active in the spring looking to make a little slit in your peaches to lay their eggs, which will grow into larvae, eating your fruit from the inside out as they grow bigger as the season progresses (your fruit will most likely fall off early or rot). When we talk pesticides, we usually talk about 4 types (mainly)...be it neonicotinoids, carbamates (Sevin), pyrethrins (i use these) and organophosphates (generally limited in use these days---phosmet)... What you have to figure is what your pest pressures are, when they are active (a growing degree chart helps here) and what you want to spray to limit the damage from these pests. In my growing area here in Wisconsin the season starts with heavy pressure from plum curculio (hits everything, some more then others...lots of damage if left unsprayed)....then it moves to Rose Chafers (a beetle that feeds on foilage and fruit), then its the Japanese Beetles (same as chafers, except even worse)... You also have to watch for borers (peach trees) and of course birds and squirrels...and maybe some bigger animals... So i spray early and just continue coverage until I think PC is done...then i limit my sprays...

Chuck: The Immunox shouldn't harm your bees as long as it isn't IMMUNOX PLUS which also contains an insecticide. Make certain of that first if your bees are active. Are your trees flowering? I doubt the liquid copper stuff is doing a darned thing for the CAR and if the concentration is too high, it can burn foliage. I use Immunox and find it to be very effective. Some folks spray it once around pink I think and a second time at petal fall and get good control. Others like me spray once at 1/2" green stage and repeat at 7 - 10 day intervals through the last spray at petal fall. To be certain, if your galls haven't started sporulating (yours sound like they have) until you are well into bloom you definitely wouldn't have to apply more than a couple of sprays. For example, I could have saved myself one spray if I had waited until the galls sprouted this year to start spraying. Instead I started at the 1/2" green stage. The galls didn't start up until much later. Next year I'll do better. Immunox has post-infection activity for up to about 96 hrs. max. meaning if the tree is infected and you apply within that time frame it should do its job. If you are wondering about bud growth stages, I.E. 1/2" green, look at the link below. Pest control actions are often based on those stages. Hopefully, others will chime in on this for you. Michael Here is a link that might be useful: BUD STAGE PICTURES

Hi Scott- As I gear up to do my dormant Kocide 3000/horticultural oil spray, I've re-read this post, and decided to ask you... I would add that for me I do need to do more than just dormant disease sprays on apples, especially in a year with a very wet spring like last year. Im currently planning on doing this spray (Kocide & oil) twice as Jellyman recommends. Once during the dormant season (Ive winter pruned already), and once just prior to bud break. Are you saying that this alone has not been enough to control your scab, and youve also had to use sulfur during the growing season? If so, can you share the details of your sulfur spraying (when until when, how often, and did that finally solve the problem etc). Would you agree that I probably should just stick with my plan this year (to see how it goes) and then look at doing additional sulfur scab prevention if necessary next year? The dormant spray plan: 1 gallon water, 2 tbsp Kocide 300, 10 tbsp Bonide Horticultural oil (4% dormant solution). Once I do the 2nd Kocide spray, I may reduce the oil % slightly based on the label. For now Im stuck with my crappy 1 gallon hardware store sprayer. No backpacker sprayer for Christmas. *pout*. Actually, for one of my Liberties, my Enterprise, and my Williams pride, theyre just going to get oil, no Kocide or Ferbam. Well see how they do. Scott/Jellyman/anyone - It sounds like one of the two Ferbam sprays also comes at bud break. How long between spraying the Kocide do you wait until you spray the Ferbam? You cant combine the Oil/Kocide/Ferbam into one spray, correct? Thanks as always for all your help. -Glenn

It's not that tricky, so I wouldn't worry about it, and it sounds like you're doing a fine job so far all by yourself. http://thegreengreengrassofhome.blogspot.com/ My recent photos actually do show a little drought stress from a month without rain. That's since reversed beautifully and I'll take the next photos shortly to document that (not to mention that the rains have pushed the gardens into incredible growth). I mostly use soybean meal (7-1-2, roughly) to feed the lawn. The flower gardens are half Milorganite, half soybean meal, plus a Miracle Gro chaser at half rate weekly as they're extremely tightly planted and I'm extremely demanding. I've tried CGM, but it's expensive up here--even considering that I'd only need half as much, roughly. Really, for bluegrass, just feed it (organically) around May 1, August 1, September 1, and October 1. Then winterize it with a good synthetic when top growth stops (usually around Thanksgiving for me, but it varies a lot depending on the weather that year). That'll give it a nice storehouse of carbohydrates to survive the winter, and it may not even go brown depending on your exact location and climate (mine stays up about half the time, but I'm in the mountains of Pennsylvania). Water it an inch a week if nature doesn't supply it, all at once. Or, if you'd rather allow it to go dormant, supply 1/4" all at once every 2 weeks if nature isn't doing so. Dormancy periods of 2 months aren't a problem for KBG and you can extend it far longer if you have to with proper care. Mow as high as you can stand to increase competition against weeds. My top deck is 3" (I use a robot so the deck is lower than many lawnmowers), and that's just fine. Mom prefers hers about 3 1/2". Longer grasses are also not quite as thirsty, have longer roots, and do better in drought. Get A Soil Test from Logan or UMass. Most soils are imbalanced in one way or another.