Low Spray Schedule for Home Orchards in the Northeast Here's my spray schedule for the scores of orchards I manage around SE NY adapted for home owners managing a few fruit trees. It has functioned well for me for over 2 decades, although J. Beetles and brown rot of stone fruit increases the number of sprays and necessary pesticides some years some sites. Stink bugs are also an increasing problem requiring more subsequent sprays when they appear. Time of spray is based on apple bloom as that is the predominant fruit here but I generally get away with spraying all trees at the time I spray apples. Please note that pesticide labels must be read before their use and my recommendations do not override the rules on the label. The label is the law. This document only communicates what has worked for me and your results may vary depending on local pest pressure, which may require a different spray schedule. Dormant oil (this is optional if there were no mites or scale issues the previous season, which is usually the case in home orchards). Do oil spray somewhere between the point where emerging shoots are 1/2" and the flower clusters begin to show a lot of pink. Mix Immunox (myclobutinol) at highest legal rate (listed on label for controlling scab and cedar apple rust on apple trees) with 1 to 2% oil. If it's closer to pink use 1%. Don't spray again until petal fall when petals have mostly gone from latest flowering varieties and bees have lost interest. Then spray Triazide (Spectracide Once and Done) + Immunox mixed together at highest legal rates. Repeat once in 10 to 14 days. Where I manage orchards, the space between earliest flowering Japanese plums and latest flowering apples is only 2 weeks or so which usually allows me to wait until the latest flowering trees are ready to begin spraying anything. Plum curculio seems to time its appearance conveniently to the rhythm of the last flowering apple varieties. This may not be true where you are. If plums or peaches need oil they may need application before apples. I’ve only had mites on European plums here and never need oil for other stone fruit. All this is based on plum curculio being your primary insect problem which is the case most areas east of the Mis. River. These sprays will also absolutely control scab, CAR and Mildew as well as most of the crop fatal insects. Apple fly maggot is an exception, but I haven't had much of a problem with this pest in the orchards I manage. This pest can be controlled with a lot of fake apples smeared with tangle trap. If you don't want to use synthetic chemicals try 4 applications of Surround about a week apart starting at petal fall. You may need to start on earlier flowering varieties as soon as they drop petals because Surround is a repellent and can’t kill eggs after they’ve been inserted into the fruit.. Stone fruit may require the addition of an application or 2 of Indar (Monterey Fungus Fighter is closest available chemical for home owners) starting 4 weeks before first peaches ripen. Apricots must be sprayed sooner if they are scab susceptible with same compound. Because I manage so many orchards so far apart I have to resort to a spray schedule that is based on expectations rather than actual monitoring. You may be able to reduce insecticide sprays with monitoring but PC can enter an orchard over night and if your insecticide lacks kick-back (as is the case with Triazide), do a lot of damage in a couple of days.. Other problems may occur later in the season and you will in time learn to monitor and react to the pitfalls. Good luck, Alan Haigh- The Home Orchard and Nursery Co.

I'm no expert. But my mulberry easily puts on 10'-15' of growth per year. The biggest problem i've seen with bigger limbs is rotting from open wounds, but this thing is an old beast of a tree. Makes magnificent shade. It's a male, and only recently grafted with fruiting varieties.

Hi- there is a short section on rejuvenating old apple and pear trees in the Cornell publication. It is not a 1-year process to rejuvenate, and it starts during the dormant season for the big cuts. I would remove anything at the base immediately. You should be able to cut all watersprouts in July/August still this year. Even after a couple winters of pruning you can expect heavy vegetative growth in following years. I have not done it, but you may not expect much fruit for 4+? years. If you start over again you can have fruit on apple and peach in a few years. I did not even try to rejuvenate, but cut down an old apple and instead planted 2 years ago and have good apple set this year. It gives you a chance to chose a site with the right sun, layout enough room, prepare the ground, amend per a soil test with phosphorus etc in the soil. Plus you can chose cultivars and rootstock size you want to work with. Peaches useful life is shorter (maybe 15 years in zone 5?), and Cornell does not have a section on rejuvenating peaches. Yours is part dead already and you may be better off cutting down the peach and replanting. Do not seal any pruning sites- just make sure you know how to thin out the entire branch by cutting cleanly right at the outside of the collar so it can heal. If you do not want to spray you may want to reconsider orcharding. Even if you get scab immune apples, you should know how much insect pressure you will need to control from your few years there. Other may comment if pears would be better to rejuvenate (since trees take longer to come into bearing) and not spray since pests are more manageable. The other sections in the Cornell pub may answer your questions too- good luck. Another pub on rejuvenating: http://extension.psu.edu/plants/gardening/fphg/pome/pruning/pruning-a-special-case-renovating-old-fruit-trees Good general discussion on pruning if you follow through the pages: http://extension.psu.edu/plants/gardening/fphg/pome/pruning Here is a link that might be useful: Cornell Guide to Growing Fruit at Home

I am not surprised about the citrus being all rootstock. It wad indicative to what i had seen in various photos while researching. Now, i was reading up on rootstock, and came across some info on grafting. With it being all rootstock, would grafting be a possibility i can consider with that one, if i cut most of it down and got some budded branches from a different, healthy tree? As far as getting thr owners get new trees, i cant even get them to let me just remove them,, so anything i do at this point is out of my pocket, so I'm trying to be economical. If grafting is possible, i would like to at least try before replacibg it entirely. As for the other tree, the other day, i noticed these green fruits growing in little bunches of 3 up near tge top that lpok like apples, maybe?? So could they be apples? And if it's growing fruit, then is the tree ok?