Prepare now for good summer fruit

During the summer I often get fruit samples infested with worms or spotted with fungi from home orchardists. I usually ask "Did you spray your fruit trees?"

"Oh, yes" is the usual answer. Further questioning often explains why, even after spraying, their apples, pears or peaches develop poor-quality fruit. Perhaps some of the hints listed below will help you get better quality fruit in more abundance.

When you go to textbooks you will find slightly different spray schedules for different types of fruit. But to make things easier to understand and keep track of, I have developed a standardized fruit spray schedule for all of the common fruit grown in the region.

During dormancy in fall, winter and spring, spray your fruit trees with dormant oil. This heavy horticultural oil will coat the entire tree, including twigs and buds. The coating will suffocate any insects that are overwintering in cracks and crevices in the bark.

Also during the dormant period, spray your fruit trees with a lime-sulfur combination. This old-time orchardist spray is a cleanup for any diseases that may be lingering on twigs, leaves that have not dropped, bark or buds. Just remember to make the lime-sulfur application at least two weeks before or after the dormant oil application.

Next, begin spraying your fruit trees after petal fall with a fruit-tree spray. By petal fall, I mean the time when petals fall off of spring flower blooms. Fruit-tree spray generally includes both an insecticide and a fungicide. If fruit-tree spray is applied during full bloom, the insecticide will kill bees that are actively involved in fertilization and subsequent fruit set.

Insects and diseases are the primary cause of poor fruit quality. Be sure to add a sticker to the fruit-tree spray. This sticker will keep the active ingredient on the surface of the developing fruit. Without this sticker, sprays will bead up on fruit. This leaves a lot of area on fruit surfaces that have no protection from attacking diseases and insects.

Consistency is important

Fruit-tree applications should be made on a weekly basis from petal fall until just a few days before harvest. Consistency is important. If you miss a weekly application when insects are hatching, or when weather conditions are just right for diseases, your efforts for the entire season may be in vain.

When making pesticide applications, be sure to follow label directions. First and foremost, it is unlawful to make applications in a manner inconsistent with the label. Secondly, a lot of research money has been spent to determine the most effective application rate. Rates other than those recommended will result in ineffective results and useless time and money spent.

There is one other concept you must keep in mind when spraying fruit trees. Sometimes Mother Nature is just not going to cooperate. No matter what you do, your fruit crop will be of poor quality. A friend of mine said that one season, rain fell for 27 straight days on his peach orchard. No matter what he did, his peach crop just didn't do well.

I can assure you of one thing. If you live in the Southeast Missouri, it will be an unusual year if you have good quality fruit without making consistent pesticide applications to your fruit trees throughout the growing season.

Send your gardening and landscape questions to Paul Schnare at P.O. Box 699, Cape Girardeau, Mo. 63702-0699 or by e-mail to news@semissourian. com.