can one spray control most pests and diseases?

I have peach,plum, cherry, and nectarine trees in my garden in NYC. Is there one spray that will protect against most fungus, disease, pests, blights etc or do I have to use a multitude of different sprays to target the different potential causes of injury to stone fruit trees?

Depends on the pests and diseases active in your area. I prefer to target the problem rather than blast away at everything. That said, home orchard fruit sprays, which contain a mix of insecticide and fungicide do a reasonably good job on summer problems. In most areas dormant sprays ( oil, or lime/sulfur) are needed. Peach borers need special treatment.

what do peach borers require?

I sprayed liquid cooper in late autumn and early spring. if now use bonide orchard spray thru the spring and summer, should i be covered against most diseases and pests

You should be pretty close.

Peach borers; http://ag.arizona.edu/yavapai/anr/hort/byg/archive/peachtreeborercontrol.html
http://ag.udel.edu/extension/horticulture/pdf/ent/ent-14.pdf
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/05566.html
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/plantanswers/fruit/peach.html

GG, the "target the problem" approach that Farmer Dill mentions is called IPM for Integrated Pest Management. The "blast away" approach is the approach which the generic Orchard Sprays are meant for - target everything all the time in effect with sprays every two weeks through the whole summer. I am in the IPM camp myself because the blast away approach puts more poisons in your lungs, your yard, and your food. Also I find that you have to become more in tune with what the trees are up to and how they naturally react in IPM, so you can really "go after" the pests that are bad with exactly the right spray. One example for me is I had a bad disease, Coryneum Blight, on my peaches. This guy is hard to get with just the regular spray schedule, it needs a copper spray right around leaf fall which is not normally a time anything is sprayed. If I wasn't trying to figure out what the disease was so I could target it, I would have had a hard time controlling it.

Scott

SCOTT- of course my natural inclination is also to spray only when necessary- I inspect my trees every day during the spring and summer. my problem is that i am not sufficiently knowledgeable to identify what disease is what.

for example, i had a disease last season and i have no idea what it is- i dont know if its a fungus/bacteria or a pest- and i dont know if it is a combination of 1 or more diseases.
for example- some of the leaves on my peach tree curled up at the beginning of the season and there was some red discoloration- the peaches themselves had kinda blackish irregular splotches of discoloration on them and some of them had drops of ooze on them. i dont know whether they would have dropped off prematurely because the squirrels ate them before they were ripe- at the time they were eaten they were still green and around the size of a ripe almond growing on a tree. in addition, at the tips of the branches, (and this happened to the nectarine trees as well and also, to a smaller extent to the cherry trees), the twigs were being eaten/rotting away and turning black. the damage was in a vertical pattern about several centimteres long, up the twigs. about half the width of the twig would be latrophied/eaten away, full of black stuff. finally, at the base of one of my nectarine trees, there were large drops of ooze on the branch.

as you can see, there was a whole bunch of different symptoms on my tree, and i have no idea what it is.

I sprayed liquid copper in the late fall and again yesterday. i also cut off any twigs on my trees showing the damage described above. any tips re further things I should be doing for/ looking for would be greatly appreciated.

Your first symptom sounds like Leaf curl, a very nasty disease. It has to be controlled with dormant sprays. Either just after leaf drop in the fall or just before the buds begin to swell in the spring. I have had better results in the spring. http://www.caf.wvu.edu/kearneysville/disease_descriptions/omplfcrl.html Only Ferbam gave me excellent control.
This is more information than you can digest at a sitting, but a good site to aid in identification http://www.ento.vt.edu/Fruitfiles/peach-fruit-ipm.html

Farmer- I clicked on the link above, and I am pretty convinced that my trees have been infested with the oriental fruit moth.
Is there a spray that you would recommend and when should I spray

It sounds like you have lots of nasties there! Peach leaf curl for sure, maybe bacterial spot (the black spots) and oriental fruit moth (oozing holes in fruit and damaged twig tips), and maybe bacterial canker (oozing at base; probably just natural ooze however).

I have found that lime-sulphur has controlled curl well for me. Once you see it forget trying to spray that season to get rid of it -- its too late.

For OFM I bagged my peaches last year in "spare parts" cotton bags, that worked well. This year I am going to try a combination of spinosad and Surround. Note that I am using organic methods only. Imidan is the best non-organic method but it must be bought in bulk only.

In general, when you see a disease/pest damage you don't recognize, look around at disease guides on the web, get a fruit disease guide book such as the U Michigan guide, and ask here. Once you know what you have you will be able to go at it much more effectively. So at this point I am sure you have curl and OFM, but take a look into bacterial spot and bacterial canker to see if it looks like you have those. My bet is you have bacterial spot but not bacterial canker. Bacterial spot requires a rigorous spray program concentrated in the early spring from pink to a month later. U North Carolina has a webpage with one recommended such program on it.

Scott

scott and farmer- u r saints for taking the time to address the multiple diseases/pests that have made my postage stamp garden their spring/summer residence

Your home orchard spray should should take care of both the Oriental fruit moth and the Plum Cuculio
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r602300211.html The traditional treatment is Malathion found in most home orchard sprays. The newer organic approved control is Spinosad.

On apples here...the plum curculio is terrible. Ordinary home gardener orchard sprays like Bonide are not sufficient. After June 15th, not much bothers the apples.

This message was edited Mar 16, 2007 4:57 PM

Hi...newcomer here with fruit trees...totally (well almost) clueless. This will be the second year for my Reliance Peach, two apples-four grafted varities on each, and another peach tree reputed to be hardy here in Zone 5. Last year I removed all flower buds as directed.

What do I do this year? When do I spray...with what? Is there a schedule for spraying or can I treat as needed. I have a natural wildlife area with Canadian geese, mallards, deer roaming around, bunnies, very fat woodchucks, etc. I don't want to harm them, the nesting bluebirds, or bees.

Hoping you can help...anyone????

Pam in central MA

In the summer time, Rots and fruit worms are usually the major problems. The home orchard sprays sold at local nurseries will give modest results. Follow the directions and don't start spraying until after petal fall. If you have deer,Canada geese, rabbits and groundhogs roaming in the vicinity of your trees, I probably would not bother, You are not going to outcompete them for the fruit.