Seeking apple tree spray advice

Let's start with the stone fruit. Both cherry and plum (I asume red tart pie cherries and european prune type plums).

 1) Prune out dead wood and prune smaller branches that are drooping or very upright by about 1/3 to an outward facing bud. Do this in stages oger 3 years so as not to remove all the fruiting wood at on time.

2) Dormant Oil for Mites & scale.  These are controlled  with an oil spray when trees are fully dormant. This is the most talked about pest control spray in casual garden circles. Its effective control is only Mites and Scale insects and by the time these were a serrious problem in the trees, the borers would have effectively wiped out the trees. OIL DOES NOT CONTROL DISEASE OR FRUIT INFECTING INSECTS.

3)Brown rot &/or blossom rot are the major causes of poor fruit. The best disease program is pre bloom Kocide (a copper hydroxide) for bacterial diseases and Bravo or Captan for fungal diseases then use the fungacide again  at 7-10 day intervals from first bloom thru the next month. I prefer Bravo as it is milder and Captan has a 4 day reentry (it is a strong eye irritant).

4) The more difficult problem is plum curculio which ends up like worms in apples indide the fruit. The effective sprays(Guthion, Imidan or Asana)  are very restricted use and unavailable to non certified applicators. Other materials just don't do an effective job. But if available they need to go on every 7-10 days starting when blooms are gone so as to not harm the bees.

5) Peach tree borers; these insects infect the tree itself by tunneling under the bark and so killing branches and the whole tree. You as a home grower cannot buy materials that will control these critters. If you find under bark damage, call in a professional.

With the plums and peaches you need a hand thinning program to get nice fruit. You start this with an effective yearly dormant pruning to reduce fruit load. Then hand thin plums to 3 inches and peaches to 7 inches apart on the limb. Do this when fruit is about the size of a quarter.

Apples and Pears

 1) Prune out dead wood and prune smaller branches that are drooping or very upright by about 1/3 to an outward facing bud. Do this in stages oger 3 years so as not to remove all the fruiting wood at on time. Over time remove whole limbs at the trunk to renew fruting wood and let in light. Light penitration is more important for apples and pears than for stone fruit as the folage is more dense. In mid summer you should be able to lie on your back under the tree asn see the sun thru the branches; if not remove more branches to het good fruit set thruout the tree.

2) Dormant Oil for Mites & scale. SEE ABOVE

3) Fireblight at dormant or when leaf buds just turn sliver on the tip Bordeau Mixture or preferably Kocide (copper hydroxide)

4)Primary scab- when leaves are showing green tips again at 1/2 inch green, again at tight bloom cluster, again at pink bloom tip, again at full bloom and again at petal fall. 2 more applications at 10 day intervals with your worm sprays may be needed. Probably the only material available for home use is Captan. There are other materials like Nova with longer effective period so less sprays are required but not for home use. I know this seems like a lot of applications but the object is to control the disease before the mature fruit is presant so as to not need to treat the fruit. The first infection is thru the bloom not the fruit skin.

5) Tree and leaf insects. This is difficult for home growers as effective materials are not available for home use. My prefured material is Asana included with the Scab spray above up until the blooms open. Then discontinue. Diazinon is partially effective for this use and may be available to you.

6) Now "the worm in the apple problem" Codling moth and Apple maggot. First the holes in the apples are not from the worms crawling in; they are from the worm stage of the insect eating it's way out. To control them we must spray with a material that leaves a residue on the fruit when it is very small at the time the moth or fly is there trying to find a place to insert an egg. So sprays on the blooms when the bees are presant do nothing but kill bees, Likewise it is unproductive to spray when fruit is mature and holes evident as the harm is already done.  Probably the only material available to you as a home grower is Diazinon or Sevin. They need to go on at petal fall and at 10-14 day intervals for 3-4 more applications. BTY, Sevin is hell on bees, don't use it if there are dandilions on the orchard floor.

An interesting alternative being practiced in Asia is to enclose the imature fruit each in glassine bags. A lot of hand labor and no control of Scab; but no insecticides on the fruit.

7) Summer diseases, Sooty Blotch and Fly Spec, As I said in my original post, I wouldnt spray for this. It is cosmetic and can be scrubbed of the ripe fruit at harvest wit a dilute bleach solution.

The point of this long post is that control of pests in fruit is very complicated and using the right material at the wrong time does no good. Likewise doing nothing will only have the effect of taking you back where our grandparents were. They lived with blemished fruit and cut out worm holes. It is a contemporary grocery store mentality that fruit is naturally blemish free.