I'm really wanting to spray my fruit trees - apple, pear, & peach - this year to TRY to protect them & get a little better yield. I only have one of each but each year a blight or bugs, I don't know which, comes along and just destroys the leaves & most of the fruit. Of course I could go exploring on the net & find out what others think is best - but I prefer to come here & ask those I KNOW have had first-hand, direct experience with this problem & solution. So which "poison"is BEST for these trees?........
And which spray is best for dandelions? I have about 2 acres that seem to be more dandelion infested every year.... And what would be the best way to apply the spray in both of these scenarios? Pump-up sprayer or 20 gallon broadcast sprayer on the back of my riding mower? As I said, I TRUST the advice of this forum over any other. THANKS IN ADVANCE...... FredT

I can't comment on your fruit trees but simple Weed B Gone works for me on dandelions. I follow the label and usually apply twice with a 25 gallon sprayer on my ATV.

If your weeds get tougher than dandelions, I would use Curtail.

Mike

Trimec is a spray that is very good for broadleaf weeds (dandelions) in a yard. you won't find it at walmart... I would broadcast spray 2 acres, but I'm lazy... Pump up will work. You might need 2 doses 2 weeks apart for tough weeds (and dandelions are tough). Sooner is better - if they're small & growing, any chem will work better.

I don't have a rec for fruit trees. Your local ag store would be a good place to start - a lot of family run stores sell bulk chemicals to farmers & have a lot of knowledge. I just 'call Moe' whom we have bought 100s of thousands of dollars in chemicals from over the years.

Spraying to kill dandelions will also kill the bees. That's bad. No bees, no pollination, no food, and of course poor quality and quantity fruit.

You might want to read up on spraying with dormant oil way early on to smother certain insects that affect the fruit. That's safe.

I was going to recommend Miracle Grow® but I see now that was misguided....

flashguy

quote:

Originally posted by OKCGene:
Spraying to kill dandelions will also kill the bees. That's bad. No bees, no pollination, no food, and of course poor quality and quantity fruit.

You might want to read up on spraying with dormant oil way early on to smother certain insects that affect the fruit. That's safe.

How does spraying for Dandelions kill bees? Are there herbicides that are also insecticides or are Dandelions an important source of food for the bees?

I have had similar issues with Fruit trees. Where I live the County Agent often has these answers. The local nursery not the big box stores generally are pretty intelligent when it comes to diagnosing these things. Sometimes it is just not cost effective to treat them. Take some good pictures and bring them to the County Agent or local nursery that sells fruit trees. I wish I could help more. There are huge regional differences with these trees.

You need to put a name on your problem. Look up fire blight, as that sorta sounds like what you're describing.

Once you know what it is you can treat it. Dormant oil spray is a pretty basic treatment and very common. I would start there ( I'm thinking too late for this year but maybe not).

You need to figure on multiple applications of multiple products, insecticides, fungicides, and fertilizer. Pruning, don't underestimate pruning. Peach pruning is an art and science unto itself. The fruit grows on two year old growth only, IIRC.

I don't know about peaches, but for apple and pear trees to bear fruit, you need a pollinator of the same species. If you only have one apple tree, you're not going to get much fruit.