HORTICULTURE
Insect and
Disease Control in
Small Home Fruit Plantings
By: Mark Longstroth,
District Extension Educator for
Horticulture & Marketing
Home owners need to spray pesticides to control insect pests and diseases. I am reluctant to make spray recommendations to homeowners, because they want to control pest and diseases on their fruit but do not know what insect and disease pest they have. It is easier to control only the pests you have rather than all the pests you might have. I suggest you get some references and determine exactly which pests you have and then tailor your spray program to the insect and disease complex you have.
These recommendations are for homeowners using commonly available homeowner fruit sprays. Pesticide registration for home fruit has changed a lot in the last few years and many materials are no longer sold. Most materials are registered on some but not all fruit. Read the label to determine the spray’s ingredients, what crops to use it on and how to use the material. Here is a brief discription of the material available to home owners.
Fungicides registered for backyard fruit.
Copper, sulfur, lime sulfur, captan, Neem oil, and chlorothalonil.
Insecticides registered for backyard fruit.
Malathion, Sevin, spinosad, Neem oil, insecticial soaps and bispyrithrum
All-purpose fruit sprays
All-purpose fruit sprays contain both a fungicide and insecticides (usually a mixture of Captan, Sevin and another insecticide) to eliminate the need to mix materials together. They may be used to replace specific materials listed on this sheet, remember to observe label restrictions. For all crops but grapes do not apply insecticides during bloom when bees are pollinating the flowers and setting the crop. Apply only fungicides during bloom.
Pesticide incompatibilities occur when pesticides are combined. The specific interaction that homeowners need to worry about is when using oil. Oil should not be used with captan or sulfur fungicides because the oil will carry the captan or sulfur into the plant. A general rule of thumb is that a week or more in time from captan sprays should separate oil sprays.
For ease of reference I have created two different files with specific fruit spray recommendations using common pesticides sold in garden stores
Sprays for Tree Fruit such as Apples and Pears and stone fruit such as Plums, Peaches and Cherries.
If you have a large planting and a way to mix up and apply large 10 to 50 gallons of spray mix to your plantings I have another set of files you would be interented in using commericial general use pesticides.
