Fruit trees and spraying for pests

[Ray]

Well, fruit season is upon us, and I have a ton of flowers this spring on my plum trees. I sprayed before the flowers opened, and then once again after the last petal fall, which was just 4 days ago, and already I notice over half my plums have black spots on them. Are the bugs getting to them already? Or was it because of the spaying? This is really the first year I will be getting anything so I haven't sprayed much before. Last year I did the same thing for the peaches, spraying every 14 days, and I had malformed fruit. tasted great thou. I really want to get fruit that looks like store bought...maybe someone has some advice for me. I have all the common fruits, and just using the common fruit tree spray. Thanks.

Ray

[Steve]

The spots on your plums aren't the little crescent shaped scars from plum curculio, are they? I ask because the curculios are about the only problem to appear right after petal fall, here. I'm obviously farther north than you, because my trees are just starting to flower.

Steve in the Adirondacks

Ray wrote:

[Sherwin Dubren]

The one important piece of information you omitted was what exact kind of sprays you were using. It's highly doubtful that the sprays caused any spotting of the fruit. It sounds like it may be some kind of fungal problem, so is your spray just a pesticide, or is it also a fungicide? I have had occasional malformed peaches, but if you are getting a large number of these, it could be due to the lack of some element in your soil. Check with a good nursery to find a supplement you can add to the soil. Understand, these are only guesses, so take them for whatever they are worth.

Sherw>

[Ray]

Thanks for the info. The spray was a liquid all purpose fruit tree spray from Agway (Agway's brand). It controls both insects and diseases. I have seen the leaves from my trres and grapes turn brown because of the spraying. I think the malformed peaches are from plum c. which I didn't realize. I am trying to spary more now that I know about them. Just seems wierd, I sparyed right after petal fall, and 1 week later p.c were destroying my plums. Seems that I need to spray even more frequently to catch those buggers. I may look into a different spary for just those guys.

Thanks Ray