I am from upstate New York and have a difficult sweet cherry and peach tree. I have had this sweet cherry tree for about 15 years and have not once eaten a cherry. Every year it is loaded with flowers, they bloom, fruit develops, starts to mature, starts to ripen, then some rot and fall off and the others just seem to disappear over nite. The tree keeps growing every year about 4 feet and we keep cutting it down. It is now about 15 feet and will need to be pruned again. Other than never having tasted the cherries the tree is beautiful. Any suggestions. Now the peach tree is also beautiful and is loaded every year with fruit. The fruit grows big but has black spots on it, not all just some and others have clear hard gel spots on them. I have tried several fungicides but apparently not the right one because this still happens. We just cut out the spots and eat the fruit any way, and their sweet and delicious, but it would be nice to have beautiful peaches. Any suggestions. I also have a plum tree that has not given any fruit but I have had flowers hopefully this year, its third year might be the winner.
Here's a spray schedule for you: Fall: after leaves have fallen. And always when temps are below 70 degrees F. Early morning/early evening are great times to spray. (All three) Spray with horticultural oil. Spray with Liquid Sulphur. Early Spring while trees are dormant/no leaves yet: (All Three) Spray with liquid sulphur. While each is seperately flowering: Spray with flowers on the tree but spray gently as to not remove the flowers (aestetics): Again do not forget to spray during cool weather: Spray each with liquid copper. As the fruit start developing on each: Liquid Copper. Then spary once more with the liquid copper after harvest, and repeat the Fall spray. The secret is the spray at flowering and at fruiting development. If insects are noticed during summer (ants, holes in trees/borers, etc- spray with horticultural oil as needed). A simple hose end sprayer with a calibrated head is all you need. Dax
