Home / Growing Guides / Orchard Spray Schedule
Fruit Trees  ·  Orchard Care

Orchard Spray Schedule

North Florida · Lloyd, FL Full Season Calendar Stone Fruit, Apples & Pears
🐝 Bee safety is non-negotiable — we never spray during open bloom
📋 This is a guide only — always read and follow the product label above all else. The label is the law. Application rates, pre-harvest intervals, and re-entry intervals vary by product. When in doubt, contact your local UF/IFAS Extension office.
Why we spray

North Florida is beautiful and brutal

Our humidity, warm winters, and open field microclimate create perfect conditions for bacterial canker, shot hole fungus, brown rot, bitter rot, and a full cast of insect pests. Light organic products like neem simply don't cut it here. This schedule reflects what actually works after several years of trial and error on our 4-acre property.

Dec – Feb

Dormant Season

Before bud swell

Copper and oil applications while trees are fully dormant. The most important disease prevention window of the entire year.

Mar – May

Bloom & Cover Sprays

Petal fall through fruit sizing

Critical petal fall window for curculio and fungal rot. Cover sprays every 10–14 days, tighter after rain events.

Jun – Aug

Summer Pressure

Through harvest

Brown rot pre-harvest, stink bug pressure, peach tree borer trunk treatment. Shifting to heat-stable fungicides.

Sep – Nov

Post Harvest Reset

After all fruit is off

One post-harvest copper application to reduce disease inoculum load going into dormancy. Sets up a cleaner next season.

Full Season Calendar

Application by Application

Every application listed with active ingredient, brand name, target pest or disease, and timing notes.

❄️ Dormant Season — December through February

Application 1

Dormant Copper

Active Ingredient
Copper Sulfate
Brand
Kocide 3000 / Bonide Liquid Copper
Timing
Before bud swell
Applies To
All trees
Most important spray of the year for stone fruits. Broad coverage of bacterial canker, shot hole, and overwintering fungal spores on bark and wood. Hit every surface of every tree thoroughly.
Application 2

Dormant Oil

Active Ingredient
Paraffinic / Mineral Oil
Brand
Bonide All Seasons Horticultural Oil
Timing
At least 2 weeks after copper
Applies To
All trees
Smothers overwintering scale insects, aphid eggs, and spider mite eggs. Never mix copper and oil in the same tank — the combination is phytotoxic and will damage foliage.

🌸 Pre-Bloom — February through March

Application 3

Pre-Bloom Copper

Active Ingredient
Copper Sulfate
Brand
Kocide 3000 / Bonide Liquid Copper
Timing
Green tip stage — before any flowers open
Applies To
Apples, pears, stone fruits
Last copper application until bloom is fully finished. Targets fire blight on apples and pears, bacterial canker reactivation on stone fruits as temperatures warm and bacteria become active.

⚠️ Petal Fall — Critical Window

Application 4 — CRITICAL

Petal Fall Fungicide

Active Ingredient
Myclobutanil
Brand
Spectracide Immunox / Rally 40WSP
Timing
Within 3 days of petal fall
Applies To
All fruit trees
Single most important fungicide timing of the entire season. New tissue is expanding and most vulnerable. Targets brown rot, black rot, bitter rot, shot hole, and rust diseases simultaneously.
Application 5 — CRITICAL

Petal Fall Insecticide

Active Ingredient
Bifenthrin
Brand
Bifen IT / Bifenthrin Pro
Timing
Within 48 hours of petal fall
Applies To
All stone fruits, apples, pears
Plum curculio moves into the orchard immediately at petal fall to sting fruit for egg laying. Missing this window costs most of the stone fruit crop. Can be tank mixed with the myclobutanil application above.

🌿 Cover Sprays — April through May

Every 10–14 days in dry weather. Shorten to 7 days after rain events. Rotate fungicides to prevent resistance development.

Rotation A — Fungicide

Captan

Active Ingredient
Captan
Brand
Bonide Captan 50WP
Interval
Alternate with Rotation B
PHI
Short — safe close to harvest
Brown rot, bitter rot, black rot, sooty blotch, flyspeck complex. Do not use within 7 days of oil applications. Short pre-harvest interval makes it suitable through late season.
Rotation B — Fungicide

Myclobutanil

Active Ingredient
Myclobutanil
Brand
Spectracide Immunox / Rally
Interval
Alternate with Rotation A
Same fungal complex coverage plus rust diseases. Alternate with Captan every other application throughout spring to prevent fungicide resistance from developing.
Insecticide — Every other cover spray

Bifenthrin + Spinosad Rotation

Primary
Bifenthrin — Bifen IT
Rotation
Spinosad — Monterey Garden Insect Spray
Bifenthrin covers curculio, stink bugs, oriental fruit moth, aphids. Rotate in Spinosad every 3rd insecticide application — it is easier on beneficial insects and covers caterpillars and thrips. Rotating prevents resistance.

☀️ Summer Cover Sprays — June through July

Primary Summer Fungicide

Chlorothalonil

Active Ingredient
Chlorothalonil
Brand
Daconil / Bonide Fung-onil
Interval
Every 14 days dry / 7–10 days after rain
Switch from spring rotation to chlorothalonil as primary in summer. More heat stable than myclobutanil. Targets sooty blotch, flyspeck, and fruit rots as temperatures climb.
Stink Bug — June through harvest

Zeta-Cypermethrin

Active Ingredient
Zeta-Cypermethrin
Brand
Mustang Maxx
Tank Mix
Can mix with fungicide
More effective on brown marmorated stink bug and kudzu bug than bifenthrin alone. Add to the tank alongside summer fungicide applications during peak stink bug pressure.
Trunk Treatment — June

Peach Tree Borer

Active Ingredient
Permethrin
Brand
Bonide Eight / Hi-Yield 38 Plus
Method
Trunk drench — not foliar
Applies To
All peaches and plums
Drench the lower 12 inches of trunk and surrounding soil at the base of all peaches and plums. This is a separate trunk application — do not mix with your foliar tank. Prevents larvae from entering at the crown.

🍑 Pre-Harvest — 4 to 6 weeks before picking

Most Critical for Peaches

Brown Rot Pre-Harvest

Active Ingredient
Propiconazole
Brand
Bonide Infuse / Tilt
Timing
2–3 weeks before harvest + 1 week before
Brown rot can take an entire peach crop in 48 hours in humid conditions as fruit ripens. Two applications in the pre-harvest window — 2 to 3 weeks out and again 1 week before picking — is the single most impactful practice for protecting your peach harvest.

🍂 Post Harvest — August through September

Season Close

Post-Harvest Copper Reset

Active Ingredient
Copper Sulfate
Brand
Kocide 3000 / Bonide Liquid Copper
Timing
After all fruit is off the trees
One application after harvest to reduce disease inoculum load going into dormancy. Helps break the bacterial canker cycle and reduces fungal spore populations before winter.
Important

Tank Mixing Rules

These are non-negotiable. Violating the copper/oil or copper/sulfur rule will cause serious plant damage.

Always follow these rules

Shopping List

Products We Use

Active ingredient listed first, common brand name second. Most are available at farm supply stores or online.

A note on organic

We want to grow as cleanly as possible — and where we can use OMRI-listed and biological products, we do. But North Florida's heat, humidity, and insect pressure are relentless. Diseases like bitter rot and brown rot can take an entire crop in 48 hours. Plum curculio will empty a stone fruit tree before you know it's happened. We've tried running strictly organic programs and paid the price in lost harvests. The synthetic products on this list are used deliberately, at the right timing, and only where nothing else does the job. That's the honest truth of growing fruit in this climate.

Copper Sulfate
Kocide 3000 · Bonide Liquid Copper
Disease backbone — all seasons
OMRI Organic
Myclobutanil
Spectracide Immunox · Rally 40WSP
Brown rot, black rot, rust — spring
Synthetic
Captan
Bonide Captan 50WP
Fruit rots, sooty blotch — spring/summer
Synthetic
Chlorothalonil
Daconil · Bonide Fung-onil
Summer fungal pressure
Synthetic
Propiconazole
Bonide Infuse · Tilt
Pre-harvest brown rot on peaches
Synthetic
Bifenthrin
Bifen IT · Bifenthrin Pro
Curculio, stink bugs, oriental fruit moth
Synthetic
Spinosad
Monterey Garden Insect Spray · Entrust SC
Fruit moth, caterpillars — rotation
OMRI Organic
Zeta-Cypermethrin
Mustang Maxx
Stink bugs — summer
Synthetic
Permethrin
Bonide Eight · Hi-Yield 38 Plus
Peach tree borer trunk treatment
Synthetic
Paraffinic Oil
Bonide All Seasons Horticultural Oil
Dormant scale and egg suppression
OMRI Organic
Streptomyces lydicus
Actinovate
Biological fungicide — soil and foliar
Biological / OMRI
Alkyl Polyoxyethylene
Nufilm 17
Sticker-spreader — add to every tank
Synthetic
From Our Orchard

What Skipped Sprays Look Like

This is one of our own Anna apples from last season. It's a good illustration of exactly why this schedule exists — three different problems all visible on one piece of fruit.

Anna apple showing bitter rot, curculio damage, flyspeck, and stink bug feeding scar — Grove and Garden orchard, Lloyd FL

Anna apple · Grove & Garden orchard · Lloyd, FL

Bitter Rot Lesions

The circular, sunken, dark brown spots on the left side of the fruit. Classic Colletotrichum acutatum — a fungal rot that starts small and expands rapidly in North Florida's summer heat and humidity. New tissue exposed at petal fall is the primary entry point. Myclobutanil and Captan in rotation during spring cover sprays is the defense.

Plum Curculio Exit Holes

The two small round holes on the right. The female curculio stings the fruit at petal fall to lay an egg; the larva feeds inside and exits through holes like these. Missing the petal fall bifenthrin window — even by 48 hours — is what causes this. Once you see exit holes the damage is already done.

Flyspeck & Sooty Blotch

The fine scattered dark specks across the skin surface. A fungal complex that lives on the waxy cuticle of the fruit — purely cosmetic but a reliable sign that summer cover spray intervals stretched too long between applications. Chlorothalonil applied every 10–14 days keeps this in check.

Stink Bug Feeding Scar

The larger raised corky circle on the upper right face. Stink bugs pierce the skin and inject saliva to liquefy the tissue underneath. The fruit responds by forming a hard, corky mass around the feeding site. Zeta-cypermethrin added to summer tank mixes during peak stink bug pressure (June through harvest) is the best control.

A note from us

This schedule reflects what works on our specific 4-acre property in Lloyd, Florida after several years of learning what this particular land needs. Always read and follow all pesticide labels — the label is the law. Application rates, re-entry intervals, and pre-harvest intervals vary by product and must be observed. When in doubt, contact your local UF/IFAS Extension office for guidance specific to your situation.

← Back to All Guides