Copper Fungicidal for the Stone Fruit Trees & Pruning

Today we applied some copper fungicide to all our stone fruit trees. We did this some time ago to the peach trees and, while it did not completely cure their leaf curl, they did much better.


We mixed about 15 tablespoons of Liqui-Cop Copper Fungicidal Garden Spray into a bucket with 3 gallons of water and applied it thoroughly to all the stone fruit trees in the back, side, and front yard. 


As  an experiment, we also applied it to the fig trees (sparsely) to some of the leafs of tangerine tree by the house (mostly lower leafs that were a little curled).


For future reference, it seems that 2 gallons of water would have been enough. Also, in the past we used 15 teaspoons, today we used tablespoons by mistake. Let us see how it goes.


We also took the opportunity and pruned the large fig tree in the back yard and the one by the transformer.

Feeding the pot-growing citrus trees

On 11/26/2011, we applied Dr. Earth Organic 9™ Fruit Tree Fertilizer 7-4-2 to the 4 citrus trees growing in pots in the backyard. Each tree got 1 cup of fertilizer and after that, we watered the pots until the solid was soaked.

Cytrus tree fertilization

On  11/8/2011, we applied Dr. Earth Organic 9™ Fruit Tree Fertilizer 7-4-2 fertilizer. We followed the instructiond and applied roughly one cup per inch of tree trunk diameter. This was done to the following trees:

• orange and tangerine tree in left-hand side of our backyard and tangerine tree by the house (I removed the mulch, sprinkled the fertilizer on the soil under the canopy, and watered the trees generously)
• four citrus trees growing in pots in the backyard (one cup per tree, followed by enough water to soak the soil)

Feeding the pot-growing citrus trees

The 4 citrus growing on pots are looking very yellow so we decided to given them Greenall F.S.T. (Iron and Sulfur). The instructions advise to give 1/2 pound per container so that is what we did. The F.S.T. was puored on the surface of the vases and them mixed with the top soil. After that, we watered the pots until the soil was soaked.

Tree fertilization

In the period 5/16/2011 to 5/30/2011, we applied fertilizer as follows:

• Dr. Earth Organic 9™ Fruit Tree Fertilizer 7-4-2. We followed the instructiond and applied roughly one cup per inch of tree trunk diameter. We removed the mulch, watered under the canopy, and sprinkled the fertilizer on the soil. This was done to the following trees:
• orange and tangerine tree in left-hand side of our backyard
• tangerine tree by the house
• two fig trees in left-hand side of our backyard
• two small peach trees in the left-hand side of our backyard and large peach tree in the right-hand side
• avocado tree
• Greenall F.S.T. (Iron and Sulfur). The instructions advise to give 1 pound per inch of tree trunk diameter, but we gave them a little less. The F.S.T. was sprinkled under the canopy. This was only done to the following trees:
• orange and tangerine tree in left-hand side of our backyard
• tangerine tree by the house
• Seewead-based foliar fertilizer [brand name and details to follows]. 
  
  We made 1 gallon of fertilizer and mostly spayed it in the leaves. A little left-over was poored into the pots. This was done to the 4 citrus tree that are growing in pots.

Peach Tree Copper Fungicidal & Pruning

Our peach tress have been afflicted by the so called "leaf curl" so this year we decided to apply some copper fungicide to help them out. This is what we did:

1. On Feb 4th, we mixed about 15 teaspoons of Liqui-Cop Copper Fungicidal Garden Spray into a bucket with 3 gallons of water.
2. On the same day, we loaded the mixture into our garden sprayer and applied it to the two small peach trees in our garden -- about 4 loads of the spray (6 quarts), being careful to cover the whole surface of the trees
3. On Feb 6th, we pruned the big peach tree -- we mostly cut big branches shooting at the sky, but we left the small branches for later pruning, once we get some more buds.
4. On the same day, we loaded the remaining Liqui-cop mixture into our garden sprayer and applied it the large peach tree that we had just pruned.
5. On Feb 15th, we mixed another 15 teaspoons of Liqui-Cop Copper Fungicidal Garden Spray into a bucket with 3 gallons of water and repeated the whole process for the three peach trees. By now, the two small trees have many flowers and leaves (all appearing to be healthy), but the large trees hardly has any leaves (or flowers).

Our application of Liqui-Cop followed the instructions in what regards the concentration, but we applied much less of the mixture that what was recommended. According to the instructions, we should have applied 3 gallons to a small tree or bush, 6 gallons to a medium tree, and 9 gallons to a large tree. Instead, we applied 3+3 gallons to all our trees (2 small trees and medium tree). However, since we used a garden spray, our application was very targeted and we felt that we really covered the whole surface of the trees.