North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Michael Phillips" <michael@herbsandapples.com>]

Surround does run off a smooth plum readily, but not to worry. The clay
coverage on the leaves, twigs, and branches of the tree is just as
important. Curculio does a lot of crawling seeking out the fruit, and in
those journeys picks up irritating clay particles that make the pest want to
be somewhere else. In other words, clay on the fruitlets is generally the
last line of barrier defense. If you try to "stick" the clay with oil or
some other spreader, you are working against the design of the Surround
approach. 

Another relevant factor with Surround is deliberately leaving a tree or two
unprotected so the bugs have someplace to go to dissipate their reproductive
urges. This can be a nearby wild tree or a preferred host fruit (like plum
in Minnesota) being used as a trap tree. This way you can limit how long the
clay coverage needs to be kept up from 6-8 weeks down to 2-4 weeks. There
are several strategies for limiting returning populations in and beneath
those trap trees. 

Michael Phillips
Lost Nation Orchard
Heartsong Farm Healing Herbs
859 Lost Nation Road
Groveton, NH 03582
603-636-2286
www.HerbsAndApples.com 
 
Message: 8
Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 05:23:28 -0700 (PDT)
From: Del Stubbs <northernlights2n@yahoo.com>
Subject: [NAFEX]  Curculio / Surround adhesion question
To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <835242.53038.qm@web52901.mail.re2.yahoo.com>
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Last year the curculios were so effective I go zero plums off of 7 trees ( 5
varieties)
that had had  their first fruit set. So I bought a 25# bag of Surround,
followed
directions, using my solo back pack sprayer. After two sprayings the leaves
are quite
white but only a third of the 1/4" to 1/2" plums are even covered - and I of
course
targted them specifically both times. So I tried various concentrations in a
little  hand
spray bottle, spraying directly on the plums - I can watch it bead off.
Obviously the
'berries' have a waxy coating that resists a water based substance. 
All I can think of is to add a surfactant like dish soap, but worry about
burning the
leaves. Anyone found a solution to make Surround actually work?
(BTW, it went flawlessly through my back pack sprayer, I had read of someone
complaining
about clogging - my guess is  that they did not use the coarse filter under
the cap of
their sprayer.)
Del

Del Stubbs  http://www.pinewoodforge.com   zone 3   N. MN