Vinegar has herbicidal properties. I would not use it on plants.

There's no single "best fungicide". The question is, best for what? Different fungicides are better for different problems.

I know Fireblight for example cannot live in an acid environment. I realize vinegar can be used as herbicide on small new weeds but old pears and apples would be tougher than that. I will experiment some this year and see how it goes.

Vinegar will keep an acid environment for about a week, so you would need to spray weekly to maintain an acid environment. If you use too much you could burn your leaves. Vinegar is quickly broken down by bacteria.

Thanks! I searched the internet and did find a recipe of 1 to 1 white vinegar and water. I used apple cider vinegar since I had some around. The bad part about vinegar is you never know the acidity level. See this link for the recipe and usage http://www.ehow.com/how_8758460_treat-blight-white-vinegar-spray.html. See this article as well http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=13&ved=0CGYQFjAM&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnaldc.nal.usda.gov%2Fdownload%2F29522%2FPDF&ei=Eox6U4HoH4GoyASPuILQCA&usg=AFQjCNF-_Dwrpm2dmOSCieWGW1Tnpg836w . This article is similar http://www.gardenguides.com/137734-prevent-fire-blight-apple-trees.html.

This post was edited by ClarkinKS on Mon, May 19, 14 at 19:11

I saw some leaf spot which is never a good sign but I have had no die back. I will use captan on a couple of trees , immunox on a couple and vinegar & water on a couple. Vinegar is inexpensive and non chemical and that sounds like its worth testing to me.

Of course it's a chemical. Acetic acid. CHâÂÂCOOH

Lets rephrase that I would be afraid to drink it ltilton lol :0)

The major apple diseases don't respond too well to vinegar, milk baking soda etc treatments - these were studied in the past since various claims were made for them. I find sulphur is by far the best organic fungicide and Serenade is probably #2. Immunox is much more effective than either of these, its a huge difference.

My take on fireblight is topwork or remove the trees getting infected the worst. I had horrendous blight for ten years. I paid attention to which varieties got it the worst and over time removed all of them. Now I get no fireblight to speak of, in spite of spraying nothing against it.

Scott

Sounds like good advice Scott. Overall I run a pretty clean orchard so top working is not necessary but as you mentioned spraying no chemicals at all would be great! What pears and apples are you currently raising?

After one spraying this morning the results were obvious
Vinegar - blight got worse after spraying
Immunox- effective half the time
Captan-100% effective
Captan is what I've always used and will continue to use. Its fractions of the cost when bought in the powdered form and very effective on serious problems we have here such as black rot in grapes, blights etc..

Vinegar and immunox are likely effective in other places and like me you may want to try them. Captan is the product that works for us here but immunox is highly recommended by many experts.

Here is a link that might be useful: captan

This post was edited by ClarkinKS on Wed, May 21, 14 at 8:35

Clark, my list of fruits is at the link below.

Scott

Here is a link that might be useful: Scotts orchard blurb

One advantage of Captan is that it has low or negligible risk of target organisms developing resistance to it.

Scott I thought I was a hardcore gardener ! That's great! ltilton I think I will stay with captan for now until something better comes along. Thanks for the advice you guys :0)

Captan has no ability to control cedar apple rust, washes off in the rain, has no kickback and must be on the leaves when fungus arrives. These are all huge liabilities, particularly to home growers who can't always run out and spray after every rain.

It's ability to foil resistance of fungus is primarily an issue with commercial growers as a small stand of trees does not encourage the development of resistance in the same manner as hundreds of acres of mono-culture.

Captan is cheap because it's been around for half a century and there are not expensive R and D costs to recoup. I don't know about its patent status.

Myclobutanil is more affective and lasts almost twice as long between applications.

Cornell recommends tank mixing both Myc and Cap both to slow the development of resistance and because in lighter rains the captan splashes from sprayed to newly grown parts of the tree. Myclo stays put.

I've never suffered consequences from this dynamic when I've used myclo by itself. Not sure I like the idea of using a fungicide where every time for a week after spraying you risk tracking active fungicide into your home any time you walk your orchard when there's dew on the ground. And then there are dogs.

Harvestman those are great points and everything I read would imply immunox would be a good switch from captan but the results were not what I expected. I think its a great idea to mix and get the benefits of both! I may give immunox a month longer on some non fruit bearing trees and see how it does.

This post was edited by ClarkinKS on Thu, May 22, 14 at 8:13

I don't understand how you are drawing your conclusions- it is not a regional thing in terms of materials that work on specific pests. Captan is much better for brown rot than Myclo, but there are other SI's that kick Captans butt for that as well.

Captan also works for summer fungus on apples which myclo does not. There are newer materials that are also more affective than Captan for these, but captan does have a wider range of efficacy of any other fungicide I can think of except maybe Mancozeb. No good for pears though.

I use captan for a broad range of things such as black rot in grapes for example.... I see a brown spot on a leaf and call it blight but in grapes its actually black rot for example and captan in this area is effective against it because our rain is heavy at times but not frequent. Fungicides as you know work different in different areas depending on moisture and other conditions such as heat. Captan works great for us but we are coming out of several years of drought so spraying is minimal in comparison to a region where rain is heavy. Hopefully that makes sense I should have elaborated.

Harvestman,
Lets fast forward to today and I can tell you I made a mistake about immunox it is an excellent fungicide! It shows its true colors when it rains everyday like it has been lately. All the trees with immunox look great. The captan is a great fungicide but in rainy weather it cant compete with immunox. As you mentioned you spray half as much of the time which saves a lot in labor.

In the deep south where the heat and wet weather is a killer you have to use every thing you can find and don't forget to even spray in the winter. To have any chance at all I have to use all Captan ,Immunox,Mancozeb, and copper at different times and if you don't you may as well give up. I have had lots of good advice from the people on this web if it had not been for them I would not have a grate home orchard with every fruit you can think of thanks and keep up the good conversations.