I spray early in the spring before bud break-out. But I read here some people are talking about spraying now and later early spring. What to spray some are saying Copper and some are saying dormant oil. It is confusing I want to know that too. Cuddling Moth has eggs and hatches 3 times in the season so spraying now and early in spring is not going to cure it.

Different growing areas are going to have different pest and disease problems. Your local county extension service will have the best local information. Your county and state tax is paying for this researched based information, free for your asking. Al

For the most part, spring is when most of the dormant spraying takes place. Michael, another KS poster here, sprays in the fall due to possible inadequate spray windows in the spring. This can make sense if you're in an area that gets a lot of early spring rain.

The most common dormant spray is oil. It kills very small overwintering insects, things like scale and mites. Backyard apples and sour cherries tend not to suffer much from these pests.

Pears in the Midwest and East do frequently suffer from pear blister mite, so they can benefit from dormant oil.

Dormant oil won't do anything for major pests like OFM, CM, PC(Plum curculio), AM(apple maggot), etc.

There is one major fungus that is (and can only be) controlled through dormant sprays, and that is leaf curl. Fortunately it only affects peaches, nects, and almonds. All other major fungi can not be controlled through dormant sprays.

Some bacterial diseases can be reduced through dormant copper sprays. For prunus (stone fruits) dormant copper can reduce the incidence of bacterial canker and bac. spot by reducing the overwintering innoculum.

So for your trees, I wouldn't do any dormant sprays unless you're seeing problems.

"OLPEA" for Peach leaf curl, in order to fight it with spraying...would you use copper or dormant oil/lime sulphur instead...and should the peach tree be dormant or have it's leaves intact while spraying?

For PLC, I would definitely use copper. Although I've never used lime sulfur for PLC, almost all of the spray guides I've seen rate sulfur poorly for PLC control. I can't recall any guides listing lime sulfur in their recommended product list for PLC. Off the top of my head, in order of efficacy, I've seen chlorothalonil, copper and Ziram listed but I don't recall seeing lime sulfur. I've seen a publication recommend it for organic production, but I don't know why since I believe copper is approved for organic production.

PLC can only be controlled through dormant sprays. Cornell recommends 90% leaf drop for the fall spray. Once bud swell occurs in the spring, effective control through sprays is significantly reduced. The disease organism washes into the loose bud scales and will affect the emerging leaves systemically, so at that point no amount of fungicide will control the disease.

I can only tell you what I do.

I'll be spraying copper very shortly here, at 10% leaf on my peach and nectarine trees. I'm going to hit the grapes, too. Copper is for fungus and bacterial diseases. Recommendations for several types of plants are for spring spraying, so I'll spray copper in the spring, too.

Dormant oil spray is to smother insects that over-winter on the tree. It's for things like aphid and scale. I apply dormant oil to everything in the spring before the plants leaf out. If it can't outrun me, it gets sprayed with dormant oil.

Dormant spray does not stop any of the insects that do not over-winter on the tree. It's not going to stop worms in the fruit. You must do something else about those.

Dormant oil is "Mother-Earth-News" organic. It's cheap and harmless, unless you are an aphid. So, in my opinion, everyone should automatically spray with dormant oil.

The copper is a bit on the expensive side and targets specific diseases. I'm using it on trees that need it, and hitting some others "just in case" because I will already have it mixed up in the sprayer. But copper would normally only be used if you know that the trees need it.

Your friend with the leaf curl would benefit from a copper spray, this fall at 10% leaf. It wouldn't hurt to spray the trees again in the spring. If the trees have been left with curl for awhile, he is probably gong to have to fight it for a couple of years. One season of spraying probably won't get it all, but it will reduce it every year that he sprays.

This is good info and I appreciate it. I'll let them know you responded so they can read this.
Thanks!
Barb