I only have apples and pears and up until now I have been bagging the fruit with good success. The more fruit I have the longer the process takes so I'm considering using surround a few times to allow me time to complete the bagging. I'm looking forward to hearing from the poster who have used surround and the most economical vendors for smaller quantities. Good luck, Bill

I have used Surround for about ten years. Overall I am very happy with it, but it requires some work and experience to get right. You need to maintain a constant coat on the trees for about a month and a half, for me its the month of May plus a bit. If it rains more than 1" of rain all the Surround probably washed off so you need to put on another coat. I probably do four sprays per year or so; I used to do more but I have learned how to monitor curc activity and hold off until its critical. Curcs move slowly in cold weather so if its cold I am not in a big rush to re-coat. But the first night it heats up they will be out in force!

Scott

My experience is similar to scots

Effective but labor intensive....especially on warm rainy spring. And if you care about such things it makes the trees look wierd (white washed).

If you already have the sprayer the cost isn't bad. Like many products, for a small orchard a single bag will last a long time.
With surround I think shipping is almost as much as product cost, but it's been a couple years since I had to purchase.

I have also used Surround since it became an approved material with decent success, although probably not in as carefully a monitored context as Scott's since I use synthetics in my own orchard, where I can watch things on a daily basis. But where we rely on Surround we get plenty of useable fruit- just not as much.

It may be a fine option for you, but I believe your bees are safe with synthetic intervention as well, as long as they aren't feeding on blossoms under the trees in the weeds. You can always cover the hives on days you spray if you are worried. Most materials become much safer to bees once they dry.

I have clients with very healthy hives that have trees managed with synthetic poisons and my own property receives a lot of spray but I have more natural pollinators than any other site I manage- including feral honey bees lately. I keep the weeds well whacked under the trees before any spray applications.

Does the kaolin clay on the leaves reduce photosynthesis enough to affect fruit ripening?

NYRF, it seems to be about a wash. It reduces temps in mid-summer enough to help but reduces light reception a bit in good temps for PSnyths- it hasn't been a measurable problem anywhere I know of and it is often discussed as a potential issue.

Thanks for the input. Its good to know others success. I don't mind the whitewashed tree look, seems an easy way to tell if you have good coverage.
I let the clover run freely through the orchard grass, so my bees are always under the trees. I'm sure to still need insecticides at some point,so I planned on evening applications with a tarp under the tree to catch overspray/ drips. Easy enough for no more trees than I have. Going the IPM route, I'm expecting a loss of some fruit, but losing every fruit is above the treatment threshold for me!

I seem to recall that it's use can lead to mite outbreaks, can't verify that and haven't experienced on other crops though.

Harvestman, thanks for the insight on the photosynthesis issue.

It appears that a 25lb. bag will make 50 gallons of solution. Is it safe to assume 1 gallon per standard size tree (15' x 15')?

Maybe 2 gallons. It must be fine mist and sprayed until tree is completely and thickly coated. Scott may have a better handle on it because it's been a while since I've sprayed trees with Surround, and it was with a handgun sprayer with 4hp engine pushing it out at high pressure. These days I have another man handle the Surround aps, and he's not part of my company so I don't keep track of how much he's using.

I know someone has done a good job if the tree is still coated with the stuff when I come back to prune in winter and this is when last ap was in early June. You don't want to get the stuff on stone walls.

He sprayed a brick wall with pear espaliers 4 years ago for me and the wall is still stained. I forgot to tell him to leave the pears alone.

It works well for this backyard grower to place Surround-soaked footies around each apple when the fruit is about nickel sized.

It can rain often in the spring and early summer so if needed I will augment with a spray to the apples only. Obviously too time intensive for real orchards but works well for backyards.

Here is a thread from last year, which touches on application and the impact to photosynthesis (with a couple linked papers).

Here's a pic of my surround covered trees from the end of May last year. The timestamp on it says 8:11pm, which makes me impatient for spring/summer.

Wow. Thanks for the warning guys. I guess this stuff has special considerations when it comes to aesthetics. On the other hand, it looks like it would be good whitewash protection for blocking solar radiation in the winter. A branch on my plum tree cracked last winter from rapid thermal swings, apparently.