Unseasonably mild winters over the past few years provided perfect conditions for insects and other pests that can gradually kill susceptible trees.

Many insects and some fruit diseases are best controlled with dormant sprays.

Stone fruits such as peach, cherry and plum are highly susceptible to scale insects. Scale insects feed on the limbs and twigs of peach and cherry trees. The insects are almost nondescript, blending easily with the bark, often going unnoticed for months or even years.

Trees gradually loose small limbs and twigs and will eventually die. Scale insects, as well as aphids and mite populations, over winter in cracks and crevices of the bark on fruit trees.

Stone fruits are not the only casualties of scales and other over-wintering pests. Apples, pears and even grape vines have problems with scale and other insects.

Home orchardists should consider applications of dormant oils as a practical method of controlling insects during dormant season. Dormant oil is a lightweight oil, non-toxic to plants, that coats the surface, filling voids, cracks and crevices, killing insects and other pests by physically smothering them.

Researchers recommend that growers use two dormant oil sprays at two-week intervals before green tissue is present to control white peach scale. Dormant oils need to be applied when temperatures are between 40 and 60 degrees Fahrenheit, avoiding temperature extremes.

These oils need to be sprayed before buds swell and are showing color.

Peaches and cherries often get a disease called peach leaf curl. Peach leaf curl is a fungus disease that makes the leaves puffy, before they eventually fall off the tree. The disease rarely kills these trees but can weaken them, subjecting them to other, more serious problems.

Peach leaf curl can be controlled with a single application of lime-sulfur. Be sure to use rates as recommended on the product label. The spray for leaf curl must be applied during the dormant season, before buds swell.

The window of opportunity for controlling these insect and disease pests on fruits is narrow. Homeowners need to keep a careful watch on the weather and spray during good weather.

Procrastination has killed many fruit trees in Rowan County.

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