[nafex] Azera insecticide and pears

Dear fellow pear growers,

I just wanted to warn other readers on this group about Azera insecticide from MGK. It is an OMRI-approved insecticide that's basically a mixture of azadirachtin (the main active ingredient in neem oil) & pyrethrins. I sprayed a mixture of Azera and Serenade at the recommended rates on my orchard on Sunday and by Tuesday, several cultivars of pear with European heritage (P. communis) were completely black. The damage is not fireblight. The symptoms are quite different and it is hitting certain blight-resistant cultivars while blight-susceptible cultivars right next to them are unaffected. I will compile a complete list this weekend, but I wanted to send a note quickly so that others can avoid the damage that I experienced.

I think the trees will survive, but I'll get no fruit from them.

I've been orcharding in the Southeastern U.S. since 1979 and have never seen anything like it. I've sprayed this same orchard with neem oil and pyrethrins (separately) and neem oil & Serenade together for several years in the past with no ill effects. Other species were not affected at all. I have one tree with 6 cultivars grafted in it. One pure communis cultivar has all of its leaves killed and another communis X pyrifolia cultivar has slight damage while the other 4, including one pure pyrifolia ('Koyama') are completely fine.

'Potomac' and 'Blake's Pride' are severely affected.

Anton
Zone 8; The North Carolina Piedmont

__________________
nafex mailing list
nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Northamerican Allied Fruit Experimenters
subscribe/unsubscribe|user config|list info:
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/nafex
message archives
http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/nafex
Google message archive search:
site: lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/nafex [searchstring]
nafex list mirror sites:
http://ifneb.blogspot.com IFNEB Blog
http://groups.google.com/group/permaculturelist
http://groups.google.com/group/nafexlist
https://sites.google.com/site/nafexmailinglist
Avant Geared http://sites.google.com/site/avantgeared