Month: May 2014

Petal Fall and Hail Damage Management

May 27, 2014

I’ve heard reports of possible hail damage from today’s storms, particularly in Addison County (although I would appreciate word from any other affected areas). Mary Conklin from UConn Extension just offered this advice to growers similarly hit recently in Connecticut:

1. Fireblight susceptible pears and apples should receive a strep spray within 24 hours of the hail storm if damage occurred. However, if you applied Apogee you should be covered because it protects against Fireblight.

2. If you have young trees that have not received Apogee AND had Fireblight last year (or your neighbor has/had Fireblight) AND were hit with hail – apply Strep within 24 hours of the hail storm.

3. Apple varieties still in bloom (there aren’t many locations with bloom still on) that were hit with hail need strep applied within 24 hours.

4. The fruit of stone fruits that are cut should have fungicide coverage maintained to prevent rot fungi from taking hold if you plan to harvest any of it.

5. Perennial canker/Cytospora canker fungi will move into trees through wounds, including those caused by hail. Pruning out damaged or broken limbs will help to prevent this destructive disease from taking hold.

6. Severe hail damage that causes young tree leaders to break: re-leader them ASAP.

7. Blueberries with hail damage are more susceptible to Phomopsis because the organism is more likely to infect where canes are damaged. In addition, spores are released between bud swell and petal fall and blueberries are in bloom now. If you (or your neighbors) have or had Phomopsis in the past, maintain fungicide coverage.

8. Call your crop insurance rep.

With that out of the way, this is a good week to get your petal fall coverage on. Apple scab, while most ascospores should be spent in the Champlain and Connecticut valleys, should be protected against for another 7-10 days. Powdery mildew is a concern at this time, as is cedar apple rust. DMI and, to a somewhat lesser degree against rust, Strobilurin fungicides, are effective, but be sure to mix with a protectant to reduce risk of fungicide resistance in your orchard. Petal fall insects (plum curculio, sawfly, early codling moth) need tending to.

Thinning is a real crap shoot this year, with extremely variable bloom and moderate to good to poor pollination weather, depending on site and cultivar. Cool, cloudy days of late suggest that moderately higher rates of thinners should be applied, but low blossom density on some cultivars may negate that. I would suggest a cautious approach and suggest following the recommendations in the 2014 New England Tree Fruit Management Guide. For most varieties, that would be 2-3 oz Fruitone plus 1 pint Sevin per 100 gallons dilute (based on tree row volume). Notice that’s by the book, I’m not pushing a more aggressive strategy unless you indeed had a good to great bloom.

This is a great time to try the apple carbohydrate thinning model on NEWA (click on the ‘crop management’ tab at the top of the page) to assess the relative stress level of your trees to tweak thinner rates. Remember, fruit and shoot development at this time demand more resources (photosynthate) than the tree produces. Cool weather with moderate sunlight and a fairly low crop load reduce stress on the trees and make thinners less effective, all things being equal.

Terence Bradshaw, UVM Tree Fruit and Viticulture Specialist

Where trade names or commercial products are used for identification, no discrimination is intended and no endorsement is implied.
Always read the label before using any pesticide.
The label is the legal document for the product use.
Disregard any information in this newsletter if it is in conflict with the label.

The UVM Tree Fruit and Viticulture Program is supported by the University of Vermont Agriculture Experiment Station, a USDA NIFA E-IPM Grant, and USDA Risk Management Agency Funds.

Early season disease management in Vermont vineyards

May 21, 2014-

Risk for cutworms and flea beetles has diminished as vines have surpassed the 1″ shoot growth stage in many Vermont vineyards. Now is the time to turn your focus toward disease management. I’ll put it simply: the next four fungicide applications, combined with good vineyard sanitation, will ‘set the stage’ for your vineyard in 2014 as far as diseases are concerned.

Disease Management at the 3-5 Inch Shoot Growth Stage – The following was written by Dr. Wayne Wilcox of Cornell University and appeared in the article “Grape Disease Control, 2013”: [Note: Ph = Phomopsis; PM=
powdery mildew; BR= black rot; DM= downy mildew]

“3 – to 5-INCH SHOOT GROWTH. A criticaltime to control Ph rachis infections if it’s raining or likely to be soon, especially in blocks with any history of the disease. Early is better than late if it looks like some rain is setting in. Late is much better than nothing if those are the only two options , i.e., you’re past this stage, haven’t gotten anything on, and wonder whether it’s too late . This spray can provide significant benefit against fruit infections as well, since many of them originate from movement into the berries from infected rachises and berry stems. Also an important time to control basal shoot infections, since this is where the fungus will establish itself for the future if infected tissue is retained in canes, spurs, or pruning stubs.

Now is the time to start thinking about control of PM on vinifera varieties if temperatures remain above 50 °F for long stretches of the day… This spray is much more likely to be important in vineyards that had significant PM last year (we’re talking late season foliar disease more than fruit infections here) than in those that were “clean ” into the fall; however, it may be beneficial even in relatively clean blocks of highly susceptible cultivars, which tend to be relatively valuable as well… If already spraying for Ph, most growers of highly susceptible (and valuable) varieties include something for PM while they’re at it. I would too.

In NY, spending extra money for BR control is almost never justified this early unless you’re trying to clean up a severe problem block AND weather is wet and reasonably warm. In general, the farther south you go, the more important early sprays can become. Still too early for DM.

Disease Management options for the 3-5 Inch Shoot Growth stage are listed on pages 55-58 of the printed version of the 2014 New York and Pennsylvania Pest Management Guidelines for Grapes.

Unless you have had issues with anthracnose or extensive black rot on your vineyard, an application of a protectant fungicide such as mancozeb or captan should be sufficient at this time.

Terence Bradshaw, UVM Tree Fruit and Viticulture Specialist

Where trade names or commercial products are used for identification, no discrimination is intended and no endorsement is implied.
Always read the label before using any pesticide.
The label is the legal document for the product use.
Disregard any information in this newsletter if it is in conflict with the label.

The UVM Tree Fruit and Viticulture Program is supported by the University of Vermont Agriculture Experiment Station, a USDA NIFA E-IPM Grant, and USDA Risk Management Agency Funds.

Tree Fruit Meeting tomorrow May 21, Walpole, NH

May 20, 2014

Sorry for the late announcement- tomorrow evening George Hamilton from UNH Cooperative Extension will host a joint twilight meeting with UMASS fruit team members at Alyson’s Orchard in Walpole, NH:

Tree Fruit Twilight Meeting
(Wednesday 05/21/2014 – 05:00 PM – 08:00 PM)

Topics to be Covered:

  • Overview of the Farm and Walking Tour of the Orchard
  • Integrated Pest Management Considerations for Apple & Peach Disease Problems
  • Integrated Pest Management Considerations for Tree Fruit Insect Problems
  • Chemical Apple Thinning Considerations

Speakers:

  • Carl Majewski, UNH CE Extension Educator Agricultural Resources in Cheshire County
  • Homer Dunn – Orchard Manager of Alyson’s Orchard, Walpole, NH – 30 years of experience and manager of the last five to ten years
  • Jon Clement, Tree Fruit Extension Specialist University of Massachusetts – Amherst
  • Bill Lord, UNH Cooperative Extension Fruit Specialist, Emeriti
  • George Hamilton, UNH Cooperative Extension – Extension Educator
  • Dr. Daniel R. Cooley, University of Massachusetts -Plant Pathology, Associate Professor
    Department of Plant, Soil and Insect Sciences
  • Arthur Tuttle, University of Massachusetts – IPM Field Leader Plant Pathology
  • Dr. Alan Eaton, Extension Fruit Entomology Specialist and Extension I.P.M. Coordinator
    UNH Cooperative Extension
  • Dr. Duane Greene, University of Massachusetts -Professor of Pomology, Department of Plant, Soil, & Insect Sciences

Come prepared for the weather conditions of the day.

2 Pesticide Applicator Credits have been approved

Location:

  • Alyson’s Orchard – 615 Wentworth Road, Walpole NH 03608

For more information:

George Hamilton

George.Hamilton@unh.edu

603-641-6060

Terence Bradshaw, UVM Tree Fruit and Viticulture Specialist

Where trade names or commercial products are used for identification, no discrimination is intended and no endorsement is implied.
Always read the label before using any pesticide.
The label is the legal document for the product use.
Disregard any information in this newsletter if it is in conflict with the label.

The UVM Tree Fruit and Viticulture Program is supported by the University of Vermont Agriculture Experiment Station, a USDA NIFA E-IPM Grant, and USDA Risk Management Agency Funds.

Favorable spray conditions May 17

May 17, 2014

For growers who need to cover their orchards for the apple scab or fire blight infection periods that occurred during this last round of rain, today looks like a good spray day with generally low wind speeds (as always check your conditions on your farm before listening to me). Winds look to be shifting from westerly to northerly over the course of the day, and dying down an bit through the evening and overnight.

A few tips:

  1. If you have open blossoms, put the insecticide away. This past week was the time for a pink insecticide, give the bees a chance to make your fruit for you.
  2. If you had fire blight in your orchard in the past couple of years and you had open blossoms yesterday, a streptomycin application would be prudent. Strep should be applied with a spreader like Regulaid to aid penetration into blossoms. If you would like to reduce your strep use, this is the important spray to apply it in; you can follow up with one of the biological materials in a couple of days when more blossoms open (and the threat has decreased).
  3. I would avoid captan right now, based mainly on its potential for leaf burn and fruit russetting. There also is some evidence that captan may reduce pollen germination. This is a good time to pull out one of the SI, QOI, or SDHI fungicides, combined with an EBDC protectant. If you don’t understand that alphabet soup by now, please refer to your 2014 New England Tree Fruit Management Guide.\

Terence Bradshaw, UVM Tree Fruit and Viticulture Specialist

Where trade names or commercial products are used for identification, no discrimination is intended and no endorsement is implied.
Always read the label before using any pesticide.
The label is the legal document for the product use.
Disregard any information in this newsletter if it is in conflict with the label.

The UVM Tree Fruit and Viticulture Program is supported by the University of Vermont Agriculture Experiment Station, a USDA NIFA E-IPM Grant, and USDA Risk Management Agency Funds.

Bud Break in Grapes

May 16, 2014

At the UVM Vineyard in South Burlington, VT, we are just coming into bud break. This gives us a good chance to make an initial assessment of bud damage from this past winter’s cold events. It’s still a but early to start a thorough shoot thinning, since a lot can happen and many shoots that break from secondary or tertiary buds may not be fruitful. But this is a good time to clean up your vines if you rough-pruned and left a generous bud count like we did. Extra canes that were kept for insurance in the event of cordon death can be removed if the cordon looks good, or laid down to form develop a new cordon if it doesn’t. Vines with trunk injury may still leaf out at this time, the damage is more apparent in a few weeks when the developing growth requires water and nutrients beyond those that were stored in vine tissues over the winter.

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This is a good time to remove what I call ‘nubs’, those little spur lengths beyond the last retained node that breaks bud. These dead wood pieces can harbor disease inoculum, especially Phomopsis, and do you no good in the vineyard.

Speaking of disease, it’s time to start thinking about your disease management program if you haven’t already. Growers should have fungicide coverage to protect against Phomopsis, Black Rot, and Downy Mildew by the 5-8″ shoot growth stage, which will be too far off. Get your sprayers calibrated, start ordering materials, and start to plan your season. My predecessor Dr. Lorraine Berkett’s  Initial IPM Strategy for Cold Climate Grapes is still a great first step, and the archived  Northern Grapes Project 2012 Webinar ” by Drs. Patty McManus and Wayne Wilcox is another great resource for helping you get up to speed.

Terence Bradshaw, UVM Tree Fruit and Viticulture Specialist

Where trade names or commercial products are used for identification, no discrimination is intended and no endorsement is implied.
Always read the label before using any pesticide.
The label is the legal document for the product use.
Disregard any information in this newsletter if it is in conflict with the label.

The UVM Tree Fruit and Viticulture Program is supported by the University of Vermont Agriculture Experiment Station, a USDA NIFA E-IPM Grant, and USDA Risk Management Agency Funds.

Apple Pink and Bloom time considerations for Vermont

May 15, 2014

By now most orchards in the Champlain Valley should be at full pink, and a few blossoms were observed open today at the UVM Hort Research and Education Center in South Burlington. This is a critical time for management activities in the orchard, so here goes:

  1. We are still in a high fire blight risk situation for nearly all orchards in the state. Hot weather the past few days has pushed epiphytric infection potential for the fire blight bacteria to levels sufficient to cause infection. If you or an immediate neighbor have had fire blight in the past two years, you should be ready to treat opening blossoms within 24 hours. We are going to get the required wetting for infection starting on Friday, and blossoms must be covered with streptomycin within 24 hours of infection.
  2. For a more long-term, systems-based management program for fire blight, please see the guide, “Grower Lessons and Emerging Research for Developing an Integrated Non-Antibiotic Fire Blight Control Program in Organic Fruit,” available here. Frankly, if you are not bound by organic certification rules (and even for this final season organically-certified growers are allowed to use it), streptomycin is your best defense against blossom blight and will help limit shoot blight spread later in the season. This guide however offers many good strategies for use in a long-term program that taken together will reduce your orchard’s susceptibility to the disease.
  3. Bloom looks variable; I have one of my lighter crops at the UVM orchards, but I saw a very good density of fruit buds in Grand Isle County today. Anecdotal reports from Addison County indicate either a great fruit bud density or a moderate one. I would appreciate any feedback on bloom conditions in your orchard.
  4. Scab is still a significant risk, and this weekend’s rain will likely initiate a significant infection period. This is a good time to add one of the systemic SI, QOI, or SDHI fungicides to your spray schedule to cover for powdery mildew and cedar apple rust as well as scab. There is some concern with application of Captan and potential phytotoxicity around and just following bloom, so a combination of one of the ‘big gun’ fungicides and 3 lbs/acre mancozeb would be a reasonable tank mix at this time. If you haven’t used more than 3 lbs/acre of mancozeb (or another EBDC ) in any tank mix yet this season, you can continue to use it after bloom until 77 days before harvest at that rate.
  5. Speaking of scab, lesions from the first infection periods of the season, especially from around May 1, should be visible by early next week.
  6. If you haven’t applied ground fertilizers yet, now is the time to do so. Same for irrigation, new high-density plantings are thirsty, so be sure to water regularly. NEWA has a good Apple Irrigation model under the ‘Crop Management’ tab.

That’s all for now. Stay dry, but keep your orchards covered.

Terence Bradshaw, UVM Tree Fruit and Viticulture Specialist

Where trade names or commercial products are used for identification, no discrimination is intended and no endorsement is implied.
Always read the label before using any pesticide.
The label is the legal document for the product use.
Disregard any information in this newsletter if it is in conflict with the label.

The UVM Tree Fruit and Viticulture Program is supported by the University of Vermont Agriculture Experiment Station, a USDA NIFA E-IPM Grant, and USDA Risk Management Agency Funds.

Fire Blight Alert

May 13, 2014

The orchards at the UVM Horticulture Research and Education Center are at open cluster to early pink, and some blooms are expected by the end of the week. NEWA fire blight models are predicting high to extreme risk for fire blight in the next four days for all sites in Vermont except the coolest ones where bud development is still at half-inch green. Growers should consider treatment of orchards with open blooms with streptomycin if infection conditions occur. Remember that fire blight infection requires four conditions:

  1. Open blossoms,
  2. A significant population of bacteria,
  3. Wetting events (including spray application),
  4. Sufficient heat units during the infection event.

The Cougarblight model run through NEWA is the best method to assess infection risk in your orchard. If infection is predicted, streptomycin must be applied within 24 hours before or after the event. Strep only works on open blossoms, so blooms that open after treatment must be re-treated if infection conditions remain.

Please refer to the New England Tree Fruit management guide for more information on fire blight management.

Terence Bradshaw, UVM Tree Fruit and Viticulture Specialist

Where trade names or commercial products are used for identification, no discrimination is intended and no endorsement is implied.
Always read the label before using any pesticide.
The label is the legal document for the product use.
Disregard any information in this newsletter if it is in conflict with the label.

The UVM Tree Fruit and Viticulture Program is supported by the University of Vermont Agriculture Experiment Station, a USDA NIFA E-IPM Grant, and USDA Risk Management Agency Funds.

May Northern Grapes Newsletter

May 5, 2014

News You Can Use

Grape Disease Management

Anthracnose on grape berries. (Photo: Patty McManus)

 

Every experienced grape grower knows that good disease management program is a crucial component of growing high-quality grapes. Early season control is especially important, as flowers and small berries are quite susceptible to powdery mildew, downy mildew, and black rot.

Because cold-hardy grape cultivars are still relatively new, we’re still learning about the different cultivars’ resistance and susceptibility to the range of grape pathogens. Therefore, one of the objectives of the Northern Grapes Project is to evaluate disease resistance and the cultivars’ susceptibility to copper- and sulfur-based fungicides.

Below is a list of resources that will help you build an effective disease management program.

Grape Disease Management Basics (and All About Anthracnose) by Wayne Wilcox, Cornell University and Patty McManus, the University of Wisconsin. April 10, 2012 Northern Grapes Project webinar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Bc5vdsjbI0&feature=youtu.be

The Disease Management Puzzle: Putting the Pieces Together by Dean Volenberg, University of Wisconsin Extension – Door County. June 4, 2013 Northern Grapes News (Vol. 2, Issue 2).

http://northerngrapesproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/May-2014-DiseaseMgmtVolenberg.pdf

Grape Disease Control, 2013 by

Wayne Wilcox, Cornell University. A rather lengthy document that contains an update and review of how to control grape fungal diseases in the east. (Will updated this link with the 2014 version once it’s released.)

http://www.fruit.cornell.edu/grape/pdfs/Wilcox-Grape%20Disease%20Control%202013.pdf

The 2014 Midwest Small Fruit and Grape Spray Guide. Contains

general guidelines to use as you develop your grape spray program. Also has information about fruit grower newsletters, pesticide drift, plant diagnostic lab listings, and much more.

https://ag.purdue.edu/hla/Hort/Documents/ID-169.pdf

Terence Bradshaw, UVM Tree Fruit and Viticulture Specialist

Where trade names or commercial products are used for identification, no discrimination is intended and no endorsement is implied.
Always read the label before using any pesticide.
The label is the legal document for the product use.
Disregard any information in this newsletter if it is in conflict with the label.

The UVM Tree Fruit and Viticulture Program is supported by the University of Vermont Agriculture Experiment Station, a USDA NIFA E-IPM Grant, and USDA Risk Management Agency Funds.

New Hampshire Irrigation Workshop

May 5, 2014

University of New Hampshire is conducting a drip irrigation workshop on Thursday May 22, 4:30 -8 PM, at Brookdale Fruit Farm, Hollis, NH. The program looks to be very thorough and well worth it especially if you are thinking of putting in a new system.

Click the following link for all the information.

http://extension.unh.edu/events/index.cfm?e=app.event&event_id=37173

Terence Bradshaw, UVM Tree Fruit and Viticulture Specialist

Where trade names or commercial products are used for identification, no discrimination is intended and no endorsement is implied.
Always read the label before using any pesticide.
The label is the legal document for the product use.
Disregard any information in this newsletter if it is in conflict with the label.

The UVM Tree Fruit and Viticulture Program is supported by the University of Vermont Agriculture Experiment Station, a USDA NIFA E-IPM Grant, and USDA Risk Management Agency Funds.

Vermont Apple IPM week of 5/5

May 5, 2014

All orchards in the state experienced extended apple scab infection periods from April 30 through today. Depending on your site, you may have had a break in the infection period from May 1-2, but for all intents and purposes, this was one that you needed to be covered for. If coverage was questionable, application of a postinfection material as soon as possible (today or tomorrow) would be prudent. Please keep Dave Rosenberger’s “Fungicide Considerations for Tree Fruits in 2014” article in the March 25 Issue of Scaffolds handy for easy reference. It looks like we have a dry period this week from Tuesday 5/6 through Thursday 5/8, which should give everyone a chance to get their next fungicide application on before rains begin again over the weekend.

Many orchards are at tight cluster now, and pink will not be far behind. This is a good time to apply a fungicide effective against powdery mildew, such as an SI or sulfur in combination with mancozeb or captan as a protectant. Prebloom is also a good time to consider foliar applications of nitrogen (urea at 3 lbs/100 gallons dilute), zinc (zinc-containing EBDC fungicides or EDTA zinc chelate at label rate), and boron (1 lb/100 gallons dilute) that are especially helpful in strengthening winter-weakened fruit buds. Dr. Wes Autio from UMass published a good fact sheet on prebloom foliar nutrition here.

I saw my first Tarnished Plant Bug in a fruit bud this morning. While our trap captures are below treatment threshold at this time, it is good to start thinking about your insect management program. If this cool spring continues to play out, an application of an insecticide at pink may be prudent because extended bloom may prevent application of an insecticide for quite a spell until petal fall.

Terence Bradshaw, UVM Tree Fruit and Viticulture Specialist

Where trade names or commercial products are used for identification, no discrimination is intended and no endorsement is implied.
Always read the label before using any pesticide.
The label is the legal document for the product use.
Disregard any information in this newsletter if it is in conflict with the label.

The UVM Tree Fruit and Viticulture Program is supported by the University of Vermont Agriculture Experiment Station, a USDA NIFA E-IPM Grant, and USDA Risk Management Agency Funds.