Month: May 2025

Orchard video covering this week’s material is here: YouTube 5/30/2025 Vermont orchard are at petal fall (inland and upland) to generally 10-12 mm fruit size in the lower elevation valleys. Primary apple scab ascospore release is complete for all orchards, so apple scab is not a major management consideration only if you know the disease…

This was meant to be sent out with some field pictures yesterday morning, but my teaching job and administrative duties all collided into a backup of worktodo this week. Hopefully it’s timely enough to be useful. -TB After a few decent days of pollination during bloom last week in between the cold, cloudy, showery weather,…

With welcome, warm, sunny weather, we are seeing epiphytic infection potential rise in virtually all orchards around the state. We are expecting by Thursday or Friday to have high enough populations of bacteria to cause fire blight infections on trees with open blossoms. That will include most orchards in the state which may either be…

As I write this just after noon on Saturday, May 10, it looks like this long stretch of rain we have been experiencing for the past week is wrapping up a bit earlier than expected. Over the past seven to ten days around the state we have seen rainfall totals from less than two to…

Reminder: TREE FRUIT TWILIGHT MEETINGS Thursday and Friday, May 8 and 9, 4:00-6:00 pm Join the Vermont Tree Fruit Growers Association and UVM Extension on May 8 at Yates Family Orchard, 1074 Davis Road, Hinesburg, VT or May 9 at Wellwood Orchard at 529 Wellwood Orchards Road, Springfield, VT. Topics discussed include tree fruit management…

This edition of our newsletter was written by UVM PhD student Bethany Pelletier. You can expect more from her this season. While I have you, I’d like to promote the Cold Climate Viticulture course Bethany and I will be teaching at UVM this summer. We haven’t finalized this year’s syllabus, but you can see the…