Here’s a quick note with rain expected in the next few days. -TB

With the dry weather that we’ve been experiencing the last week or so, we have had an extended time without apple scab infection periods. However, there has been significant development of ascospore maturity so the next substantial wetting event, which should occur during the extended rainy periods expected starting Wednesday and lasting through the weekend potentially, should result in a substantial and significant disease event. Everyone should have a good font contact fungicide in place going into the wedding. And should consider adding single site products either going into the period or applied during breaks in the rain to help with kickback in the case of imperfect coverage. On a brighter note, even as bloom appears to be off by at least a week or more, the NEWA models do not indicate a substantial increase in bacteria populations and with the onset of cool weather we do not anticipate any immediate concern about fire blight.

Insect pest monitoring should commence any time now in Vermont orchards. This year we are trialing the farmable app to help in collecting monitoring data and other information that may be useful in farm management. We discussed this program in my April 1 bulletin, and a recording of the onboarding meeting may be viewed here. I recorded a video today outlining how to log a set trap in the app so that growers may use it this season (sorry, it’s a little choppy). You can expect more discussion around the app as the season continues.

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

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