University of Vermont Fruit Blog

Category: IPM

  • Petal fall pre-discussion

    —

    by

    fruit

    By Terence Bradshaw May 21, 2017 Most Champlain, Connecticut, and Taconic valley orchards are at petal fall or quickly approaching it, which means the management needs will ramp up quickly- insect and disease management; nutrient application, mowing/herbicide/cultivation; and, of course, thinning. I’ll be wrapping my head around thinning options in the next few days, but…

  • Disease management in Vermont grapes- the season begins

    —

    by

    fruit

    By Terence Bradshaw Grapes are moving fast in Vermont vineyards, with most cultivars in the UVM vineyard at about 2” shoot growth. Shoot thinning now will give best results before the vines waste energy on growth that you won’t keep. We typically aim for 4-6 well-spaced shoots per foot of canopy, selecting for the most…

  • Trauma blight

    —

    by

    fruit

    By Terence Bradshaw May 19, 2017 An short, extremely intense line of thunderstorms passed through the state last night, accompanied with damaging high winds and, in some cases, hail. I was cutting trees out of our road soon after to make it passable, a neighbor lost 24 around his relatively small yard, many uprooted. That…

  • Cornell Champlain Valley Thinning Meeting Next Tuesday 5/23

    —

    by

    fruit

    By Terence Bradshaw It’s hot today, it doesn’t take an expert to tell you that. Bees should be moving; orchards all over the state including in the inland, cooler regions are at least in king bloom. Hopefully you got a fire blight spray on if you’re at all concerned about that disease in your orchard.…

  • Fire blight risk for Thursday and Friday of this week

    —

    by

    fruit

    By Terence Bradshaw May 16, 2017 Okay, we’ve been hinting around about it for weeks, and the risk for fire blight will be upon us later this week. Warm weather today, and hot weather Wednesday and Thursday will allow for substantial increase in populations of E. amylovera, the bacteria that causes fire blight. Once that…

  • May 14 Orchard thoughts

    —

    by

    fruit

    By Terence Bradshaw May 14, 2017 Orchards in the Champlain and Connecticut valleys are in full bloom now, and it looks like a good one. After my worrying comments last week about poor weather for bee flight, one grower last Monday told me, “You’re worrying too much. It’ll happen.” And it looks like Thursday and…

  • Pink bud in Vermont apple orchards, some thoughts on bloom and pest management

    —

    by

    fruit
    in ,

    By Terence Bradshaw May 5, 2017 Ugh. Vermont orchards are largely at tight cluster (inland, cooler sites and cider cultivars) to pink (most of the Champlain Valley, Honeycrisp of course is lagging) to early king bloom in a few spots and even a little full bloom in the warmest spots. Yesterday was a decent but…

  • Buds swelling in local vineyards

    —

    by

    fruit

    By Terence Bradshaw Grapevine buds are showing significant swelling in vineyards both in the Champlain Valley and at my house at near-1500 feet in Washington County, so bud break is right around the corner. However, This extended cool weather expected this week will leave those buds in this swollen state for an extended period, which…

  • Entering pink bud stage on apple next week

    —

    by

    fruit

    By Terence Bradshaw As many growers know, we are rolling out an expanding orchard scouting program at select sites this year in cooperation with Eric Boire from CPS. This week I got to my sites, both ‘inland’ in Washington and Orange counties, and things were, as expected, behind the main production regions (half-inch green vs…

  • NEWA models – intermittent downtime

    —

    by

    fruit

    By Terence Bradshaw A note from the folks at NEWA. The lesson here: know your basic apple scab and fire blight pathology- wet weather beyond a couple of hours will cause a scab infection, stay covered with fungicide unless there is a dry forecast; hot weather immediately preceding bloom can cause a fire blight infection…