University of Vermont Fruit Blog

Category: IPM

  • Fire blight risk

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    May 15, 2015 by Terence Bradshaw With all credit to Dan Cooley from UMASS, I am sending along a comment of his for Massachusetts growers that is equally pertinent to Vermont: “Fire Blight update May 15 – it’s not done quite yet With the refreshingly cool weather, the tendency is to think fire blight is…

  • Organic options for disease management in Vermont vineyards

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    May 15, 2015 by Terence Bradshaw I have received several requests for information on organic disease management in Vermont vineyards. I must say from the beginning that organically-certified options for managing some diseases are very limited. For some diseases, primarily powdery mildew and to some degree downy mildew, organic options are available to manage the…

  • Early season disease management in Vermont vineyards

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    May 13, 2015 by Terence Bradshaw With bud burst in cooler sites and grape shoots ranging from 1-3″ in the Champlain Valley is the time begin thinking about 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 2015 as far…

  • Scab, pink insect management, fire blight, what else?

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    May 7, 2015 by Terence Bradshaw This is an important week for orchard activities, as you likely know. I’ll try to be brief but thorough: Apple scab: Depending on whether or not you had green tissue showing on April 23 or (more likely) April 27-28, you may not have even seen an apple scab infection…

  • More on Fire Blight

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    May 5, 2015 by Terence Bradshaw We have run the Maryblyt model for the UVM Hort Farm in South Burlington and, as I had predicted this morning, conditions for infection will occur this weekend if blossoms are open. We may not have flowers showing by this weekend, but growers are advised to be diligent in…

  • Fire Blight risk looks high

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    May 5, 2015 by Terence Bradshaw With the string of warm days that we have been experiencing this week leading into bloom, as well as the amount of fire blight that was around in 2014, I expect that we may be in for a tough year with this disease. I have not yet run the…

  • Apple scab management

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    April 30, 2015 by Terence Bradshaw Cool weather has kept bud development in orchards behind ‘normal’, and I’m hearing reports ranging from late dormant in high elevation inland orchards through early half-inch green in the warmer valleys. Bud development will be moving fast with expected warm temperatures through Tuesday, when rain showers are expected to…

  • Orchard activities week of April 27

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    I go away for a week and nothing happens in the orchard. Not quite, but with the cool weather, trees have been advancing slowly. We reached green tip on McIntosh on Friday, April 24 at the UVM Hort Farm in South Burlington. This signals the real start of pest management season for us. Other, warmer…

  • Vermont apple scab management in the coming week

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    Friday, April 17: I will be away starting Saturday April 18 through the 25th. I am sending this notice in anticipation of activity next week in my absence, but please recognize that it is made based on a fairly long-range prediction. We have seen no green tissue yet in South Burlington on any cultivars, and…

  • Spring disease management in apples

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    I think it’s safe to say that spring is officially here, and the business or managing our orchards is about to pick up pace real fast. In walking the orchards at the UVM Hort Farm yesterday, I saw a lot of swollen, delayed-dormant buds, but only one cultivar, Zestar, which had reached silver tip. Given…