University of Vermont Fruit Blog

Category: Tree Fruit

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

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    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…

  • Entering pink bud stage on apple next week

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    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

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    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…

  • Quick update on apple scab and other IPM issues for this week

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    By Terence Bradshaw April 25, 2017 Expected showers beginning this afternoon through Wednesday may trigger an apple scab infection period in Vermont orchards. There has been relatively little buds development or and not enough rain in the last week or so to wash off protective residue, so any orchards that received a full-dose protectant fungicide…

  • Scab infection April 19-22

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    By Terence Bradshaw It doesn’t take too much fancy software to tell that we are in the middle of a pretty good apple scab infection period in most every orchard in Vermont. Ascospore maturity is estimated at 4-8% for today, and up to 14% in some orchards by the end of the weekend with showers…

  • Pest management in apples this week

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    By Terence Bradshaw Warm weather over the weekend advanced bud stages, pretty much everything in the Champlain and Connecticut Valleys are at green tip and some orchards are bordering on half-inch green. If you haven’t gotten copper out yet, now is the time, tomorrow (Tuesday 4/18)v looks like a good day wind-wise. We’re also out…

  • Green Tip in Champlain Valley

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    By Terence Bradshaw April 13, 2017 Champlain Valley orchards in Chittenden and Addison counties have reached the green tip bud stage on ‘McIntosh’ as of yesterday, April 12, which indicates that the growing season has begun for many Vermont orchards. Keep an eye out in your own orchards and plan on using actual green tip…

  • Beginning of apple scab season, 2017

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    By Terence Bradshaw April 5, 2017 NEWA Apple Scab and Phenology Models We don’t need computers and models to tell us that by mid-April we ought to expect apple bud break to be around the corner, and with temperatures in the 70s forecast for Monday and Tuesday of next week, I expect many orchards to…

  • Apple season will soon be underway

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    By Terence Bradshaw My predecessor and longtime mentor Lorraine Berkett always told me to be ready for the growing season to start any time after April 1. Despite that being wrong in 2010, it has generally been good advice to live by, and after receiving another eight inches of snow yesterday, April 1, I feel…

  • Fire blight model upgrade in pace for 2017

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    [Terence Bradshaw] See the note below regarding upgrades to the Fire Blight model in NEWA that will be implemented this year. Upgrades to the apple scab model will be coming as well.- TB We are pleased to announce that an upgrade to the fire blight model on NEWA is now in place, available from http://newa.cornell.edu/index.php?page=apple-diseases.…