Apple Maggot Fly Traps Should go up; End of Scab??

By Terence Bradshaw

June 25, 2020

Hopefully everyone had some fungicide coverage on for that last rain we got yesterday. It’s hard to tell without doing proper spore counts, but I feel pretty confident saying that primary scab season is done for this year. Scout your orchards for lesions and protect from secondary infections if you find any. But really, this has been a pretty easy scab season.

Keep looking for fire blight and remove as soon as you see it. If you have any big outbreaks, let me know. My Cornell colleagues Dr. Kerik Cox and Anna Wallis are collecting samples of fire blight-infected tissue to test for antibiotic resistance in the pathogen. If you can participate, I’ll be happy to help with collection and shipping if I can do it in a timely manner.

If codling moth is a serious pest in your orchard, you may be due for a second treatment with an effective material. Otherwise, you’re likely in between insect concerns until apple maggot and/or obliquebanded leafroller come around. Now is the time to get apple maggot fly (AMF) traps up. These are some of the easiest pests to manage using an IPM strategy, so there’s really no excuse. The idea is to assess the population in the orchard before applying prophylactic sprays. By using red sticky traps, you can time treatments for best effectiveness, and maybe even skip treatments if the populations are low enough. Traps are red plastic balls that you coat with Tanglefoot adhesive. Kits including traps and adhesive are available from Gemplers and Great Lakes IPM.

Traps should be hung at least four per 10-acre block, preferably at the orchard perimeter and especially near sources of the insect, like wild or unmanaged apples. Placement in the tree should be about head-height, and surrounding foliage should be trimmed away- this trap is largely visual, and you should be able to see it from 10-20 yards away. The traps may be baited with an apple essence lure that improves their attractiveness dramatically. For monitoring to time sprays, unbaited traps that catch one fly per block (as an average of all the traps in the block) would warrant treatment; the lure makes them much more attractive such that you can wait until an average of five flies per trap are caught before treating. For most growers, the main insecticide used against AMF is Assail, Imidan also works but it has a long reentry interval and tends to leave visible residue on fruit. For organic growers, Surround works well, but its use in midsummer may increase European red mites, and it can be hard to remove at harvest; spinosad (Entrust) works pretty well too. First AMF treatment is still a few weeks off, most likely.

Think about including calcium in all of your foliar sprays until harvest, and on Honeycrisp and other large-fruited varieties, you may want to make some specific trips just to get more Ca on.

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Pick-your-own and Farmer’s Market Guidance for COVID-19 Safety

By Terence Bradshaw

The Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food, and Markets (VAAFM) has released guidance on Farmers Markets and Pick-Your-Own operations that must be followed until further notice. The Farmer’s Market guidance was posted earlier last month and is viewable on the VAAFM website: https://agriculture.vermont.gov/sites/agriculture/files/Farmers%20Market%20Guidance%2005.05.20.pdf. All farms that operate their own farm stands should plan on following these guidelines.

Pick-your-own guidance was just released today. Those rules are in the attached document, and copied below. VAAFM COVID_19 information can be found at: https://agriculture.vermont.gov/covid-19-information

………………………………..

Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets                                                                          Office of the Secretary

116 State Street

Montpelier, VT 05620-2901

(802) 828-5667

June 1, 2020

PICK-YOUR-OWN RESTART PLAN

Pick-your-own agricultural producers, including berry farms and orchards, shall adhere to the Agency of Commerce & Community Development’s Phased Restart Work Safe Guidance for retail operations and follow the best practices identified in this Pick-Your-Own Restart Plan.

MANDATORY HEALTH & SAFETY REQUIREMENTS FOR ALL BUSINESS, NON-PROFIT & GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS: All businesses must follow Vermont Department of Health and CDC guidelines outlined in the Phased Restart Work Safe Guidance and all health and safety and training requirements enumerated in Addendum 12 to Executive Order 01-20.

BUSINESS CUSTOMER & GENERAL PUBLIC MASK USE: Customers, and the public in general, are encouraged to wear face coverings any time they are interacting with others from outside their household.  Businesses may require customers to wear facial coverings over their nose and mouth.

RETAIL OPERATIONS GUIDANCE)

Non-essential retail operations are limited to 25% (twenty-five percent) of approved fire safety occupancy; or 1 customer per 200 square feet; or 10 total customers and staff combined, whichever is greater. Operators must POST their temporary occupancy limit, and which method was used to determine it, prominently on all entrances. Posting templates are available at accd.vermont.gov. 

Cashless/touch-less transactions are strongly preferred. 

Curbside pickup remains the preferred method of operation. When possible, retailers should take steps to schedule or stage customer visits, such as waiting in cars or outside, to ensure lower contact operations.

Organized outdoor markets, such as flea markets, shall adhere to the farmers market guidance issued by the Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets.

Pick-your-own agricultural producers, including berry farms and orchards, shall adhere to retail guidance, and follow the best practices identified in the Agency of Agriculture’s Pick-Your-Own Restart Plan.

1. REQUIRED PRACTICES FOR PICK-YOUR-OWN (PYO) OPERATIONS

  1. Customer Face Covering. In accordance with Executive Order guidance, customers are encouraged to and should wear face coverings over their nose and mouth any time they are interacting with others from outside their households. Individual farms may require their customers to wear face masks.
  1. Limited Outdoor In-Person Picking. PYO farms shall admit no more than one customer per 200 square feet of the crop space that is available for harvest/picking at the time of admission. All employees and customers in the harvest area must practice social distancing and follow all related safety requirements. If customer demand significantly exceeds available space, PYO farms should pre-schedule customer visits to limit the number of people on site.
  1. Social Distancing and Customer Flow. PYO farms must manage customer flow to ensure a distance of at least 6 feet between all employees and customers at all times, including ensuring that all customers either wait in their vehicles or remain at least 6 feet apart while awaiting entry to the harvest/picking area.
  1. Containers and Tools. Picking containers must either be clean containers provided by customers who maintain exclusive control over them, disposable containers provided by the PYO farms for customers to take home, or reusable containers that employees thoroughly clean and disinfect before each use.  All tools or other devices that customers may share must be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected by employees before each use.
  1. Retail Stations. All in-person sales should be conducted at an outdoor retail station whenever possible, and all retail stations must include a sneeze guard, be regularly cleaned and disinfected, and have a hand-washing station or hand-sanitizer containing at least 60% alcohol on site.  Transactions should be conducted in advance whenever possible, and in-person sales should be conducted by electronic transaction without utilizing cash. 
  1. Additional Requirements. To limit in-person contact and the risk of contamination, the on-site consumption of food—including crops being picked—is not allowed. In addition, customers are not permitted to congregate on site before, during, or after picking. PYO customers are prohibited from areas of the farm not involved in the PYO farm operation.  
  1. PHYSICAL DISTANCING PLAN
    1. All employees and customers will follow all safety practices and always maintain a distance of at least 6 feet between all employees and customers.
  • Online or telephone orders and transactions are encouraged because they are accomplished without in-person contact with customers. All employees engaged in this work shall practice social distancing.
  • Sales should be conducted outside whenever possible. Indoor retail operations are limited to 25% (twenty-five percent) of approved fire safety occupancy; or 1 customer per 200 square feet; or 10 total customers and staff combined, whichever is greater.  Operators must POST their temporary occupancy limit, and which method was used to determine it, prominently on all entrances. Posting templates are available at accd.vermont.gov.  
  • All harvest areas are limited to a maximum of no more than one customer per 200 square feet of the crop space available for harvest at the time of picking. All employees and customers must practice social distancing and follow all related safety requirements. The designated health officer employee will ensure compliance.  The customer waiting, harvest, and retail area shall also be marked for one-way access wherever two-way access would require employees or customers to be closer than 6 feet apart, and whenever a crop row provides less than 10 feet of open space for foot traffic.
  • Outdoor space will be further monitored to ensure that all customers awaiting access to a harvest site remain in their vehicles or maintain sufficient separation while awaiting entry.  The designated health officer employee will ensure safety compliance for traffic flow and customer spacing while awaiting access to a harvest site.
  • Employees shall not have more than two persons in a vehicle and should have a single employee per vehicle whenever possible.
  1. POSTINGS AND NOTIFICATIONS
    1. Internal for Employees. All PYO farms shall distribute a concise internal document to all employees that explains all social distancing and related safety requirements. 
  • External for Customers/Visitors. All PYO farms shall employ a designated health officer employee to ensure ongoing and simultaneous compliance with all safety requirements in each sector (parking/waiting, harvesting, retail) of the PYO operation. 
  • Postings/Signs. PYO farms shall post visible signs that include the following information: a) pre-ordered sales transactions are prioritized and preferred; b) identifying the maximum number of customers permitted in indoor retail spaces and outdoor harvest sites; c) the protocol for maintaining separation while awaiting entry, d) that all customers should wear appropriate facial coverings, and e) customers with COVID-19 or COVID-19 symptoms are not allowed on the premises.  Instructions for minimizing contact shall also be posted adjacent to each retail station, which shall be conducted in an outside area whenever possible. 
  • All PYO farms shall adopt a written plan to ensure that all safety, health, and sanitation requirements are followed in each facet of their operations. 

Anson Tebbetts Secretary

Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets

Getting orchards and wineries listed on the VermontVacation.com directory

You may have heard about ACCD’s new Buy Local Vermont program. The program is intended to bring needed foot traffic and increase sales for local restaurants, retail stores, entertainment and performing arts venues, lodging and tourism-related businesses. On September 8, 2020, the program will begin incentivizing purchases by giving Vermont residents $30 savings offers to be used at local Vermont businesses where they can use their funds. Your members can add their business to our Buy Local directory starting now and we are strongly encouraging all interested businesses to do so before September 7 (although they will be able to add their business after that date). For information about the program and to watch an informational webinar, visit the ACCD Business Recovery Resource Center.

Sara DeFilippi | Sales & Marketing Specialist

Agency of Commerce & Community Development
Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing
1 National Life Dr, Davis Bldg, 6th Floor | Montpelier, VT 05620-0501

802-272-2633 cell

Sara.DeFilippi

Virtual Vermont

COVID-19 Recovery Resource Center

Pre-harvest juice testing for ripeness

Heat accumulation is up overall this year, and we are about ten days ahead of ‘normal’ in South Burlington. As harvest approaches, it’s important to keep and eye on three important parameters of juice chemistry: soluble solids (sugar), pH, and titratable acidity. These values should be checked at least weekly against your target levels for the wine style you are aiming for. Last year, we published a fact sheet the details the methods for completing these tests: http://www.uvm.edu/~fruit/pubs/UVMFRT006_PreharvestGrapeTesting.pdf

Good luck with the harvest.

Where trade names or commercial products are used for identification, no discrimination is intended and no endorsement is implied. Always read the label before using any pesticide. The label is the legal document for the product use. Disregard any information in this message if it is in conflict with the label.

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.

UVM Extension helps individuals and communities put research-based knowledge to work. University of Vermont Extension, and U.S. Department of Agriculture, cooperating, offer education and employment to everyone without regard to race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, and marital or familial status.

UVMFRT006_PreharvestGrapeTesting.pdf

COVID News: PYO and farm stand guidance

I’ve been getting a lot of questions regarding COVID safety regulations and the imminent opening of PYO orchards. I’ve checked with the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food, and Markets, and they have confirmed these items. They have also suggested that they are reviewing regulations and will be sending out any updates (watch for them through this list) as soon as they come out.

Here are the main rules and guidances from the Governor’s office or VAAFM. There are three or four documents you should be familiar with:

  1. Mandatory Health & Safety Requirements for all Business, Nonprofit, and Government Operations
  2. Sector Specific Guidance for Retail Operations
  3. The Agency of Agriculture’s Pick-Your-Own Restart Plan
  4. Farmers Market Guidance and Farmers Market Phase 2 Guidance issued by the Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets

Plus, this training that includes material we should all know by now: VOSHA Educational Material for all Employees Including Farm Workers

Any of us who have been out in the past few months have the benefit of having learned most of these, either explicitly or by practice, as we move through the grocery store, farm markets, and other retail environments. The basics, which I’ll outline with the disclaimer that you really need to read the rules, are:

  • Maintain distance, six feet between people not from the same household everywhere and one person per 200 sq feet (215 people per acre, spaced out) in outdoor PYO environments.
  • Farm markets are ‘essential retail facilities’, so their maximum occupancy (from your fire marshal) is not reduced. However, you need to maintain six feet between non-household individuals.
  • Have a sanitation policy for all of your workers, requiring that they properly wash hands after each time they come and go from specific work tasks that may introduce them into contact with a different person. Provide sanitizer, and ideally a handwash station, for customers to use when entering your space.
  • To limit in-person contact and the risk of contamination, the on-site consumption of food—including crops being picked—is not allowed. In addition, customers are not permitted to congregate on site before, during, or after picking. PYO customers are prohibited from areas of the farm not involved in the PYO farm operation. I copied that verbatim from the PYO policy.
  • Traffic flow must be one-way and minimize cross-flow of customers into each other’s paths. Really, this is going to make everyone’s life easier, even post-COVID.
  • Masks are required for everyone in public settings, with a few exceptions. Information on mask requirements may be found here. More information is found here. Hint: on that second link, hit Ctrl+F (find on page) and enter “mask”, then hit enter. You can scroll through every specific reference to masks in the document. But really, it’s easiest to just wear one and ask your customers to do so when they are within six feet of others, and to always wear one indoors.
  • Someone on your farm must be designated as the operation’s “health officer”. This doe not come with a raise in pay, nor any increased liability, but it does suggest that the state expects that someone from the farm has completely read the rules (the guidances are enforceable rules) and is ensuring that the farm is following them.

Here are direct answers to a couple of questions I have received:

Q: It says in the PYO Rules that "PYO farms shall admit no more the one customer per 200 square feet of the crop space…" Does that really mean ONE person or is a customer considered a family group? PYO apples is definitely a family outing and if only one person can be in the space, that will be a HUGE detriment to people coming to pick.

A: The one customer per 200 sq. ft. requirement is used to calculate an occupancy limit for the entire PYO operation. Customers that arrive as a small group/household can stay together as long as all members of the group/household can maintain at least 6 ft. distance from staff and other customers that are not part of their group/household.

Q: What are the rules and training requirements for the designated health officer?

A: A designated health officer employee will ensure ongoing and simultaneous compliance with all safety requirements in each sector (parking/waiting, harvesting, retail) of the PYO operation. The designated health officer must be present at all times that PYO customers are on-site. There are no specific training requirements for the designated health officer, but all employees must complete and document their completion of the mandatory health and safety training requirements that apply to all Vermont businesses, which are outlined in the Phased Restart Work Safe Guidance.

At the end of it, this all comes down to basic common sense, assuming that we’re cleaning ourselves, maintaining a six-foot distance, and trying to avoid breathing each other’s aerosolized breath.

Signage is available for download to print yourself or to order from these places (not exhaustive):

  • US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (download)
  • HealthVermont (download)
  • Signs.com (download)
  • Compliance Signs (buy)
  • I’ve seen that Staples has signs ready to pick up, and imagine that most local printers have them as well.
  • These are a little older, but worth sharing again:

Here’s a pre-recorded webinar specific to Vermont PYO operations: Adapting Your Vermont Pick-Your-Own Operation in Response to Covid-19 – Webinar and Resources

And two more general guidance resources:

· Best Management Practices for U-Pick Farms During the COVID-19 Pandemic – Cornell University

· Considerations for Fruit and Vegetable Growers Related to Coronavirus & COVID-19 – University of Vermont Extension

Where trade names or commercial products are used for identification, no discrimination is intended and no endorsement is implied. Always read the label before using any pesticide. The label is the legal document for the product use. Disregard any information in this message if it is in conflict with the label.

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.

UVM Extension helps individuals and communities put research-based knowledge to work. University of Vermont Extension, and U.S. Department of Agriculture, cooperating, offer education and employment to everyone without regard to race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, and marital or familial status.

VCAAP Relief Payments for Agriculture and Working Lands Businesses—Coming Soon!

Forwarding from the VT Agency of Ag, this could be a great opportunity to recoup some COVID-related expenses for your farm business. -TB

Vermont COVID-19 Agriculture Assistance Program (VCAAP) Agriculture and Working Lands Assistance Application

$8.5 Million in CARES Act Coronavirus Relief Funding will soon be available to a wide variety of agricultural, food, and forestry businesses and organizations through the Vermont COVID-19 Agriculture Assistance Program (VCAAP) Agriculture and Working Lands Assistance Application.

General Eligibility Criteria

(1) Farmers, commercial processors, slaughterhouses, farmers’ markets, food businesses, forest products businesses, dairy producers or processors, and agriculture producer associations are eligible.

(2) Your business entity must have gross annual income of at least $10,000 to apply.

(3) Your business must have verifiable losses and/or expenses since March 1, 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 public health emergency.

How To Apply

The Agriculture and Working Lands application will launch the week of August 17, 2020. Please note that state offices are closed on Monday, August 17 for Bennington Battle Day. Check our website and subscribe to our newsletter to be notified when the application is open.

The deadline to apply is October 1, 2020. However, keep in mind that grants will be awarded on a first-come, first served basis, so the application may close prior to October 1 if all funds are expended.

Before applying, applicants should complete a W-9 form and gather documentation of losses and costs incurred since March 1, 2020 that are related to the COVID-19 public health emergency.

Webinars

Attend a webinar to learn more about the VCAAP Agriculture and Working Lands Assistance Application. A webinar for service providers and partners will be held on August 19. Webinars for applicants will be held on August 21, 24 and 25. Webinars will be recorded and posted to our website.

Contact Us

(802) 828-2430 select #9
AGR.CovidResponse

New England Apple Crop Insurance Listening Session

FYI: It looks like the USDA Risk Management Agency plans to make changes to the apple crop insurance policy. Here’s information on a listening session to cover proposed changes before they go in effect next year.

From: Sereno, Alexander – FPAC-RMA, Raleigh, NC
Sent: Friday, May 29, 2020 9:35 AM
Subject: New England Apple Crop Insurance Listening Session

Good morning New England Apple Stakeholders,

I hope this email finds you well.

Attached is an invitation to an upcoming virtual listening session to discuss proposed changes to the apple crop insurance policy.

Please share this with anyone you know who might be interested.

Instructions for participation in the listening session are in the attached flyer.

Please contact Tracey Keene, RMA, with any questions regarding the content of this invitation. Telephone Number: 816-926-6339 OR email: tracey.keene. If you email, please include “Apple Listening Session” as your subject line.

Thank you,

Alexander Sereno

Director

Raleigh Regional Office

Risk Management Agency

United States Department of Agriculture

4405 Bland Road, Suite 160

Raleigh, NC 27609

919-875-4902

Stay Connected with USDA:

USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender

USDA is an Equal Opportunity Provider, Employer, and Lender 1 .

LISTENING SESSION – NEW ENGLAND APPLE GROWERS PROPOSED CHANGES TO APPLE CROP INSURANCE PROGRAM THURSDAY, JUNE 25, 2020

You are invited to participate in a Listening Session with USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) to discuss proposed changes to the Apple Policy.

WHY

In 2017 and 2018, RMA and its contractor, Agralytica, met with apple growers and other insurance stakeholders to discuss the apple program and identify potential changes to enhance coverage while also addressing increasing loss ratios and resultant premium costs. This listening session is a follow-up to those previous sessions. During this session, RMA will present proposed changes to growers and their insurance representatives and ask for their comments. The feedback received will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed changes.

The diagram below provides a timeline of RMA’s continued engagement with the apple industry as well as tentative timing for the revised policy’s release.

WHEN

Thursday, June 25, 2020 from 12:00 pm to 1:30 PM EST

HOW

The listening sessions will be conducted by phone OR by calling in by phone and connecting through the internet. You can participate by calling into the number provided to listen or speak OR you may call in and participate online which also allows you to view the presentation. The information to participate is provided in the instructions that follow on page 2.

2 .

INSTRUCTIONS TO PARTICIPATE

1. Participate by telephone:

Dial 1-888-844-9904. When prompted, please enter the access code: 4965127; OR

2. Participate by telephone AND follow along online to see our presentation. Join on the internet by using the instructions that follow for adobe connect and listen in by dialing 1-888-844-9904 and enter the access code 4965127 when prompted.

INSTRUCTIONS TO ALSO PARTICIPATE ONLINE

Webinar link: https://usda.adobeconnect.com/applegrowers/

Instructions: Use the webinar URL provided to “Enter as a Guest.” In the Name field, enter your first and last names. If you are representing an organization, please list it after your name. (Example: John Smith, Risk Management Agency).

If this is your first-time using Adobe Connect, we recommend testing your connection ten minutes ahead of time.

If you are having difficulty logging in, consider trying the link/URL with a different browser (Internet Explorer, Edge, Firefox, Google Chrome).

CONTACT INFORMATION

Please contact Tracey Keene, RMA, with any questions regarding the content of this invitation. Telephone Number: 816-926-6339 OR email: tracey.keene@usda.gov. If you email, please include “Apple Listening Session” as your subject line.

This electronic message contains information generated by the USDA solely for the intended recipients. Any unauthorized interception of this message or the use or disclosure of the information it contains may violate the law and subject the violator to civil or criminal penalties. If you believe you have received this message in error, please notify the sender and delete the email immediately.

2020_VLS_Ann_NewEng.pdf

Buds are bursting- 2020 season is on a roll

By Terence Bradshaw

Growth in the UVM vineyard ranges from bud burst to 2-3 shoots emerged; a few shoots are nearing three inches in length. It’s time to really be thinking about protecting vines from early season disease infections. Most cold-climate cultivars will not need disease protection until 5-8” of shoot growth, but any vineyards with heavy disease pressure last year and organic vineyards may wish to begin earlier, especially if inoculum reduction through thorough removal of diseased wood and mummy berries and/or dormant application of lime sulfur was not performed. I still recommend our fact sheet, An Initial Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Strategy for New Cold Climate Winegrape Growers as the best resource to boil the decisions down to a simple ‘prescription’, with the caveat that since it was written some new pest management materials have been released and inoculum may have increased in your vineyards which could lead to increased disease pressure. Growers should have an up-to-date copy of the New England Small Fruit Management Guide (on-line and hard copy versions) and/or New York and Pennsylvania Pest Management Guidelines for Grapes as a reference for specific materials, their efficacy, and use considerations. Remember however that the guidelines are written largely for vinifera and less disease-resistant hybrids, so the specific spray programs recommended may be overkill in Vermont vineyards.

The warm weather in the past few days may have increased emergence of grape flea beetle or cutworms. Grapes are susceptible through about the one inch shoot growth stage, so vines will eventually outgrow the threat. However, cooler temperatures this coming weekend may hold the vines at this susceptible stage long enough for damage to increase to unacceptable levels. A scouting of your vineyard for feeding on swelling buds or developing shoots may be warranted. If damage is evident on more than 2% of buds, an insecticide treatment may be warranted. But if shoots expand rapidly over the weekend, don’t worry about this pest. More information may be found here.

Since buds at ground level have begun to emerge, applications of systemic herbicides should either be halted or very carefully controlled to prohibit contact with green tissue. Now is an appropriate time for cultivation in vineyards to manage weeds. It’s also a good time to keep water on newly planted or young vines. With soil warming and growth beginning, nitrogen fertilizer applications, if needed based on foliar analyses or observed low vigor last year, may also be made now.

I’d say any time now is good to get your shoots thinned down to 3-5 shoots per foot of canopy. Keep more on more vigorous vines, less on weaker ones.

Where trade names or commercial products are used for identification,

no discrimination is intended and no endorsement is implied.

Always read the label before using any pesticide.

The label is the legal document for the product use.

Disregard any information in this message if it is in conflict with the

label.

The UVM Tree Fruit and Viticulture Program is supported by the

University of Vermont Agriculture Experiment Station, a USDA NIFA E-IPM

Grant, and USDA Risk Management Agency Funds.

Petal fall

By Terence Bradshaw

I know that some orchards are still in bloom, so the thinning and insect management portions of this message may not pertain. Hopefully everyone with any hint of risk for fire blight has treated sometime during this heat spell. Cooler weather this weekend and rapidly dropping blossoms will decrease risk, but until then, the pump is primed. Everyone also needs to keep an eye out for blossom blight symptoms, and for the shoot blight that will follow. Growers can apply Apogee (4.5-9 ounces per 100 gallons dilute**) any time now to reduce shoot blight incidence. Apogee treatments will reduce shoot elongation and thicken cell walls for about 2-4 weeks post-application, so retreatment may be necessary every 1-4 weeks until terminal bud set.

All set on FB? Okay, we have some big fish to fry this week. Let’s cover them one by one.

  1. This will all be said in light of the heat that we’re experiencing in the next couple of days. If you can avoid spraying anything (streptomycin excepted) when the weather is >85°, that’s a good thing. Then again, don’t ignore the very real threat of the following pests that need to be protected against. I have an inkling that many of us will be up pretty late/ early tonight/tomorrow morning to get things covered while dodging the heat.
  2. We are all headed for a pretty big apple scab infection period starting tomorrow Thursday 5/28 or Friday. Make sure you are covered going into it, I would not count on any material’s kick-back activity to handle this kind of scab load. As I’ve mentioned before, some materials (captan, sulfur) can cause leaf burning when applied ahead of hot weather. But, given what looks like an extended wetting period and an ample load of mature ascospores, I’d take the chance of a little leaf burn over a major scab outbreak. If you want to put on a lower rate now and follow up Sunday or so with a kick-back material (SDHI, strobilurin, or DMI, see here for more discussion, also mixed with a protectant like mancozeb or captan). Everyone should plan on phasing out mancozeb soon, as it it toxic to beneficial predatory mites that do some great biological control or European red mite and two-spotted spider mite, and we’ll soon have to be thinking about its 77-day preharvest interval. Organic growers, I would apply sulfur before and after the rain event, and maybe consider lime sulfur (LS) for the second spray to provide some post-infection control. LS is caustic, nasty stuff, so use it wisely, wear all the appropriate gear, and wash everything down well as it is very corrosive to steel and other materials.
  3. If you’re at total petal fall, then it’s time to start thinking about insect pests, especially plum curculio (PC). PC love this heat and will be ready to oviposit on fruit as they reach 7-10 mm diameter. Organic growers should plan on getting a coating or Surround on trees asap, and maintaining that coverage for about 400 degree days (base 50°F) after petal fall (NEWA has a good model for this). This is a longer window of coverage than for non-organic orchard management (308 dd base 50°F), because Surround does not kill the insects and so must be maintained longer until the biological urge to oviposit has completely subsided. For non-organic orchards, effective materials include Imidan, Actara, Avaunt, Voliam, and Agri-Flex. Carbaryl, if used for thinning (see below), will have some efficacy, but probably shouldn’t be your primary material of choice given the weather that is very conducive to PC activity. Thinning rates of carbaryl are about half the insecticide rate, and I would plan on using just that lower rate as a thinner and use a separate material for my insect management. Any of these materials will help to manage the other petal fall insects, including European apple sawfly and the various lepidopterans (obliquebanded leafroller, Oriental fruit moth, codling moth, etc) that may be emerging at this time.
  4. Thinning. Okay, this is always a tricky one. First, anything applied in the next 40 hours will be highly active because of the heat, so I’d err on lower rates and a lighter touch. A second application may be needed after this weather breaks. Now, I haven’t been in orchards all across the state, but where I have seen bloom from Connecticut valley, Addison county, and our own orchard in South Burlington, it was good to downright heavy. Pollination and fertilization conditions have been just about perfect, so I’d expect trees to need a decent thinning this year. The New England Tree Fruit Management Guide has some good variety-by-variety recommendations, so I recommend starting there. A good, standard petal fall spray of 1 qt/acre of carbaryl and 8 oz/acre Fruitone N or L (I did the TRV adjustment for you) should do the trick for most orchards. For organic orchards, it’s time to start hand thinning. A lime sulfur spray used for scab can help to knock some fruit off, but it’s not labeled specifically for that use.

I think that covers it for now.

**This reference to amount per 100 gallons dilute refers to Tree Row Volume (TRV), which is a somewhat out-of-vogue method for adjusting spray rates to compensate for canopy volume. I describe it some here, but in simple terms, it calls for measuring the tree canopy volume and estimating the number of gallons of water to saturate the canopy to wetness (dilute gallons per acre, DGA). No one sprays at full dilute, that wastes time, money, and water. For a good rule of thumb, large, standard trees 20 feet tall planted at 30 feet x 40 feet spacing had (notice the past tense) about 420 DGA. A more typical ‘large’ semidwarf orchard on M.7 or similar with 12 foot tall trees planted at 12 ft x 18 ft would have 200 DGA. DGA decreases down to around 100 and stays there pretty consistently for tall spindle and similar high density, narrow-canopy systems. BUT, we often do not recommend reducing TRV below 150, maybe 120 if you have excellent coverage and an easily sprayed canopy. And this TRV is only used to determine the rate of material used per acre, not how much water you put in the tank. So. Let’s just say use 200 DGA for semidwarf trees, 150 for trellised trees. Back to the Apogee example, let’s use 8 ounces per 100 DGA for simplicity’s sake, that would be 16 ounces per acre to the big trees, 12 ounces to the smaller high density trees. Then figure out how much to put in the tank based on the amount of water you spray per acre, which is likely 50 (or less?) to 150 gallons.

Where trade names or commercial products are used for identification,

no discrimination is intended and no endorsement is implied.

Always read the label before using any pesticide.

The label is the legal document for the product use.

Disregard any information in this message if it is in conflict with the

label.

The UVM Tree Fruit and Viticulture Program is supported by the

University of Vermont Agriculture Experiment Station, a USDA NIFA E-IPM

Grant, and USDA Risk Management Agency Funds.

Petal fall and spraying this week

By Terence Bradshaw

What an amazing weekend it’s been, weather-wise. I still need to check bud stages, my cider varieties here at 1500’ elevation in central Vermont are still at around half-inch green, and so are not an indicator of what things look like around the state in more typical orchards. However, I imagine many varieties are approaching petal fall, and growers may be itching to put on an insecticide of thinning spray.

The weather for the next three days (Tuesday-Thursday I mean) calls for pretty extreme heat, by May standards, anyway. Given that likely spray materials now include potentially phytotoxic fungicides (captan, sulfur) and insecticides (carbaryl), and that thinners will be very active if applied in this heat, I urge caution. I also don’t like to apply anything in temps of 85° or hotter.

I’ll look over bud stages in the next day or so and check the weather for later this week. Chances look decent for our first apple scab infection period in a while on Friday, and it could be a doozie. Combine that with need to thin and manage post-bloom insects, and we could be in for a complicated spray week.

If you spray anything now, I’d only consider streptomycin on highly susceptible varieties in orchards with recent fire blight infection. In that case, a coat of fungicide (not captan or sulfur because of phytotoxicity issues) may not be a bad idea. But in most cases, I’d lean towards no treatments and plan on an evening / night / crack-of-dawn-when-it’s-cooler treatment window later in the week.

Where trade names or commercial products are used for identification,

no discrimination is intended and no endorsement is implied.

Always read the label before using any pesticide.

The label is the legal document for the product use.

Disregard any information in this message if it is in conflict with the

label.

The UVM Tree Fruit and Viticulture Program is supported by the

University of Vermont Agriculture Experiment Station, a USDA NIFA E-IPM

Grant, and USDA Risk Management Agency Funds.