I\u2019m going to steal and repeat a line that one of our own growers shared recently: I hope everyone has all the equipment working flawlessly, all the mowing done, most of the spraying completed and is able to sit on the porch waiting for harvest to start unaided. With that said, there area few things to keep in mind as we move toward August.<\/p>\n
In my last email I recommended collecting and analyzing leaf tissue samples<\/strong> which will be used for developing next year\u2019s<\/em> nutrition program, but it was buried in the last paragraph of an eight-paragraph missive. I\u2019ll add it here and include one more lab that\u2019s available for handling samples:<\/p>\n Foliar nutrient analysis \u2013 It is the time in the growing season to collect leaf samples for analysis. Samples are usually collected between July 15 \u2013 Aug. 15. The UVM Agriculture and Environmental Testing Lab can provide analysis, but at this time their output does not generate fertility recommendations. The following are potential options of labs for analysis. It is recommended that you contact the lab for instructions and costs before samples are sent. Plus, it is important to confirm that they will send recommendations along with the analysis.<\/p>\n Instructions on collecting leaf samples can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n On the insect front, we are seeing apple maggot fly<\/strong> picking up to threshold levels in many orchards around the state. At the same time, some orchards are reporting very low numbers\u2014this is very much a site-specific pest that is best monitored on your own farm. The threshold for treatment is five cumulative captures, average, per baited red sphere trap, or one per unbaited trap. Codling moth<\/strong> are starting their second flight, and treatment for that pest is best timed around 1400 degree days (base 50\u00b0F) after the first trap capture of the season. That should be late next week or early the following for us in South Burlington where we had biofix on May 21. NEWA<\/a> has a very good model and will estimate your biofix in the absence of trap data, although that is less valuable. Finally, I have heard reports of a few mite<\/strong> flare ups in Vermont orchards. Plan to include some mite scouting<\/a> in your regular orchard monitoring and treat if necessary.<\/p>\n Diseases<\/strong> of concern mainly include the cosmetic but still economically-damaging sooty blotch \/ flyspeck, as well as the truly damaging fruit rots. For many retail\/PYO-focused orchards, one last application of captan, alone at full rate or combined with a single-site fungicide, may get you through the end of the season. For orchards that will be shipping or storing fruit, another application heading into harvest in mid-August is likely warranted. A good model to use for those orchards is the NEWA sooty blotch \/ flyspeck model, which helps to estimate fungicide residue wash off as well as the disease cycle of that particular complex of fungi.<\/p>\n For growers with active apple scab<\/strong> in your orchards, it is important to maintain fungicide coverage up to harvest to protect fruit from infection. Fruit and foliage will become more resistant to infection as they age, but lesions can form into the fall and even on fruit in storage. The question often comes from retail \/ PYO growers about how to maintain fungicide coverage without having visible spray residue on fruit at harvest. That can be a tough situation to navigate, as secondary infections from established lesions spread by conidia spores are easier to establish than primary infections from ascospores in the spring, which can lead to summer-long spraying. This is why we need to be so vigilant in spring to avoid continued infection all season after primary apple scab season is over.<\/em> I have discussed this with some of my colleagues and the agreement is pretty universal that using single-site fungicides, e.g., FRAC groups 3,9,7,11 and others, is just asking for development of resistance to those fungicides in your apple scab population. Captan, as well as the less-effective sulfur, is a multi-site fungicide that essentially has no risks for resistance development<\/strong> and is excellent against scab, and therefore should be the material of choice for controlling those summer-long infections that can easily spread to and disfigure fruit. That doesn\u2019t leave a very good answer to the question of how to manage scab without the visible residue that captan leaves. I guess you need to decide which is worse, but know that allowing scab to build up this year will lead to substantial inoculum for next season.<\/p>\n While you\u2019re planning final orchard sprays, please keep up with your foliar calcium<\/strong> program, especially on Honeycrisp and other large-fruited cultivars.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Issued in furtherance of Cooperative Extension work, Acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914, in cooperation with the United States Department of Agriculture. University of Vermont Extension, Burlington, Vermont. 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019m going to steal and repeat a line that one of our own growers shared recently: I hope everyone has all the equipment working flawlessly, all the mowing done, most of the spraying completed and is able to sit on the porch waiting for harvest to start unaided. With that said, there area few things […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2208,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[],"tags":[1],"class_list":["post-2099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Terence Bradshaw","author_link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/fruit\/author\/tbradsha\/"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4nZlV-xR","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/fruit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/fruit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/fruit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/fruit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2208"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/fruit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/fruit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2099\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/fruit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/fruit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/fruit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n