Jon Clements, Author (unless otherwise noted) and Editor
Current degree day accumulations
| UMass Cold Spring Orchard, Belchertown, MA |
15-June |
| Base 43 (SkyBit) | 1087 |
| Base 50 (NEWA) | 760 |
| Coming events | Degree days (Base 43) |
| Spotted tentiform leafminer 2nd flight begins | 994-1166 |
| Pear psylla 2nd brood hatch | 967-1185 |
| San Jose scale 1st flight subsides | 864-1238 |
| San Jose scale 1st gen. crawlers present | 1033-1215 |
| European red mite summer egg hatch | 737-923 |
| Cherry fruit fly 1st catch | 755-1289 |
| Obliquebanded leafroller 1st flight peak | 834-1226 |
| Obliquebanded leafroller summer larvae hatch | 1038-1460 |
| Rose leafhopper adults on apple | 809-1053 |
| Oriental fruit moth 1st flight subsides | 893-1115 |
| Lesser appleworm 1st flight subsides | 992-1528 |
Key insect life cycle and management dates
Note: for 2015, we have five Massachusetts orchard locations subscribed to AR: Belchertown, Groton, Phillipston, Stow and Sutton. The website for looking at AgRadar for these locations is: http://extension.umaine.edu/ipm/ag-radar-apple-sites/. What follows is for the Belchertown location.
Dogwood borer (DB) -- First dogwood borer egg hatch roughly: June 24. Peak hatch roughly: July 30.
Codling moth (CM) -- 1st generation, first sustained trap catch biofix date: May 16, Saturday. Codling moth development as of June 16: 1st adult emergence at 45% and 1st generation egg hatch at 1%. In most orchards, insecticide targetted against plum curculio and apple maggot prevent codling moth damage. If targetted codling moth control is needed, key management dates are shown here: 1st generation 3% CM egg hatch: June 20, Saturday = target date for first spray where multiple sprays needed to control 1st generation CM. 1st generation 20% CM egg hatch: June 29, Monday = target date where one spray needed to control 1st generation CM.
Obliquebanded leafroller (OBLR) -- 1st generation OBLR flight begins around: June 9, Tuesday. Early egg hatch and optimum date for initial application of B.t., Delegate. Proclaim, Intrepid, Rimon, Altacor, Belt, pyrethroid or other insecticde effective against OBLR (with follow-up applications as needed): June 24, Wednesday.
Oriental fruit moth (OFM) -- 1st generation OFM flight starts: May 5, Tuesday; 1st generation 55% egg hatch and first treatment date, if needed: May 26, Tuesday. 2nd generation OFM flight begins around: June 28, Sunday. 2nd generation - first treatment date, if needed: July 6, Monday.
Plum curculio (PC) -- Increase risk of PC damage as McIntosh and similar cultivars increase fruit size: May 22, Friday; Earliest safe date for last PC insecticide spray: June 2, Tuesday.
Redbanded leafroller (RBLR) -- 2nd RBLR flight begins around June 29, Monday. Peak catch and approximate start of egg hatch: July 13.
San Jose scale (SJS) -- First adult SJS caught on trap: May 20, Wednesday; 1st generation SJS crawlers appear: June 17, Wednesday.
Spotted tentiform leafminer (STLM) -- 2nd STLM flight begins around: June 15, Monday. Rough guess of when 2nd generation sap-feeding mines begin showing: July 5, Sunday. Optimum first sample date for 2nd generation STLM sap-feeding mines is July 12, Sunday.
18-June, 2015 (Thursday) Fruit Twilight Meeting in cooperation with Rhode Island Fruit Growers' Assoc. Rocky Brook Orchard, 997 Wapping Rd, Middletown, RI. 5:30 PM. Bring lawn chair for yourself as there will be an outside picnic light supper. Pesticide re-certification credit(s) will be available. Special guest: George Hamilton, UNH Cooperative Extension will discuss targeted orchard spray application and demonstrate what you can do to improve your airblast spray pattern for improved pest control and pesticide efficiency.
21-July, 2015 (Tuesday) Massachusetts Fruit Growers' Association Summer Meeting, Red Apple Farm, 455 Highland Ave, Phillipston, M. 10 AM to 3 PM. More details coming soon...
For more information and updates, see Upcoming Events or contact Jon Clements, 413-478-7219.
I am loosely going to call this a "Special NEWA Edition" as I am going to basically call on NEWA (http://newa.cornell.edu) to tell me what my current disease and insect status is. Really, it's (mostly) all you need to know. Can you tell I am greasing the wheels towards my retirement? Seriously, if you are not using NEWA you should be. I know it is sometimes hard to devote computer time to looking at these model outputs, but they are truly excellent guidance to your current pest situation. Note that if NEWA deems a pest active, you can get Pesticide information by clicking that link at the end of the pest summary as seen below:
Plum curculio (PC) is done in Belchertown:
Oriental fruit moth (OFM), no action necessary at this point in time on first generation; second generation forthcoming:
Codling moth (CM), we are in a peak control period. If you have an ongoing problem with CM (some orchards do, some don't, some control with petal fall sprays, others not so much...), excellent control achieved with: Delegate, Altacor, Proaxis, Rimon, Belt, Leverage, and Voliam Express. Imidan and pyrethroids (Danitol) are also effective if you don't have resistance to these chemicals (moreso for Imidan). Try to rotate classes of insecticides if using multiple sprays.
Obliquebanded leafoller (OBLR): adult moths are flying and laying eggs, but it is a little too early to target hatching larvae. This typically comes during the last week in August, when a targeted spray is important to control OBLR. Those insecticides mentioned above for codling moth are generally effective against OBLR.
I deem primary apple scab season over (for most of you). Hurrah! It's been a weird one, with a very dry May holding back ascospore maturity, but with the recent rain there is pretty good evidence all are mature and were releasesd (except for a very few). If you appear clean, congratulations, but with the return of wet weather, keep a close eye on your foliage for the appearance of any scab lesions.
Although we have left scab behind presumably, the risk of sooty blotch and flyspeck (SBFS) is just starting, and probably warrants getting back on the sprayer and applying fungicide during wet weather. Note that NEWA allows you to enter a fungicide spray date and then re-calculates the risk of SBFS infection.
!!! Just in, this on fire blight, from Kari Peter at Penn State: http://extension.psu.edu/plants/tree-fruit/news/2015/disease-update-where-are-those-fire-blight-strikes-coming-from This is a must read, because if they are seeing it down in Pennsylvania, we will likely start seeing it too up here.
JC
Now that the time to start applying PGR sprays for return bloom. I want to point out three resources on this topic for your reference and details of appliction:
1.) 'Enhancing Return Bloom of Apple' on the UMass Fruit Advisor/Wes Autio and Win Cowgill
2.) 'Promoting Return Bloom of Apple' from Penn State/Jim Schupp
3.) And this below from the Cornell ENYCHP Tree Fruit E-Alert for June 9th, 2015 at 6:00 pm
No real Guest Article this week, however, everyone should take a look at this recent fire blight post by plant pathologist Kari Peter at Penn State to their Tree Fruit Production web page. We have seen this yet (?), but worth reading and keeping an eye on it. Please do let us know if you find any suspect fire blight in your orchard. JC
Disease Update: Where Are Those FireBlight Strikes Coming From?
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Proper Postharvest Handling of Berries - FGNtv
UMass Fruit Advisor: http://umassfruit.com
Scaffolds Fruit Journal: http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/ent/scafolds/
Network for Environment and Weather Applications (NEWA): http://newa.cornell.edu
New England Apple Decision Support System maps (experimental)
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The next Healthy Fruit will be published on Tuesday, June 30 (2 week hiatus) or thereabouts, 2015. As always feel free to get in touch with any member of the UMass Fruit Team (http://extension.umass.edu/fruitadvisor/team-members) if you have questions or comments.