Jon Clements, Editor
Current degree day accumulations
| UMass Cold Spring Orchard, Belchertown, MA |
30-June, 2014 |
| Base 43 (SkyBit) | 1372 |
| Base 50 (NEWA) | 927 |
| Coming events | Degree days (Base 43) |
| Codling moth 1st flight subsides | 1249-1839 |
| Lesser appleworm 1st flight subsides | 990-1466 |
| San Jose scale 1st flight subsides | 855-1227 |
| San Jose scale 1st generation crawlers present | 1033-1215 |
| Obliquebanded leafroller summer larvae hatch | 1038-1460 |
| Spotted tentiform leafminer 2nd flight peak | 1384-1800 |
| Cherry fruit fly 1st catch | 755-1289 |
| Pear psylla 2nd brood eggs hatch | 967-1185 |
Key insect life cycle and management dates
Note: for 2014, we have four Massachusetts orchard locations subscribed to AR: Belchertown, Groton, Phillipston, and Sutton. The website for looking at AgRadar for these locations is: http://extension.umaine.edu/ipm/programs/apple/pestcasts/
Dogwood borer (DWB) -- first borer egg hatch roughly: June 28. Peak hatch roughly; July 31
Codling moth (CM) -- Codling moth development as of July 1: 1st adult emergence at 98% and 1st generation egg hatch at 80%. 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: 1st generation 20% CM egg hatch: June 17, Tuessday = target date where one spray needed to control 1st generation CM.
Lesser Apple Worm (LAW) -- 1st LAW flight begins around: May 16, Friday; Peak trap catch: May 26. 2nd LAW flight begins around: July 12, Saturday.
Obliquebanded leafroller (OBLR) -- 1st generation OBLR flight begins around: June 12, Thursday. Early egg hatch and optimum date for initial application of B.t, Delegate, Proclaim, Intrepid, Rimon, Altacor, Belt, Voliam Flexi, pyrethroid or other insecticde effective against OBLR (with follow-up applications as needed); June 27, Friday. Where waiting to sample late instar OBLR larvae to determine need for treament is an option, or to check on results from earlier sprays: Optimum sample date for late instar summer generation OBLR larvae: July 5, Saturday. If first OBLR late instar larvae sample is below threshold, date for confirmation follow-up: July 8, Tuesday.
Oriental fruit moth (OFM) -- 1st generation OFM flight starts: May 9, Friday; 1st generation 55% egg hatch and first treatment date, if needed: June 2, Monday. 2nd generation OFM flight begins around: July 1, Tuesday. Second generation - first treatment date, if needed: July 8, Tuesday.
Plum curculio (PC) -- Increase risk of PC damage as McIntosh and similar cultivars increase fruit size: May 26, Monday; Earliest safe date for last PC insecticide spray: June 5, Thursday. If relying by repellence by Surround instead of PC mortality by insecticide, Surround coverage should be maintained until PC egglaying begins to decline naturally around Monday, June 30.
Redbanded Leafoller (RBLR) -- 2nd RBLR flight begins around July 2, Wednesday. Peak catach and approximate start of egg hatch: July 14.
San Jose scale (SJS) -- First adult SJS caught on trap: May 25, Sunday; 1st generation SJS crawlers appear: June 22, Sunday.
Spotted tentiform leafminer (STLM) -- 2nd STLM flight begins around June 19, Thursday. Rough guess of when 2nd generation sap-feeding mines begins showing: July 7, Monday. Optimum first sampel date for 2nd generation STLM sapfeeding mines is July 13, Sunday.
10:00 AM Welcome to UMass Cold Spring Orchard -- Duane Greene & Shawn McIntire
10:15 AM Orchard Tour
NOON Outlook Farm BBQ Lunch provided with the registration charge
1:15 PM Welcome to the Annual Summer Meeting and announcements-- Al Rose, President
1:20 PM Welcome from the Dean -- Steve Goodwin, Dean, College of Natural Sciences
1:30 PM Educational Program -- Tracy Leskey, USDA-ARS Appalachian Fruit Research Station
2:30 PM Adjourn
2 pesticide license recertification credit hours will be offered for the day.
Registration for this meeting will be $25 for Mass. Fruit Growers’ Association members ($30 for non-members) per person and will include the tour, educational program, pesticide recertification credits, and lunch.
To ensure the availability of the meal, please pre-register by adding the appropriate number and type (member or non-member) registrations to your shopping cart and paying with a credit card.
We must receive pre-registrations by Monday, July 7 to assure availability of the lunch.
PDF version of this announcement
Jon Clements
Most of you should have applied an insecticide for oblique-banded leafroller (OBLR) last week or this week (assuming you have a problem with this pest in your orchard). Insecticides recommended and rated as excellent against OBLR include: Altacor, Belt SC, Delegate 25WG, Exirel, Intrepid 2F, Proclaim, Rimon, Tourismo, and Voliam Flexi WG or Express.
Mites are out there: top-rated miticides for this timing include Portal, Nexter, and Zeal.
Start looking out for potato leafhopper (PLH) and apply an insecticide as soon as detected (particularly in young plantings). Recommended insecticides include: Admire Pro, Assail, Belay, Calypso, Exirel, and Leverage.
I don't actively monitor for apple maggot fly (AMF, but you should). I don't expect any activity now until we get some rain. NEWA for Belchertown says "First adult emergence. But, degree day accumulations estimate that First Trap Catch may not have occurred yet."
You should be very actively irrigating, and hand-thinning apples and peaches at this time! On the irrigation issue, that is a tough one, as precipitation has varied widely around the state of Massachusetts. (Like from 1/3 of an inch up to 4 inches in the last week!) Hurricane Arthur may make the need to irrigate after Friday minimal for awhile if some of the weather forecasts predict correctly.
I hope to see you at the Massachusetts Fruit Grower's Association Annual Summer Meeting next Wednesday, July 9 in Belchertown at the UMass Orchard. Our guest will be Dr. Tracy Leskey who will report on their latest research involving brown marmorated stink bug, spotted wing drosophila, and plum curculio. The BBQ lunch catered by Outlook Farm will be great as usual. Look forward to seeing you, but please be sure to pre-register by next Monday, July 7. For more information, and to register: http://massfruitgrowers.org/2014/2014summermeeting.html
Jon Clements
See Upcoming Pest Events, AgRadar, and The Way I See It for current pest status.
Jon Clements
Now is the time to start applying NAA (Fruitone-L) to enhance return bloom, expecially on varieties that tend towards biennial bearing. Use of Fruitone-L at 2-3 oz. per acre (smaller vs. larger trees, respectively) is the easiest way to enhance return -- simply keep a jug of it by your mixing and loading facility, and use at suggested rate in every cover spray for the next 4-5 weeks. Discontinue use earlier (by August 1) on earlier ripening varieties. See the fact sheet Enhancing Return Bloom of Apple for more information.
Sooty blotch/flyspeck and summer rots. It’s time deal with summer diseases. The most common of these is the blemish disease, sooty blotch/flyspeck, or SBFS. Infections for SBFS can start on fruit starting now. If fruit gets infected, the blotch and flyspeck signs usually stay invisible for several weeks, showing up on fruit in August or later. Summer rots, including black rot, white rot and bitter rot can also get started at this time of year, and will show up when fruit starts to mature in late July or after.
Fruit that are protected with an effective fungicide won’t get infected. The list of apple fungicides recommended in the summer is much shorter than the list for use in the early season. They should be applied as a combination with the protectant Captan. No more than 32 lb. active ingredient (40 lb. Captan 80; 64 lb. Captan 50; 32 qt. Captan 4L) can be applied per acre per growing season. So, if you’ve used a lot of Captan against scab, keep the limits in mind. Also, efficacy ratings depend on using maximum label rates.
Flint plus Captan; Sovran plus Captan; Luna Sensation plus Captan; Merivon plus Captan; Pristine plus Captan. The most effective fungicide combinations against both summer diseases and fruit rots. However, all of them contain a strobilurin, and there are label limits on the total number of applications that can be made in a season – four – and the number of consecutive applications – two – as well as the total amount that can be applied. All of these combinations have a long residual. For SBFS, Pristine plus Captan is estimated at 21 days or 2.5 inches of rain, whichever comes first. The other four combinations are estimated to be about equal to that, 21 days or 2 inches of rain.
Topsin M plus Captan; Inspire Super plus Captan; ProPhyt or other labeled phosphite plus Captan. These combinations are excellent against SBFS, with residuals of 21 days or 2 inches of rain. However, their control of summer rots depends largely on using a high rate of Captan. Topsin M is limited to 64 oz. per acre per season, and should be used at or near the maximum rate, 16 oz./A, for the best control. Inspire Super is limited to 60 fl. oz./A per season, and should be appied at 12 fl. oz./A.
Captan alone is effective against both SBFS and summer rots, but not as effective as the combinations above. It’s residual efficacy is limited to 14 days or 1.5” of rain.
People who use NEWA, SkyBit or AgRadar to help with SBFS management can find out what the present risk of disease is. Each of these decision support systems is a little different in terms of how they calculate the need to apply a fungicide. NEWA is the most conservative, SkyBit the most liberal, and AgRadar somewhere in between.
Probably the most important factor to keep in mind is whether the last fungicide is still effective. NEWA and AgRadar will provide that information; SkyBit doesn’t, but it’s easy enough to figure out if you have rainfall information for your orchard.
For example, if I applied Captan plus Flint on June 19, unless it rains more than 2 inches, I’m fine until July 9. However, if it rained 2 inches by tomorrow, I’d need to reapply then. Don’t forget to consider your last scab fungicide – it is essentially your first summer disease spray.
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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
Dr. David Rosenberger's Plant Pathology at the Hudson Valley Lab (including his 2014 Blog)
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The next Healthy Fruit will be published on Tuesday, July 15 or thereabouts, 2014. (In two weeks.) 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.