Season 7, Episode 5 - Fire Blight Threat During Bloom

Don is joined by Kari, Shan, and Greg during this scorching hot April week to discuss fire blight infection periods, bloom thinning, and insect flights.

Host: Don Seifrit
Speakers: Kari Peter, Shan Kumar, Greg Krawczyk

Photo Credit: Kari Peter, PSU

Music Credit: “The Raven and the Swan” by Josh Woodward is licensed under a Attribution 3.0 United States License. Courtesy of FreeMusicArchive.org

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Flight Seasonalities of Main Fruit Pests During the Growing Season

Transcript

Welcome And Orchard Snapshot

SPEAKER_03 0:07

Alright, welcome back once again, everybody. I'm Don Seafrit. It's the Dr. Tree Fruit and Don podcast. I'm here with Dr. Carrie Peter. Say hi, Carrie.

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Hey there. Hi.

SPEAKER_03 0:15

I'm here with Dr. Greg Krochek. Say hi, Greg. Hello, everyone. And Dr. Sean Kumar, say hi, Sean. Hello, everyone. It is Tuesday, April 14th. Uh, it is a hot, hot week. Uh, and Carrie, if you want to take us away, because I'm sure you got a lot to talk about.

Powdery Mildew Rusty Spot Weather Data

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Yeah, yeah, boy. We went um from, let's see, like tight cluster to pink to bloom, and most likely petal fall by the end of the week for for some folks. I know that's how it is at Freck here. So the I know the topic on everyone's mind with Bloom is all this hot weather and fire blight. So let's talk about Fireblight for a few minutes. Um, first of all, I just want to say that I did get out a disease alert yesterday talking about this issue. So if you um if you get those emails, it is um it should it should be in your mailbox. Uh one thing to note is that there is a high risk for fire blight. It doesn't mean it's imminent, it means there's a high risk. So out of the four components that are necessary to trigger a risk or infection event, we have three of them. And the blossoms are open, we'll have met our um, we will have met our uh degree hours, and the bacteria most likely is present with all the pollinators flying around, and with the history of fire blight that we have in in Pennsylvania. Uh the the component that's missing is a wedding event. And so right now, there as of this moment at 12.05 p.m. on Tuesday, there is no rain in the forecast for this week, at least through Friday, I believe. Uh with that said, should we be spraying for fire blight? And my answer is yes, you should. You should put at least at 100% bloom, or by the end of the week, you should put on a protective spray for fire blight. Why is that? You think am I wasting my money do that? No, you're not. Because you're gonna have straggler blooms that are gonna be carrying over in the next week, and there's gonna be a lot of bacteria in that flower because the high temperatures that are present this week are going to allow that bacteria that could possibly be present on that stigma to replicate to super, super high numbers. That's my official scientific assessment. Super high numbers as far as the pathogen load goes. So it would not take much precipitation or high humidity or dew to wash that bacteria from the stigma down into the nectaries. So the idea is that you want to go into the weekend cleaning up your flowers. So any bacteria that could possibly be present, go in with a protective spray and clean up the flowers. So, what spray am I talking about? Streptomycin is your best bet. Streptomycin is bacterial cytal, so it will kill the bacteria. And so when you do that, you're going to reset the clock as far as building that risk, that percent risk again when you spray that streptomycin. And if you have a new weather station or if your neighbors with someone who has a new weather station, you can actually go on the fire blight page for that weather station and put input your streptomycin application date, and you can actually see the risk numbers recalculate as a result of that. Because I myself have been looking at it trying to figure out when would be a good time to spray our streptomycin sprays. Uh, so because sometimes the risk may be so high that when you do the calculation of a st by a strep application, you may have to go back in after two days uh to reapply strep spray because that weather is just so warm and that it's triggering the bacteria to replicate to high numbers. Uh, but for us, I believe one spray should probably be enough this week. Um, so this is I'm this is a very strong precaution that I am sending over the airwaves here that folks should do. There's no need to panic at the moment because the the infection risk is not there yet. We are in a high risk situation, meaning that temperature is going to be jacking up those numbers. So if there is some wedding event, and a wedding event could be a pop-up thunderstorm, and we know what that can be like during this time period where we have this these high temperatures going on. Um, the atmosphere could be unstable and it you could have a thunderstorm. So that is just sort of a word to the whys. Um, so what else could you incorporate into that streptomycin spray? Well, definitely regulate, because regulate will help with the penetration of the streptomycin. Streptomycin is partially systemic, so it actually will penetrate the nectaries. Uh, if you may have some bacteria that slipped into the nectaries, because remember, the bacteria need a natural opening. And right now during bloom, that natural opening are the nectaries to be for the bacteria to get in there. Um, you could add something like actigard, one to two ounces of actigard. Um, this kicks in after 48 hours after application. This induces the plant defenses. This works, it's expensive, but it's a good investment, especially for young, vulnerable trees. Another thing you could incorporate into your tank mix of your streptomycin spray is something like apogee or kudos. This does take about 10 days to kick in, but this is the idea of you putting it in now, it will help with potential shoep blight that may occur later on. Because again, looking at the long-range forecast right now, it looks like we're gonna have moderate to cool temperatures over the next week. There may be like one day or two days where it may dip down to the 50s or low 60s, but we're gonna be seeing 70s. Um, you know, we're getting into that time where we're most likely sort of finally evening out and having more consistent temperatures. And the 70s are ideal temperatures for Erwinia to continue replicating in the tree if there was an infection event that actually occurred. Uh, so you want to be proactive in mitigating fire blight problems looking down the line. So I always say that when we're managing fire blight, it's just not during bloom. We got to think about it like right before bloom. And also we got to be thinking about it after bloom as well. For folks who may not be yet bloom right now, um, you may want to be incorporating into your fungicide spray a low rate of um a low rate of apogee or kudos because this has shown, especially in vigorous trees, that it will thicken the plant cell walls in the blossom and really slow down and prevent Erwinia getting into that blossom should you have blossom blight conditions manifest. So for folks who may be a little bit further behind, um Adams County, this is um a suggestion to consider, especially looking at the long range, long range forecast, because once we get into this like regular 70s, it's um it's not gonna take much. I mean, this week is crazy with the upper 80s, 90s that we're gonna be experiencing. Um, but seven like between 60 and 70 is the happy place, is the real ideal place for Erwinia to thrive. Uh so we still need to be thinking about those moderate temperatures. Uh as far as organic options go, uh, you've got a couple, a couple options that have proved to be helpful in other regions where they've done a little bit more testing than I have. Um, one, Blossom Protect. Blossom Protect here in South Central Pennsylvania is probably the best one so far of the organic options. It's a living yeast. You need to have it in the blossom prior to the infection event. So if you've got open blossoms now, now's the time. And you go you're going to have to do it multiple times because as the blossoms open, you're going to have to reapply as the blossoms open. What this does is it coats the blossoms and it prevents the erwinia from getting into the nectaries. Um it's in in New York and Connecticut, the Northeast, this seems to work pretty well. We struggle with it down here in the south-central part where the disease pressure is just a smidge too overwhelming for it. Um, but you know, this is a year where if you're in an area where it's very hot right now, this is not your option. But if it's going to be blooming next week and you're in moderate, kind of moderate, more moderate temperatures, this would be a good option for you. Um, as far as other organic options that might be beneficial right now, um, using the soluble copper, it's a magnabond CS2005. This is a soluble copper, meaning all the copper ions are available at once. So this is in contrast to a fixed copper like Quava or Coside, where your copper ions are bound to a particle and they're slowly released. That's not going to help you in a situation like right now. You need something where all the ions are there, and that is this um Magdebon CS2005. A lot of work was done on it in uh New York. I worked with it a little bit about 10 years ago, um, but I think uh I only did it one year. I haven't resurfaced it, so I'm going based on results from other locations, but in theory, this seems to be the best copper to use, but I will caution you is that all copper has the potential to cause fruit rusteting, so use it with caution. Some people have tank mixed it with regalia and have seen benefits with that because regalia can thicken plant cell walls as well. So these are some options. Nothing is going to replace streptomycin at this moment in time. This moment in time for us here in south central Pennsylvania, streptomycin is your best bet. Um, as far as organic management, having resistant trees is probably your number one line of defense, and then these other options coming in. Um so as far as moving forward, uh definitely be thinking about apogee sprays or kudos sprays to protect those shoots and protecting the shoots to harden off so it limits fire blight. Um, if we get a wedding event during this warm time period, someone's going to get fire blight. Um, it's just the conditions are just so uh the risk is so high. And I've in the years past, I've talked about the epiphytic infection potential. This is the value that's generated when you crunch the numbers, when you've got the men to max temperature, the bloom stage, the presence of fire blight, and a wedding event. Anything over 100, we worry about. And I'll tell you right now, this week, we're in the 200s and 300s, which means if we get a fire, if we get a wedding event, we're getting fire blight. I mean, it's just it's the risk is is there. Um, so you know, I don't want people to stress out about it. Be proactive, be prepared, get a um a protective spray on to clean up the blossoms this week. So that is my word as far as my word of advice. For those behind us, you've got some time, and maybe by the time you get to bloom, you won't have these extreme weathers, and it'll be a much more manageable time period for you. Um, the last thing I want to mention um with regards to fungal diseases, uh, a couple things for apples. We are still in a dry period, so powdery mildew is still strong. So we should be still thinking about powdery mildew control. For stone fruit, we are getting up to where rusty spot needs to be controlled. At least here at Freck, some of our um stone fruit orchards are at petal fall. Mine are not yet, so I haven't pulled the trigger to put on my petal fall spray to control for rusty spot just yet. And also, petal fall would be the time to control for bacterial spot, but we'll talk about that next week because uh we aren't quite in bacterial spot weather. Even though it's hot, it's not wet. And so when it's hot and dry, it's not really conducive for bacterial spot. Uh so yeah, so still be on alert for managing at least powdery mildew right now in Rusty Spot for those who are in those areas. Um, and then for folks that might be behind us, um, if you're not getting rain, uh you it's still powdery mildew, tight clusters when powdery mildew starts. And also I just want to note um if in the Adams County area or yesterday, we had some rain that came through. It like I think was 0.01 inches of rain fell. That did not trigger uh a scab infection event, and it did not trigger a fire blight infection event for those in Adams County. So I just want for those to ease anyone's worries. So why didn't it? One apple scab, not enough wetness hours. It didn't trigger, it didn't trigger a scab infection event because we didn't have enough leaf wetness hours. For fire blight, we didn't accumulate enough warm hours to trigger an infection event. Um, so even though the blossoms were open, it felt warm outside, but it hadn't been warm enough long enough while the blooms were open to trigger an infection event. So, and also I just want to know I've been seeing on currently on new uh on my new um on my new uh uh weather station page and then our neighbors next door, it's showing a scab infection, I'm sorry, a fire blade infection event today, and I think that's incorrect because it's saying that we got rain, and I don't we are not registering any rain here at Freck. So I'm not quite sure where where are where the weather station is is getting that information. Even with high humidity, it's not enough hours to trigger um leaf wetness. Not leaf wetness is not even being triggered. It's very, very dry out there. So that is my um 12-minute spiel. Um uh Don, um, any questions, anything that I missed?

SPEAKER_03 14:40

No, I think that was really comprehensive, and I I think if we throw too much more at folks, they're just gonna be.

SPEAKER_00 14:46

Yeah, sorry, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:48

Um so thank you for the for the update.

SPEAKER_00 14:51

Uh and the point about the uh weather station miscalculating uh is super helpful because Yeah, I checked in Mary Blight based on the weather and it's not registering even in the Mary Blight program. So I'm not quite sure where it's picking up this 0.05 inches of rain. I'm not quite sure where that's coming from.

SPEAKER_03 15:12

So I don't know, faulty sensors, right?

SPEAKER_00 15:15

Yeah, who knows?

SPEAKER_03 15:17

All right. Uh awesome. Sean, do you want to give us your update?

Freeze Damage Report Across PA

Peach Thinning With ASSESS Rates

SPEAKER_02 15:21

Sure. Uh thanks, Don. Uh hello everyone. Uh so last week when we talked about uh the how the season is going, we talked about the spring freeze. And sure, I'm sure all of you looked at temperatures uh on Wednesday morning that went quite below uh what was forecasted, even for some places. So just to give you a roundup of where temperatures went last week, uh we were at 26, 25 Fahrenheit in Big Louville, Adams County. The Flex station showed 26 Fahrenheit. And uh at the uh and other regions like Bedford and Ellisburg, things uh the station showed anywhere from 21 to 22 Fahrenheit, but the actual temperatures uh could have been a few degrees lower. Uh I want to talk specifically mentioned rock springs because the forecasted temperature for rock springs was only 23-22 Fahrenheit. However, we the station uh the reason uh the weather station showed us that the temperature went to as low as 17 Fahrenheit. And uh the actual temperatures in the in our orchard, which this time we measured, was actually 12 Fahrenheit. So this there was a five-degree difference between where the weather station was and where some of our low-lying spots were, which just goes to show how much of a variation temperature you can have, uh especially when you have cold air that's settling in during a freeze event. And so, because of that, in Rock Springs at least, we had uh uh severe damage, uh so around 30 to 40 percent loss uh in apples, and so uh somewhat good thinning, you can think of it that way. And uh it it it uh of course it was not complete crop loss, so that's what we're fearing. We were more at a tight cluster uh at uh around the time we got the freeze, and so I think we'll still have a crop, but it'll be it'll be it'll be reduced. And so we did lose a lot of our kings and first laterals and things like that, and so we might have smaller fruit. Now in uh Bedford and Ellisburg, I think that we had uh uh similar similar loss uh in peaches, especially in Bedford. I'm gonna talk about that a little bit first in temperatures. So let's start with uh with Freck Adams County. And so this is data that is collected by Dr. Sarah Sarah that I will present. So uh let's talk about peaches first, starting with uh Big Livell Addams County. So this was some data that was collected by Dr. Sarah from Freck among the different peach varieties. So most of the peach varieties were at uh were at petal fall, and uh during during when we had the frost or full bloom petal fall stage, and we had various degrees of survive survival. The coral star at Freck had only 10% survival, so a major damage. And Starfire had 39% survival, Desiree had 44%, and Cresthaven had 66% survival, and so varying degrees of survival based on variety susceptibility and also elevation, because the uh places where you have colder air settling in, uh where you'll see more damage. So, definitely for peaches, please check your different blocks before you uh think about uh thinning, thinning your peaches, especially with a seed, and we'll get to that. In Bedford, uh we actually saw severe damage to uh different peach varieties because of how low it went, and things were at full bloom at Bedford, and so the temperatures were as low as 20 Fahrenheit, uh, or sometimes even lower depending on the location. So uh we had the early Red Haven example was severely hit with only 7% survival, and Glenglow as well had only 15%. Uh, and other varieties like July Rose and Glowhaven at Bedford had uh more survival, but still only around uh uh 20 to uh 25 to 40 percent, and so the peaches were severely hit uh in Bedford, and in places other places where we went to around 20 Fahrenheit, 18 Fahrenheit, I think it was similar that we had a lot of damage. In state college, uh in the Red Haven block in a growers orchard where we went down to 17 Fahrenheit, where the phenological stage was at first pink, we had about 24% survival, so about quarter of the bugs remained. And in Ellisburg, uh, where it went down to 19, 18 Fahrenheit, uh, we had uh peach varieties with varying levels of susceptibility, but mostly seemed to have gotten out uh well from the frost because a lot of those varieties were anywhere from uh calyx red to bloom, and they had approximately 70-80% survival, so which is quite good uh getting through the frost. And so it really depends on the location. So, what I would suggest is to uh take about 50 to 100 buds, check how what percentage of loss you you're having, and then uh decide on the thinning plan for peaches. I know most of you will probably not be using a seed, especially with uh the frost damage, but uh for most varieties, unless you are severely hit, uh you will still need to thin. Because if you have anywhere above 50-60% uh survival from the freeze event, you will still need to thin. And so uh yeah, so a seed is an option that you can use. And so a seed is labeled uh for use from pink to petal fall. So this week will probably be the last week that you can use a seed for thinning peaches, especially in the southern uh southern part of the state. Of course, we have a little bit more time in the central and northern parts of the state, but for Southeast PA and Southern PA, this this week, especially this actually today, tomorrow, day after might be one of the last days because we are nearing to nearing the end of petal fall and for which the uh peaches are labeled for. And so you can use a label rate from uh 300 to 600 ppm, which is 10 to 20 ounces of the product per 100 gallons uh of water. And so uh usually if you don't have if you have very minimal damage from the frost, like say you have 80 90 percent survival. Then you can go with the middle rate 15 ounces per 100 gallons per acre as a standard reference under typical conditions. In blocks where you have reduced crop potential, you can consider lower rates. You can go to 10 ounces per 100 gallons as well. If you have, especially if you have 50-60% survival, I think you can go with the lower rate of the product, which is 10 ounces per 100 gallons per acre. And so again, you have a few days left to apply a seed within the within the timing that it is being labeled for. And it might be good to do your assessments of the different peach varieties, and uh especially in uh Big Laville, in those areas where it doesn't seem like uh we have too much damage except for blocks where you have low-lying blocks, uh, then you might still need to thin, you just have to check different varieties as to how they did from the freeze event, and then use a seed accordingly. But I would suggest that a low rate 300 ounces per uh sorry, 300 ppm, which is a 10 ounces of the product you can use per acre, will be a good rate to use. Uh and uh you can also check the Penn State extension article on a seed use for thinning in peaches. So we are sending out a fruit times update as well this evening, and there's a link to that article that gives you uh uh the some of the acid work that we've been doing, and also some of the it also cites some of the work that was done by Dr. Jim Shub uh uh testing different varieties for their sensitivity to a seed. And so there's a list of varieties with uh different uh uh susceptibility susceptibility or sensitivity to a seed. So you can check that to sort of adjust your rates as well, depending on the variety, especially if you have large blocks of a single variety. And so that's for peaches. Now moving on to apples. Uh, first I'm gonna talk about how the apples did with the freeze event uh from last week, and then uh go on about the phenology and the upcoming weather and some thinning recommendations. And so for the most part, I think we had uh minimal damage. I think some kings might have been killed from the frost in Big Laville uh and surrounding areas, uh, but not too much damage uh to the apples from the spring freeze. It depends on the location, of course. Uh, and if you uh uh but it's important to check those blocks. But we have tested a few sites uh to look at the damage on average in Rock Springs in uh my own orchard, as well as in Bedford and Ellisburg, uh, for varieties ranging from tight cluster to early pink, but in gala, foji, and honey crisp, we had about 65 to 70 percent survival of buds. So, most likely we lost the kings and possibly also a lateral as well, uh, depending on the cluster. And so that is where we are at with uh the damage from the freeze event. So that obviously will have an effect on how you decide to thin your crop because you want to make sure that your one or two of your laterals are pollinated before you uh uh do any blossom thinning to make sure that you're not killing off the laterals that will give you the fruit fruits. And so uh uh overall sp survival looks good for apple. Uh and so we most in most places around the state we will still have a robust crop of apple, and so uh and with the weather this week, oh my god, it's so hot. Uh it's gonna be low to mid 80s throughout the week, and so things are gonna move very, very quickly. And so, again, for apples, I would highly recommend you to check your block to see what sort of damage you've sustained from the freeze event last week, and then you can have an idea of uh how you want to thin your block. Uh, for most places in Pennsylvania, I I would still recommend to blossom thin because you can get an early start to your thinning process, especially if you don't have suitable conditions later on for thinning when your fruitlets are between eight to ten millimeters. So, for blossom thinning, uh especially with things moving so quickly, uh, if you if you are able to use caustic thinners, you can use them, for example, lime sulfur and oil. Apply 2% lime sulfur, 2% oil at around 60 to 80 percent, uh 60 to 80 percent full bloom. So the reason I'm saying that is because uh I'm assuming that in a lot of blocks we've lost the kings. That's not always the case, but at least uh up where I am and other regions, Southeast PA, uh I think that uh there is a good chance that you lost the kings from the fringe breeze. So you want to make sure that at least one or two laterals have been pollinated before you apply your caustic thinners. So that's why 60 to 80 percent full bloom is around the time when you will have most likely have your laterals pollinated, and then you can spray lime sulfur and oil, both 2% each, or ammonium thiosulfate, which you can spray as a foliar fertilizer. It's not registered as a blossom thinner, but it's a common uh nitrogen-based fertilizer, ammonium thiosulfate, which you can apply at around 2.5 to 3%, around the similar time, around 60% uh full bloom. The other options you have for blossom thinning, especially in a year like this when uh bloom is going to happen rapidly because of the temperatures we have, is to use plant growth regulators as well at bloom, and you have a lower risk of taking out uh uh like a lot of blossoms with PGRs used at bloom. And so you can there's two options you could potentially use, and there's more, but two common two common options where you have Naa, which you can apply at a higher rate, 10 ppm, which is a high rate. I realize that because we usually go with 3 to 5 ppm during fruitless stage, but they have uh they have uh mild thinning effects as compared to when they're used as a fruitless thinner, and so you could use 10 to uh 10 ppm about 2 to 4 ounces per 100 gallons at full bloom, or if you want a softer product uh than a you can use NAD, which is amethyn, and so you could use that for uh around 35 to 50 ppm or about four to eight ounces per 100 gallons. I know amethyn has been discontinued uh in the past few years. So if you have any stock left, uh then amethin is something you might want to use at full bloom. Both these options I think are uh less aggressive than caustic thinners, but it makes them very suited for use, especially when you have fast compressed bloom periods, especially when we have these warmer temperatures like this. I think uh that caustic thinners might sorry, PGRs might work better than caustic thinners, just because of the fact that it's difficult to target them at the right time with caustic thinners because of how fast they're moving. So these are some options for blossom thinning. Again, uh uh the one thing I wanted to say was uh because of the freeze event last week, there's I I know that there will be reluctance from growers for using uh blossom thinners, but if you have a good handle on how much loss or damage you've had from the spring freeze event, uh chances are more likely that you will need to be using blossom thinners in order to start your program thinning program early and get a good handle, especially for uh varieties like Gala, where you can really have an impact on fruit size if you start with blossom thinning. And also for other uh heavy-setting varieties, I think that uh it'll be good to use uh good good to use uh blossom thinning, especially in the especially in the coming week. The one caution I will say is try to be a little bit little bit careful when you have uh daytime temperatures exceeding 85 Fahrenheit. So uh try uh uh because we don't want to be applying uh caustic thinners or uh we don't want especially the caustic thinners, we don't don't want to be applying it when it's above 85 or 90 Fahrenheit, but between 80 to 85 is also fine. I think you can still apply uh if you have the day daytime highs bit below 85 Fahrenheit. So that's just a caution. Uh but these caustic thinners, as you know, sometimes they could have some phytotoxic effects, but they don't have any effect on fruit quality at the end because the tree is able to outgrow that very quickly, and uh those effects sort of disappear in about a week, week and a half, some of the phytotoxic effects from either lime sulfur or ATS. Uh, but I would definitely recommend to blossom thin this year, despite the freeze event that we had, because uh it it seems like our apple crop uh got through successfully. We might have lost our kings or maybe even a lateral, but for the most part, I think that uh uh we will still need to thin our crop. So we have a very warm week, things are gonna move very fast, so keep an eye on it. And uh I would highly recommend you think about a blossom thinning spray. And as far as phenology for apples, uh in Freck, we are uh we are at first bloom, and these this was data taken yesterday, and you know how far how fast things are moving with the warm weather. So at yesterday morning we were uh for most varieties we were at first bloom, and uh in Berks as well, it's quite similar, slightly behind things were just starting to open up, and in Rock Springs, we're still at uh uh tight cluster to early pink, and so that's where we're at uh with phenology. So uh so yeah, keep an eye on it, things see how things are moving, and then uh plan your blossom thinning sprays because you it's uh they are probably gonna happen this week, uh either today, tomorrow, day after, and we're having warm weather. So after this warm weather spell, it seems like we are still we are getting uh to colder weather towards the end of the week and next week, and so hopefully things will slow down a little bit after that. Uh, but we are constantly seeing this uh seesaw of uh weather that's getting very warm and then weather that's getting cooler. So one of the things that happens when you have the sort of weather that's up and down a little bit is you have rapid growth. If you have secondary bloom that has uh that if you see a secondary bloom that that you want to take out, uh you could use uh some of your blossom thinners again as well uh next week to sort of remove those blossoms as soon as they as as soon as they open. But usually that's not necessary. Uh and hand thinning can sometimes take care of some of that, or fruitless thinning can. Uh, but that that is an option that's available if you have a heavy secondary bloom that you don't want, uh especially when your primary bloom is already progressed farther, and uh that is that is going to set and give you a crop. But that's that's it for me. Uh Don, do you have any questions?

SPEAKER_03 33:51

No, Sean. I appreciate the update. I think everyone appreciates the update and uh good good notes all around.

Insect Flight Updates And Biofix

Pollinator Safety Before Petal Fall

Mating Disruption Timing For Moths

SPEAKER_01 33:57

So thanks. Greg, after you? Yeah. Models are only as good as the data that are being fed with. And that's that's what is happening. Insect wise again it is this kind of spring when and where our custom wisdom, but not always will be the correct wisdom. Um just driving around yesterday, you know, we have basically bloom on peaches, on plants, on cherries, on apples, on pears. Everything is happening in the same moment, which normally should not be happening like this. So bear with me when I go to different pests and then think how you guys need to protect your crop. Assuming that the crop is on the truth. Uh I did not participate in the last week call. I'm assuming you guys covered the frost event from that happened. Uh I keep hearing you know from people that they lost all the peaches in one block, but they still have peaches in another block, and so on. Uh, Carrie shared this information from Virginia, which sounds terrifying if they even have a crop over there on apples. But again, it's every everything might be location and what happened before the frost. It was lower than expected, and we lost some. Uh, insect-wise, uh the last time I talked with you, I told you guys that probably we'll have the biofax over the last weekend, and we did. We actually got a very good flight on Friday night, and then today is Tuesday, and we keep getting a lot of moths in the trap of Oriental fruit moth. So we officially established Biofax here at Freck on the 11th, 11th of April. So if NUA is calculating any the grid accumulations and so on for us, it actually calculates from the 11th. It will be good if everyone who uses NUA know the biofix for his or her location. It really helps NUA to be more precise. This is about how good the model or program is, depends on how good the feeder's data is. So Oriental FruitMoth is flying, Red Bandit is flying, spattered central form LifMiner is flying, Parcilla is flying. Uh what is not flying right now is Codling Moth. We still have time. I think this will be another case when Chris will be ahead of the actual pressure from this insect. Two years ago I think we were in the situation that the first timing for controlling Hodlink Moth was not our usual first cover, but actually it was second cover. Again, I don't know how the weather will go. I don't know how long the bloom will last. Because you know, everything will explode this week, but with the normal or col colder, more normal weather coming after this week, this bloom might you know last for another three or four weeks. Who knows? I mean we've been there before, we have seen it before. If we're talking about controlling insects right now, um peaches are really the biggest challenge. The reason I'm saying this is as soon as the fruit becomes big enough for curculeo to start feeding on them. Actually, Corculeo might start doing damage. We normally don't think about it because, well, it's a petal fall on apples and there's a curcule spray and so on. Well, Corculeo can move to the orchard much much earlier than at petal fall on apples. Corculeo overwinter as adults, and the weather conditions we have and going to have for the next at least four or five days a perfect weather condition for plum corculeo. So, is it worth it to protect fruit, start protecting fruit right now? Um probably yes. If you know that you have a problem with corculeo in the past, your orchard is next to the woods or pile of dead woods or something like this. Uh maybe one you know protective spray of something, some insecticide that is active on adults will knock down, knock them down. Because we will be dealing with the Corculeo for a long time. It's not like it will be over in two weeks, because the weather will fluctuate and the activity will fluctuate. So this is something to worry about, but only on peaches. And the same is with Oriental fruit moth. I mean Knowing that biofects happen on Saturday, last Saturday, by end of this weekend, there will be larvae that actually should start eggs that should start hatching, and oriental fruit morph larvae will be around. What they will go after? Well, most likely they won't go after the fruit, they will go after growing shoots on peaches, on terminals. So if you go after plant curculio, I think you will get also good enough control for oriental fruit moth on peaches. On apples, well they flying, they will lay eggs, but the fruit will not be there for a long time. So any injury on apples actually will be injurious to the also to growing shoots. Is this a time to control to worry too much? Well, again, it might depend from the history, from the past. If you had a problem, if the pressure was very high the previous years, well the first time you can spray anyway will be at petal fall. And this might be next week, or it might be two weeks from now or three weeks from now. It depends on the cultivar. Trying to protect fruit. I have never seen strong enough shoot damage on apples caused by oriental fruit moth that would warrant using insecticides to control it. So again, it's a matter of decision on peaches. If you know you have crop, and we stay with the warm weather, plum corculeo and oriental fruit moth. On apples, well, you don't have to control corculeo until fruit are not there. So we have time, and coding moth does not need to be controlled. One thing that some of you might have experience with or be afraid of is European apple softly. This is another insect that develops usually during the bloom on apples. This one we don't know enough to say that they will come during the bloom, but the normal biology is that European apple softly is flying during the bloom on apples, depositing eggs on the flowers, and then the egg hatches and the larva goes into the fruit. Again, a lot depends from the weather, but this might be something that if there was a problem in the past, then you might need to pay attention. Um pearls well Percilla. I hope everyone was able to do at least one or two treatments for Percyla. Oil, twice oil, maybe oil plus my retroid. Even if they it sounds like a strange treatment, they would pay later on during the season. Because all those treatments before the bloom were to kind of synchronize better the hatch of eggs and the development of Percyla. If you didn't do it as soon as the bloom on pearl is done, application of Agrimec, it's still Agrimac. I still think Agrimac will give you enough control at this time to help you later on during the season. Um I mentioned this product before, I will say it again. The petal fall spray on both apples and peaches, but I afraid this will be very s quite stretch in time because peaches petal fall and I be tomorrow. I mean as crazy as it sounds. Uh there is this new product, Zivalgo. If you follow the label and all the registration parts and documenting that you are eligible to use the Valgo. The Valgo is a very broad spectrum product. And I, from my observation, this is a perfect product to be used at petal fall. Maybe petal fall first cover, depends from corning moth goes. It will control oriental fruit moth, it will control plum corculio. It actually also works on persilla. We don't have data on European apple sofli, but have no reason to doubt that it will work. So this might be a good product. When to use it is another question. But again, we are talking petal foil spray. And not before, because I think it will be a waste of time, waste of resources to use it before petal foil. But you know, if you're gonna go right now with those peach spray targeting OFM larvae or plum curcule, a sail is a good option, a vound is a good option. The Valgo will be more broad spectrum, should provide very good control, but I would wait with it for at least the timing on if we use the apple petal fold timing for also spray on peaches. I think that's when it actually will be the most effective, that's when it will help the most with plum curcule and OFM. Again, depends how long the bloom will last. OFM might finish egg hatching before we're done with the petal fall. And then there's not a lot we can do because there is a maze because of bees. And we're not talking only honey bees. Uh there's a lot of talks and a lot of good data supporting the idea that our native bees, especially in the orchards that are bordering with some wild vegetation, that those bees are actually very helpful in the orchard. They work under better, more diverse weather conditions. They work better in the colder weather than honey bees would, and they you know they are very effective. So please do not spray when the blossoms or there is anything in the orchard that bees or wild pollinators can be attracted to, and this also includes dandelions in the ground cover. I have seen orchard just at petalfall. Yes, there were no flowers on the trees, but the understory was basically yellow. How many dandelions was there? If you run into something like this, just take the mower, take out the dandelions first, and then go and spray. I have actually seen, but that was more propaganda than the real world, when the guy had sprayer and mower behind the same tractor. I mean on the same tractor, sorry. It was on the same tractor. But again, the point is the bees, pollinators will come to flowers, not necessarily apple flowers. They will go to any flowers, and if we're trying to protect them, controlling anything blooming in the ground cover is as important as waiting for a petal fall on the trees. So that's all I have right now. We'll see how the weather goes, we'll see how the trees develop. Uh, we will start our meetings that's supposed to be the before petal fall meetings in the week of 27th. Uh who knows? Who knows? I mean, we move the meetings from the first week of May to the last week of April now, and maybe we'll next year we will have to move them to the April 20th. I mean, it's it's it is what it is. The season is getting longer, it's getting more complicated from many aspects, and one of them is that the insects start developing differently. And you know, if we have Oriental fruit moth flying on the 11th and they will start laying eggs, and we don't go into very colder time period, we might have extra generation either of OFM or codling moth as the season goes. We might also end up with extra generation of plum corculeo in August. It's possible with season starting that early. I mean, states south from us, they are heading to generation of plum corculeo. And our weather right now is well much more similar to Virginia than to New York. So it is it is what it is. So that's all updates I have right now. Uh let's hope we can talk next week and then you know we'll see how it develops. Uh, one last thing, last thing mating disruption. If anyone plans to have mating disruption, please put it ASP to your Apple and Peach blocks. Kodnik Moth is not flying. I do not expect Kodling Moth to fly, even if this hot weather. I mean, we might get some you know early risers by the end of this week, but I really think by following weekend, the weekend of the 25th, I will be surprised if the Kodnik Moth is not active. So put the mating disruption out as soon as you can, and it will help. It's not a program that will eliminate all your problems, but it will help make some of those problems much less severe. That's basically what it is. So remember about mating disruption. That's all I have. If there are any questions, Dan, maybe something popped, or maybe you heard from growers, I would be happy to, you know, respond.

SPEAKER_03 51:08

Awesome. Thanks, Greg. No, it's been it's actually been pretty quiet on the on the insect front. Uh for the most part, folks are are mostly just panicked about the uh strange weather patterns, quote unquote. And strange seems to be getting uh less strange year after year. So um it is what it is. So um care.

SPEAKER_00 51:34

Uh do you want me to um run through the list now, the completed list for the spring meetings?

SPEAKER_03 51:39

Yeah, if you've got it all.

Spring Extension Meeting Schedule

SPEAKER_00 51:41

Yep, I do. Okay, all right, folks. So our spring meetings are starting in two weeks, with the first one being on Tuesday, April 28th. It's in Lancaster County. It's going to be at the Masonic Village Orchard in Elizabethtown and 6 to 8 p.m. So all these meetings, unless otherwise I stated, which on the last day will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Um on Wednesday, April 29th, this was the Adams County meeting. It's going to be held at Adams County Nursery in Aspers, PA. On Thursday, April 30th, in Franklin County, we're going to be at Harlan Hess's Farm in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania. On Monday, May 4th, this is the Columbia County, Central Susquehanna Northeast meeting, and we're going to be at OHF Orchards in Bloomsburg. On Tuesday, May 5th, this is the Southeast Region meeting. It's going to be in Delaware County and it's at Lin Villa Orchards in Media, Pennsylvania. On Wednesday, May 6th, this is the Western PA meeting. It's going to be in Lawrence County at Dawson's Orchards in Enon Valley. And then last, this is the Goofy Day, Thursday, May 7th. In the morning, this is the Erie County meeting. It's going to be at Birch Farms Country Market in Northeast Pennsylvania. And that's from 10 to 12 p.m. And then we're going to be driving down to Bedford County, where our Bedford County Appalachian Region meeting will occur at Boyer Orchards, and that's in New Paris, Pennsylvania. And that'll be from 5.30 to 7.30. So it's a smidge earlier. So the meetings are currently being populated on our website, on the extension website, a few at a time. So just keep a lookout and hopefully we'll see folks there.

SPEAKER_03 53:30

Yeah, fingers crossed, I get all those uh up and in and ready to go. Because apparently right now we've got two.

SPEAKER_00 53:37

Uh we have two there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 53:40

Oh, all right. Hey, um swinging for the fences. Uh cool. So anything else for go to the order?

Final Powdery Mildew Reminder And Close

SPEAKER_00 53:50

Just as a reminder, I just want to say it again, if I didn't emphasize, not about fire blight, powdery mildew. Because I was actually, while Greg was chatting, I kind of zipped online and looked at Rimpro, which is a European prediction model for diseases and insects. And it is crazy for powdery mildew, meaning spores are very much flying around, and we've got several major infection events because it's been so dry. So please, I talked about ad nauseum powdery mildew this winter during Hershey and during the winter meetings. You know what to do. We're in powdery mildew weather. So hopefully, people have gotten some good powdery mildew control. This is gonna be especially important for rusty spot coming up for stone fruit trees going into petal fall. Just want to put it, put the public service announcement there uh out there again.

SPEAKER_03 54:40

That's all right. One one good last PSA. All right. With that, we will jump off here and I will try and get this edited since this is extremely timely. Uh, thank you guys all for listening. Carrie, Greg, Sean. Thank you guys for being on here. Say goodbye, everybody.

SPEAKER_00 54:57

Goodbye. Good luck.

SPEAKER_03 54:58

Goodbye, everyone. Bye.

SPEAKER_01 55:00

Let's hope the weather cooperates.

SPEAKER_03 55:03

Fingers crossed.