Season 7, Episode 6 - Spring Chaos

Don, Kari, Greg, and Shan walk through the overnight freeze and the chain reaction it triggers across fruit set, disease risk, and insect timing in our  orchards. We share what to scout first, what to spray only when it makes sense, and how to protect pollinators while the weather keeps changing.

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

Photo Credit: Sara Serra, 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 Freeze Overview

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Alright, everybody, welcome back once again. I'm Don Seafer. It's the Dr. Tree Fruit and Dawn Podcast. It is Tuesday, April 21st, 2026. Uh we just had a pretty rough evening. Uh I am here with Dr. Carrie Peter. Say hi, Carrie.

SPEAKER_03 0:22

Hi there.

unknown 0:23

Dr.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Greg Krawchak, say hi, Greg. Hello, everyone. And the gentleman who will start us off today, Dr. Sean Kumar, say hi, Sean. Hello everyone. So, Sean, I will like let you just get right into it.

How Cold Did It Get

Assessing Fruitlet Damage And Frost Rings

Post Freeze Tools And Thinning

SPEAKER_02 0:37

Yep, sure. Uh thanks, Don. Yeah, I just wanted to start about talking about the freeze that we just experienced. I'm sure all of you were looking at your temperatures and how low you went. Uh for the most part, it seems like the southern part of the state has escaped as far as how low the temperatures went. Freck recorded a temperature of 30, 30.5. It might have gone a few degrees lower in some lower parts of your specific orchards, but overall the temperatures were just a few degrees below freezing. In other parts of the state, temperatures did go quite low. For example, in in Fishertown or Bedford County, we recorded temperatures as low as 23 Fahrenheit. And in Rock Springs, which is a perineally coal site next to main campus, we recorded 20 Fahrenheit for about two to three hours. And so we were mostly at full bloom to pedal fall, starting pedal fall at rock springs, and then in Adams County, more for the most part, we are past uh bloom, and we are looking at pedal fall. Uh some some varieties further ahead, some varieties a little bit behind. But on average, the kings or the laterals or uh the the main flower in the cluster or fruitlet in the cluster is about three to five millimeters, and so I would suggest to wait a day. I'm sure all of you are eager to sort of see how the frost affected your crop. I would say to wait a day and then uh give it time to sort of develop some of the symptoms. It's a little bit harder to see when you have fruitlets, uh, especially if they uh do not have severe damage because a lot of the times when you have temperatures uh that are not too bad, uh you will not it's not easy to see the damage. So I would suggest to wait a day, go uh tomorrow. I'd suggest to go to your orchard, check your different blocks and see how your varieties are doing. Uh I think that uh uh if it if it if it if it did not go below 30, I think that for the most part it should be safe. Uh and if it if it did go below 30, anywhere from 28 to 26, 24, and if it stayed there for a couple of hours, uh you can expect to see some damage. Generally, uh after fertilized flowers and young fruitlets are less sensitive to freezing temperatures, however, they could uh develop the damage from the frost, like frost rings and things like that, especially if they went to low temperatures. So it'll take some time to uh sort of uh see see the damage. And so I'm sure you're aware with frost rings, they generally occur when you have young fruitlets and they're exposed to these low temperatures, typically between like petal fall and 3 to 10 millimeter fruit stage. And so when you have mild to moderate frost conditions, like we had in some parts of the state uh uh uh this morning or yesterday evening into this morning, uh so the fruit survives, but when you have damage to the outer epidermal layer uh cells, and so when the fruit continues to grow, the injured tissue uh it actually fails to expand normally, and then you get these russeting and frost rings, and of course, that's a problem for fresh market. And uh a lot of the times the frost rings do not cause fruit drop because most of the time they do stay on the tree, so they will have to be thinned uh either chemically or or through hand thinning to remove uh remove those fruitlets. And so uh as far as assessing the damage that you've had, uh assessment again, like I mentioned, it's a little bit more complex because uh for when you had temperatures that did not go as low as say 26, 27, 28, if it stayed like 29, 30, sometimes it's a little bit hard to see. The best way to sort of assess it on a general basis is to see if the fruit has grown. So if you look at a few clusters and you wait to see, generally, depending if you have 60, 70 Fahrenheit temperatures, the fruit grows about a millimeter a day, give or take. And so if you if you see that the cluster in a cluster, certain fruitlets are not increasing in size over the next few days, that's a clear indication that that fruitlet is most likely damaged and is going to fall off. And uh injury sometimes can take uh uh uh up to a week sometimes to show, but you should try to longitudinally and cross-sectionally try to open up your fruitlet and sort of look at uh the injury. Sometimes you might see some brown tinges, sometimes you might see uh some damage to the reproductive parts as well, or uh the seed area as well. And so when if you see that you can see that there is a damage to that uh growing fruitlet. And so in Pennsylvania, for most of the regions in Pennsylvania, I think we have already lost our kings from earlier spring freeze, and and so uh there's a potential most most likely for most varieties we're gonna have the fruit set on one of the laterals. It could either be the second lateral or the third lateral, uh depending on uh how bad you had the previous freeze. And so that's just something to note when thinking about uh when thinking about thinning and uh making sure that you're targeting uh the fruitlets that you want to remove at the right stage uh rather than going with regular timing because most for most varieties we don't seem to have the kings. And then the other option for using PGRs to sort of improve fruit set at bloom is you do have if you are still at full bloom in the central and northern parts of the state. I know that uh we're still getting into full bloom for some varieties, and uh, if that's the case and you did receive uh frost and you're a little bit worried about like trying to have a fruit set, uh, then some options to use are promolin and perlan, uh which is a combination of uh jubilic acid GA4 plus 7 and benzyl adenine, which is 6 Ba. Uh, and so it's a combination of these compounds, and what they do is they function as a form of uh hormone replacement during the bloom period, and so they supply uh the plant growth ligators that are normally produced in the fruit after successful fertilization, so it mimics that, and so parthenocarpicarpically you can produce the fruitlet without natural fertilization occurring because of the application of these hormones. So, in cases where you're worried about fruit set, I would say that as soon as it is thawed, uh you can make an application of uh promolin and perlan, and that could be as soon as this evening. Uh either promolin or perlan, both of them are quite similar, and they can help with increasing uh fruit set, especially if you're worried about fruit set and you didn't maybe have good pollination periods earlier on. And so so the as far as when to apply this, you ideally want to apply within 24 hours of a frost event. So, ideally, sometime this afternoon, this evening, and the recommended rates are uh usually a pint, and so usually a pint. If if the damage is if you think it is very severe and you really, really need uh uh uh like it's dire in the sense that you really need a crop set under these conditions, then you can go up to a quart, but usually a pint should be enough, and then there's uh not necessarily a need of a surfactant as long as you spray it when it's slow drying, so either in the evening or early morning, I think that should be fine. And apply in sufficient amount of water, hundred gallons of water, under slower drying conditions. Again, uh these compounds will not help to resise resusciate, resusc okay, will not bring something back from the dead, but so if something has died from the freeze, it has it it has died, but it will help with uh slightly damaged flowers of uh where it can help with increasing fruit set, and so that's when to think about so there is a narrow uh uh narrow timing of application for this to be to to this to be applied and then to work. Of course, there is a risk with this in the sense like uh you really don't especially if you're going fresh market, you really really don't want frost rings, uh uh fruitlets affected by frost frost rings to stay on your tree. And sometimes uh you can have that damage, and then when you apply promolin or perlan, you can have those uh fruitlets actually stay on the tree uh because of the effect of these. So there is some risks to uh uh applying these as well, especially when you have had when we have had a severe frost and we expect uh expect the development of frost rings, especially if you've gone below 25 Fahrenheit. So something to think about as well when you decide on your applications. And so uh for the rest of the week, uh we are slowly moderating up backwards uh to the 50s and 60s, uh, and then with overnight lows in the upper 30s to mid-40s. And so uh for folks who seem to have a very heavy bloom and you think that there's not been much damage from the freeze or heavy set, and it doesn't seem to be much damage from the freeze. I know you'll be tempted to maybe try a petal fall application for thinners, which is not far away. So if you think that you have a really good set and your freeze doesn't really set you back, then uh petal fall application is justified. Uh sometime later to later this week, sometime Thursday, Friday, or even the weekend, depending on the temperatures. Uh I think that uh that is justified with rates of 6 BA or Na, depending on the variety, with carburetor, and you can maybe lower the rates a little bit uh to account for the damage that's already been caused by the freeze. But I do know that there are some blocks out there that do need the thinning that we the despite the freeze events that we've gotten. And I know other regions, especially central and northern regions, uh a significant amount of thinning uh would have been taken care of by the two freeze events. The other thing to think about when you have a frost event is also a petal fall application of calcium chloride. Usually I know that calcium chloride is start starting to be uh is starting to be applied around 30 millimeters. When the fruitlets are 30 millimeters, we're still a few weeks away from starting our calcium chloride applications. Uh however, when you have a frost event in order to really strengthen the cells, especially in the cell wall, the epidermis, uh developing fruitlets, it might be a good idea to apply calcium chloride. Uh, I know that uh when you have high temperatures, uh not that high temperatures are really predicted in the coming week, but when you have temperatures that exceed 85, you don't want to apply calcium chloride, that too this early in the season because it can cause russeting. And so you can apply a softer product. There's multiple liquid calcium formulations available that you can apply, about three to five pounds of uh calcium chloride or the liquid formulation per 100 gallons of water, just to give uh that cell wall that uh a little bit of a little bit more uh robustness of strength. And uh and so yeah, that's what I wanted to say about petal fall applications, and then I I think there's still some time for regular fruitlet thinning, which is uh when the fruitlets are between six to eight millimeters. It'll come, it it could come pretty soon, like towards the weekend or early next week. But for those who want to wait until the regular chemical thinning season, which is when your fruitlets are between eight to twelve to fourteen millimeters, then you're justified in waiting then to then as well. Hopefully, we will have some good carbohydrate deficits. This week uh we are just a little bit uh little tad early to have uh good carbohydrate deficits. I don't I I checked the newer carbohydrate thinning model, and so we have very very little deficits this week. So you might have mild thinning, uh, even if you're trying to apply like uh chemical thinners like 6BA, uh like MaxL or uh Exilis, uh 6 barrel, all of these products or NAA products as well. Uh you might have reduced thinning just because we don't seem to have that much of a carbohydrate deficit. Uh and so uh you can apply regular rates, uh, especially if you if you check the model and you don't see a deficit, and the temperatures are also a little bit like you know 60s, 70s, then Naa uh would work better than uh 6BA products because 6BA ideally you want temperatures above 75 uh for them to really work, and so uh you might want to prefer Na products for thinning at petal fall just because of the temperatures that's being forecasted. And of course, you can use carbureth uh at a pint per acre uh as part of your petalfall thinning program. And I think that's it for me.

Scab Rust And Marssonina Spray Plan

SPEAKER_01 14:07

Awesome. Thanks, Sean. Uh should help people out. I know the last uh twelve, fourteen, sixteen-ish hours have been not great uh at the time of recording, so um I think anything we can do is is super appreciated. So Dr. Peter, I will have you go next.

Fire Blight Infection Period Review

Prohexadione For Shoot Blight Defense

SPEAKER_03 14:25

Okay. Um, boy, oh boy, where to start? So let's start about what's on our mind this week. Let's let's start with this week. Then we'll do a brief post-mortem of what happened last week. Um, okay, so as far as uh where we are at um phenologically, we're you know, bloom to petalfall, depending on where you're located. So uh there if the forecast comes to fruition, um right now it looks like it will based on it's like an over 80%. It looks like we are going to have rain from Friday, April 24th through Saturday, April 25th. So this will be another scab infection event. Um, we are on the downside of the maximum number of available spores, ASCO spores that are available from those overwintering leaves. So this is still a significant event for Apple scab. So we we are not pulling our foot off of the gas just yet. Uh so frack group three, frac group seven products. This is what you want to be applying right now, um, similar to last week. Um, so we did have some scab infection events last week that kind of came out of nowhere in some respects. Uh and so uh last week, folks should have been should have been, I put out a couple disease, well, I put out three disease updates last week, and one of them um did cover scab on Friday, so frat group threes and sevens. So, you know, we're talking about Aprovia, Excalia, Kenja, Miravis, Tesseris, Lunar Tranquility, Luna FX, Sevia, Indar, Inspire Super, Procure, you know, and also the nines as well. You can also throw in some nines like Vanguard, Scala, and then we also have the unique mode of action Axios with it, which is Frack Group 52. Uh, and so right now we want to be make sure we're tank mixing with the rainfast mangazeb, people should be doing that because rust galls are still active. Um, cedar apple rust galls and uh um uh quince rust galls, which are typically on the same tree, cedar trees, are still active. I went down so if wherever you're located, if you have a rust problem like Adams County, your galls are still active. I went and checked on our cedar trees and they they haven't dried up yet. So they're still in that wet expand, dry down, wet expand, dry down. So if we have uh rain this week, they'll still be dispersing spores. So mangazeb is good for keeping that covered. Um, also, you know, some of the frac threes and some frac sevens to an extent. Um, but mangazeb will really be your best, um, sort of your best tool. So if you're tank mixing, you should be okay. Um also, so as apple scab is is sort of heading its way out, Marcenina blotch is coming in. So Marcenina blotch is probably their first spores are probably being very much dispersing from their overwintering locations, like overwintering leaves. And so Marcenina likes it warm, so at least 68 degrees or warmer. And we have had that. And the rain comes to fruition this week, those will be the conditions on Friday. Um, doesn't need very many leaf wetness hours. This isn't, this doesn't like cold weather, so it likes it on the warmer side. So if the the temps fall below 60 or at 60 next week, and there is some looks like some rain in the forecast, I don't think Marcenina is going to like it that much. But it's right now, last week, and right now, late last week, we have had the conditions for it. So just something to be mindful of. But if you're protecting for scam, you're protecting for Marcenina, especially if you're focusing on the Frac Group Threes and Sevens, because those are the best products to control Marcenina. Um, just as a reminder, I don't want folks using Frac 11 products like Cabrio, Flenextra, Luna Sensation, Marivon or Pristine, um, because or Sovereign, which is now um Norvos, I think, um, which is Sovereign spelled backwards. These Frac 11 products are good for rots. Um, they definitely have lost their luster for scab because of the proclivity of fungicide-resistant scab fungi out there. Um, also, it does not work against Marcenina. Frac 11s don't, which is why I'm still encouraging folks to save your Frac 11s for the cover sprays when it gets warmer because it'll control your rots. So uh, so yeah, so we're covering so for apples, um, for the fungal diseases, scab, marcenina rust, don't forget about your powdery mildew control during these dry days that are in between the wedding events. Uh, and so, and just and speaking of powdery mildew, we're in the middle of the stone fruit rusty spot control, so pedophile, shuck split, first cover, second cover, and we've had some really great powdery mildew infection days over the last couple weeks. Uh, so still be on point for controlling for um rusty spot on your stone fruit. Uh, so just be mindful of that. Um, so let's talk a little bit about fire blight, shall we? So last week when I wrote my disease update on Monday, there was no rain in the forecast. It was bone dry. So I thought, okay, we may dodge a bullet here. But I did also caution against pop-up thunderstorms, even if there was no mention from the National Weather Service saying there's a risk for thunderstorms. Just because it was so hot last week, 90s in some places, upper 80s, um, there's always that risk of instability in the atmosphere, and we definitely did experience that. So um on Tuesday, April 14th, um, so I left work like around 5, 5:30, and I got this notice on my phone saying rain starting in like 15 minutes. I saw this blob on the radar. I was kind of hoping it wasn't gonna rain. It did rain. However, I wasn't prepared for what came after it. So it was like around 6 p.m. Um, there was like a massive band of thunderstorms. It was not small, it was not isolated, it took up a huge chunk of the state. Still, at that point, there was no warning from the National Weather Service. I kept checking my phone or risk. Um, so this really I really felt like we were kind of caught off guard. But this was a significant weather event. Um, it rained for a long time. There was really aggressive winds, there was hail. Um, I definitely experienced hail here in Biglerville, and I do see some hail damage in some of my orchards. Um, minor, um, but bad enough when it's fire blight season. So between the wind whipping around, the aggressive winds uh and the rain, um, April 14th into the 15th, that was a major fire blight infection period. Um, and so, and what really made it even more challenging, this was not minor. Um, the epiphytic infection potential, so that's what's that is the percent risk that's determined by Mary Blight when you take into account um the uh flowers being open, the bacteria being present, a wedding event, and also sort of the the degree hours above 60 to 65 degrees. And it was 182 or 182%. So what does that translate into as far as risk? Well, anything near 200 or over 200, it pretty much means that infection is inevitable. And so we, this is has me quite nervous because I have a feeling a lot of us really pushed open bloom by Tuesday. I think many orchards were like in 50% bloom at that point, at least. And we had this major infection event. And it continued to stay hot after those days, after that event. Um, the next uh, so it was 182 on Tuesday, and then if you didn't do anything on Tuesday for control, the epiphytic infection potential crept up to 291 on Wednesday, close to 300%. So somebody got fire blight, definitely, um, during that 24-hour period. I do know a lot of folks were out spraying strep, which is great. Um, hopefully that helped, but I have a feeling that it wasn't 100% just because of how severe it was. Um, so but we weren't out of the woods yet at that point. Um, the warm weather stuck around. It's it got up to close to 90 on Thursday. It was 80, I think, on Friday. It was 80 on Saturday, and then we had another wedding event late Saturday. And the epiphytic infection potential, the EIP was 267% for Saturday. And so I put out another update on Friday. Hopefully, folks saw it to make sure that they got another spray out. Now, this is what the challenge is is during this time period is that people may have felt that they were spraying all the time, and you probably were. Here at Freck, we sprayed on Wednesday and we sprayed on Friday. And so, and and it was necessary because even though we sprayed on Wednesday, we did reset the clock, but because it was so hot and the blossoms were open and the pollinators were flying, there was still a risk of if bacteria got into that flower, the bacteria could have replicated to such high numbers again, we would trigger another infection event. And that's what happened. So, even with that spray on Wednesday, our EIP was still approaching 200 by Friday. So we at Freck we sprayed again, and I think hopefully other people sprayed as well either Friday or Saturday. So, with that said, um, I'm very, very concerned. This is going to be a bad fire blight year for the fruit that are out there. Um, there's no way around it. Um, you know, all the pieces of the puzzle for fire blight are there. And we may have had a trauma event to boot um in the middle of this. So, what can you do now? So, first of all, your strep if you have no blossoms, your strep spray should end. You want your allowed a max of four streptomycin sprays a season. We want to make sure we save one for possible trauma event during the season. Um, but I bet um if you were like us, you put on two at least two or three streps in the last week and it warranted it because of how hot it was and the conditions we had. So it was not sprayed willy-nilly. Um, for folks who farm organically, you may see the limits of the controls that you used. Um it's um I'm I will see I sprayed Blossom Protect in my galas, and I will say I did not inoculate them this year because I one, we had a trauma event, and two, I knew it was going to be overwhelmed. So I'm actually gonna see how Blossom Protect functions under our conditions when we had such extreme conditions without inoculating. Um, so it'll be interesting to follow these treatments and see what happens. But as far as what can folks do now in preparation of this inevitable shoot blade, which I know is gonna happen, prohexadione calcium is what you want to be spraying. So I hear folks are having trouble finding apogee. I'm not sure if apogee is sold anymore. Kudos is your next option. That's from Fine Americas, it's the same exact product. So you want to be applying this prohexadione calcium now. It takes 10 to 14 days to kick in to harden off the shoots. Um, be uh, I should say not judicious isn't the word, but I think you should be generous with it. Um, and you're going to want to do it multiple times. I am tracking through Mary Blight and Um Rimpro as far as when we should be seeing the first symptoms of this. And it all depends on what the temperatures are going to manifest over the coming week. But right now, I um it most likely will be the beginning of May if if if the temperatures um in the forecast come to fruition, probably will be the beginning of May. But once I see that, I'll make sure to let people know to start scouting. Um, because this is gonna be a doozy of a year, most likely. So uh we're all in this together because we it it it we all experienced it. So um hopefully um maybe it won't be as bad as what I'm expecting, but my gut tells me that it's probably gonna be a pretty significant fire blight year. So here I'm saying on April 21st, um, I'm calling it right now as far as what kind of fire blight year it's gonna be. So, with that said, but there are still tools in the toolbox. So prohex down calcium, folks, be generous with it. Put it on your young trees, put it on your big older trees, put it on the trees in the middle. I think all trees should have it. It's more expensive. I I know people are worried about Prohex um because of how it will limit growth and tree volume, but it is more expensive to replace trees, especially really established trees. So um let that be the word to the wise. So um, so going from one extreme to another with regards to bacterial diseases, I do want to briefly mention another bacterial disease that really likes cold weather, like what happened today. Um, blossom blast. So this is this is I always call it the cold weather bacteria. Erwinia amalabra is the hot weather, Pseudomonas Syringi, Path of our Syringi is the cold weather. Um, so uh the question is, what is our, what's our risk? What is our worry for blossom blast on any open flowers on apples um that are occurring right now? Because apples are really the most vulnerable. Um maybe for folks north of us, we may have some stone fruit that could also be in bloom that because the whole state was affected by these um the this drop in temperatures um over there's very early this morning. So with this bacteria, it needs a few days to get to high enough numbers to do damage. So it's its numbers are very much linked to the amount of damage it can cause. So I would I'm I'm cautiously optimistic this isn't going to be a problem. And I I will list why. And one of the reasons why I didn't shove a disease update out quickly yesterday because the more I thought about it, the more I did research, I thought this may not be such a huge risk for us. One, we already sprayed a lot of streptomycin in our orchard over the last week for Erwinia. So most likely we knocked down any population, epiphytic population out there that was just being happy. So the numbers weren't that high. And then the period of time it was cool for the numbers to ramp up up again, ramp up again, was a very narrow window. So it didn't really get cool until Sunday, and then um we had um, you know, uh Monday it was reasonably cool, uh, and then overnight. So the numbers may have may have not gotten um more cool enough for the pathogen population to get really high. The temperature where this does the most damage is from like below 28 degrees. And so the problem with blossom blast in the Pseudomonas syringi pathovar syringi, or PSS for short, is that it's ice nucleating proteins, meaning that it injects its proteins in the host and freezes water at a higher temperature than what water in the plant normally freezes at, which it can actually um freeze, uh it's much lower in in plants where uh water freezes. So it can freeze at like 28 degrees as opposed to, you know, 29 degrees as opposed to um uh lower that much lower than that. So uh areas and you need a significant period of time, many, many hours. There was a real big problem in Michigan about 25 years ago, where they had like 11 hours of temperatures of 26 to 28 degrees, and it really did a huge blossom blast outbreak on their cherries. Um, so that is where I see um trying to see how we would fit in this. And so I think our risk is relatively low considering everything that happened last week for Fire Blade. But if you see blossom clusters that are brown and dying, and then possibly seeing maybe a small canker at where the cluster is connected to the tree, that might be blossom blast. So, you know, we won't know until it possibly happens, but hopefully it doesn't, um, especially down here in Adams County. I don't think we'll probably see it down here because it didn't get cold enough. It's below 28 degrees. This is when we have to worry. So for the areas that experience that, you may want to be on a lookout. Um so, but it's still kind of up in the air as far as where we're at. I don't work on this disease as much just because it is a once every five-year event for us. I think the last time this really happened was in 2020, and it was like in May of 2020. So this doesn't happen all that time. So, with that, that is my um spiel for the this coming week. So, just to recap, folks, apple scab, still an issue, Marcenina blotch rust faction event, possibly at the end of the week, 24th, 25th. Um, for your apple trees in preparation of fighting off shoot blade, prohex though, and calcium in your tank mixes. You're gonna have to do this more than once um because of the 10 to 14 days it takes to kick in. So um, yes, and and just remember the dry days again in between um the wet days for powdery mildew, because I think this will be another good powdery mildew year for us. So lucky yes. So, Don, I think those are the broad breast strokes.

SPEAKER_01 32:31

Oh boy, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:33

Oh boy is right. I have many sleepless nights last week felt the longest week ever.

SPEAKER_01 32:41

All right, well, hey, thanks for the update. I mean, we'll we'll do with it what we can. So yeah. Thanks, Gary. Yep, thank you. And last but not least, Dr. Crawter.

SPEAKER_00 32:55

Oh well, yeah, listening to Sean, listening to Kerry. I I don't even know if I should have any update today. Um I keep saying this again and again with insect any species of our pests, we really have to think about the biology of it and how the weather impact the biology. Fortunately we really the development is based on the temperature mostly. So if we combine biology of the insect, its behavior, and the temperature outside, I think the predictive models that we are using are actually should be accurate. Saying should be does not is very assuring, however. Well, let's start to go to the insects. Um it looks like the whole state already is passed bioface for oriental fruit moth. Um reality is anyone in the southern end of the state, the southern part, we are at the time when if oriental fruit moth needs to be controlled. This is the time to control it. Saying this, well I I always keep hearing to Sean. I mean, are we at petalfall or are we not at petalfall? Will we still be in bloom next week? Maybe so it's a difficult call because I really don't want anyone to go with insecticides and spray when the flowers are still on. And this is not really about honey bees only. You know, we used to say that well, wait until uh the your beekeeper will take the honey hives around the from your orchard. Well, right now we really were more worry about the native pollinators, the guys that are around our orchards all the time, and they still might need to actually be back in the orchard. They still, and I mentioned this last time, will look for the nectar, will look for the flowers. If they can't find it on the trees, they will find whatever numbers is there, but they will find it also on the ground. So be careful when you add insecticide to any of those fungicide sprays or PGR sprays that Sean was talking about. Remember, we want to protect our pollinators. This is extremely important. So OFM, it needs to be controlled now, but we can do it because the bloom is still on. Codling moth. Last year codling moth started flying our biofix for codling moth last year was on April 28. At the time, we were about 315 315 degree days since January 1 based 50. This year, today we are at over 350 350 degree days, at least in the southern end of the state, and Kodnik moth is still not flying. Well, we actually got one moth over the weekend, but it doesn't mean too much, it got cold, and with the insects, it's not only how many degree days is accumulated, but what is the temperature at the time when they are actually trying to mate. And if it is not warm enough, at least for coding moth or oriental fruit moth, late, late in the afternoon, early evening hours, even if they finish their development, the adults are out, they will not be responding to the thermals. They will be just sitting there and waiting for the weather to get warmer. Looking at the forecast and not looking at the rain, but looking uh just temperature, it really seems look like at least in the southern part of the state, the biofex for codling moth will happen this week. Today it's still probably too cold because they really don't like to fly in the temperature in the evening is below 64-65. However, the forecast for tomorrow, at least for Biglerville, is mid-70s, then 80s, upper 70s. So I will be surprised if orchards where codling moth is present will not have the first captures of males sometime within the next three four days. If we get them, you know, on two, three consecutive nights, that's the biofix, because that's the three nights of consecutive flight, the biofix will be established. If we establish it, it will be probably the earliest in the history than we ever had, calendar wise. It's not the Grey wise, but calendar wise. Saying this, starting from Saturday, looking at the weather channel forecast, there is not a single day until May 5th with the temperature above 70. This would really slow down the development of the insects and the insect ability to mate. So kind of summarize what I just said is we might have biofects in the next three days, but the flight might be very, very low starting from this weekend until May 5th. And then there will be a decision to make. So let's see. Let's see how it looks like next week. We have another meeting. Hopefully, we can talk again. But right now, it looks like we will have the flight, and then the temperature might go too low, and we might not have a flight, and then we have flight again. We'll see what happens. So, saying this, most likely, this will be again the year when the custom then the wisdom that we always have that you control coding moth and the first cover spray might again not be the right one. It was probably two or three years ago, it wasn't last year, it was earlier on. When the first timing to codling control coding moth was actually like second cover or even later. And we have to really look closely what is happening in the orchard, what's the temperature wise. Do we have the flight and then decide when we need to control it? If you have mating disruption in the orchard, well, there is no problem because mating disruption works all the time, and then it doesn't matter. If you don't have a mating disruption, you really have to have a minimum of those couple of traps for coding moth, for oriental fruit moth, and then base your main management on what you actually see in your orchard. Because of the unpredictable weather, the wisdom that we learn over the last 30 years, this is my 30th year here in Pennsylvania, uh not always apply anymore. And again, this is because how unpredictable weather is. So look at the traps and then decide what needs to be done. Another thing to think about is what are we trying to protect when we're talking about managing insects? If we're trying to protect fruit, then there is really no reason to spray before the fruit are present on the tree. What can affect fruit when fruit are present? Well, plum curculio will go after the fruit. European apple soflies, the insect that is especially important for anyone who does stuff organically or really, really don't spray a lot. This insect in the next three days will have perfect conditions to lay eggs. And when the eggs are laid, well, they will hatch. But the eggs will hatch, and then we might end up with a lot of injuries on fruit from European apple softly. Oriental fruit moth, as I mentioned earlier, it's flying. The eggs are hatching actually already. So the good part is the larvae goes rather after the shoots, not after the fruit at this time. So the petal fall will be a good time to go after. Oriental fruit both. Plum curculeo? Well, we try to protect fruit from plum corculeo, but when it's cold, corculeo also doesn't do damage. So the petal foil spray against curculeo may or may not be needed. Again, it depends when petal foil will be or is. But saying this, they can do pretty well just being in the orchard. They can move in the orchard later on. So monitoring plum corculeo and they are trapped for plum corculeo and they are lured from plum corculeo might make sense, especially at locations that you know you know that you have a problem with plum corculeo. So that's about fruit. Might. Do we need to control them right now? If they were a problem last year, or you saw them during the pruning, it might be time that it's worth it to look at them. If not, again put the pheromone traps. You can monitor scale, you can monitor San Jose scale. And this is the good one because you will have like 10 after you start seeing them flying, males flying, you have like 10 days before you need to spray. Rose apple fit. I remember old people saying that in the cold, wet spring, roses might be worse than any other time. This might be the spring where roses might be important. But I think this is the decision to control them that can be made when we start seeing them. And then add something what is necessary. Mites, again, there is a lot of biological control happening. Uh Agrimech, you can use Agrimach during the petal fall. It won't provide a season-long control, but it will at least knock down some of them that are present in the orchard. So lots of different options. But again, the most important part is try to control what is in your orchard, not what can be in your orchard. And this is something that, you know, the whole time when we talk about insect control, at least from my program, we keep saying, you know, be vigilant, monitor, and then respond to the problem that you have, not that someone who is telling you that, oh, you might have a problem. The statement you might have a problem if you never had a history, or you know you didn't have a history last year, there's no reason to spend money and time trying to control it. And this is something that I'm really trying to stress. We will be at the meeting starting on the meetings, Twilight meetings, starting next week. And I don't know if Kerry is gonna provide the exact uh itinerary for us, you know, after I'm done, but we will be talking about this and we'll be looking for different things. So that's really an update for today. Uh, I mentioned this last time and I will say it again, and we're gonna cover it again during all of the Twilight meetings. This new product, Zivalgo. It is a good product, it's a very effective product, but in order to be able to legally use it, you really have to do at least two extra steps, and you have to have a certain paper in your hand together with the label to use it legally in any orchard around here. But we're gonna talk about it later on. This might be a petal foil spray, but with the weather we have, this might be not the best time to use it. Maybe using it later might be a better option. If you need to spray petal foil before our next meeting, your options are a vound plus some neonicotinoids, agrimec if needed, or a sale at higher rate plus agrimec if needed. We're gonna cover more next week and as we go. So with this, I'm done. I don't know if there are any questions.

SPEAKER_01 48:45

No, that was good, that was comprehensive, and I think it outlined where we're at. So uh Dr. Peter, you've got the list.

Spring Meetings Schedule And Convention Invite

SPEAKER_03 48:54

I have the list, yes. So our spring meetings are gonna be starting a week from today. Uh and so on, so Tuesday, April 28th, uh we'll be in the Lancaster region at Masonic Village Orchard in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania. And so all the meetings are 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted, which there are two meetings where that won't be the case. Um 6 to 8 p.m. uh Masonic Village Orchard, um, Elizabethtown on next Tuesday. So Wednesday, April 29th is the Adams County meeting, and that's at Adams County Nursery in Aspers, Pennsylvania. On Thursday, April 20th, it's the Franklin County meeting, and this will be at Harlan Hess's Orchard, and that's in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania. On Monday, May 4th, this will be the Central Susquehanna Northeast meeting, and that's will be located at OHF Orchards in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. On Tuesday, May 5th, this will be the Southeastern Region meeting, and this will be held at Lynn Villa Orchards in Media, Pennsylvania. And on Wednesday, May 6th, this will be the Western PA meeting, and it will be occurring at Dawson's Orchards in Enon Valley, Pennsylvania. And then on Thursday, May 7th in the morning, um, at 10 to 12, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., we will be at Birch Farms Country Market, and that is in Northeast Pennsylvania in Erie County. I know it's sometimes confusing when we say northeast Pennsylvania and actually the northwestern corner of the state. So that's in Erie County, at Birch Farms Country Market, and that's from 10 to 12 uh on Thursday morning. Then on Thursday evening of May 7th, we'll be driving down to the Bedford region, uh, and we'll be having our meeting at Boyer Orchards in New Paris, Pennsylvania, and that will be from 5:30 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. Um, and so that will be our very compressed two-week spring meeting schedule. And so it'll be interesting. We'll probably have lots to talk about after the craziness of the last 10 days. So, or really, probably the craziness of 2026 so far.

SPEAKER_00 51:13

And we will probably have to wear jackets.

SPEAKER_03 51:15

We probably will have to wear jackets. We'll have to wear layers. Some warm socks, gloves that might bring out the gloves and a hat.

SPEAKER_00 51:28

Well, come on, let's hope not.

SPEAKER_03 51:32

But fingers crossed. Uh, you know, better to over-prepare than underprepare.

SPEAKER_01 51:37

Yeah, we've had a couple we've had a couple spring meetings where they were pretty cold, but yes. So all right. Uh, I think that's everything we got.

SPEAKER_03 51:49

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 51:50

Uh I guess the only other thing is for those of you listening in Pennsylvania uh and in surrounding states, uh, I put out a call for folks to join for the Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Convention fruit planning meeting at the end of May. Uh I will that that is available for you to join and chime in if you do come to that meeting. Uh we are, yeah, already planning for the 2027 meeting, which feels very, very far away, but it's not actually. Um so if you join us for that, please feel free. Let me know uh so I can make sure that you're fed. And that's all I got. So uh say goodbye, everybody.

SPEAKER_03 52:31

See you later. Good luck.

SPEAKER_00 52:33

Bye.

SPEAKER_02 52:36

Uh goodbye, everyone.