Blueberry:
General Insect Control and New and Renewed Labels: Late last week we obtained the Section 24C renewal for the high rate of Gowan Malathion 8F. The specifics of the label renewal are as follows: [Read more…]
Fruit Crops Edition - Blueberry Section
Seasonal updates on diseases, insects, weeds impacting small fruit (blueberry, cranberry, and wine grape). Fruit Pest Alerts are also available via this category feed.
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Fruit IPM Update for 6/8/17
Peach:
Tufted Apple Budmoth (TABM): The second TABM flight is well underway. Adults started to emerge in northern counties on 5/16 and in southern counties on 5/1. Although this has been a minor pest, this might be changing. Trap counts in northern counties are historically high, and indicate higher than normal populations. Timings are outlined below for anyone who had high populations last year.
|
Conventional, Diamides |
Conventional, Diamides |
Intrepid, Rimon | Bt | |
| County Area | AM | EM | EM | EM |
| Southern | 3rd-6/11-12; 4th 6/15-16 | 6/12-15 | 6/12-15 | 6/12-15 |
| Northern | 1st-6/10-13; 2nd 6/18-19 | 6/14-16 | 6/13-19 | 6/16-18 |
Fruit IPM Update for June 1, 2017
Peach:
Tufted Apple Budmoth (TABM): The first of 2 flights of tufted apple budmoth have started. Adults started to emerge in northern counties on 5/16 and in southern counties on 5/1. Although this has been a minor pest, timings are outlined below for anyone who had high populations last year.
|
Conventional, Diamides |
Conventional, Diamides |
Intrepid, Rimon | Bt | |
| County Area | AM | EM | EM | EM |
| Southern | 1st-past; 2nd-6/3-6/5 | 5/31-6/3 | 5/30-6/5 | 6/3-6/5 |
| Northern | 1st-6/9-6/11 | 6/12-6/15 | 6/11-6/26 | 6/15-6/25 |
Fruit IPM Update for 5/24/17
Peach
Tufted Apple Budmoth (TABM): The first of 2 flights of tufted apple budmoth have started. Adults started to emerge in northern counties on 5/16 and in southern counties on 5/1. Although this has been a minor pest, timings are outlined below for anyone who had high populations last year. [Read more…]
May 5, 2017 Thierry Besancon
Controlling a Noxious Weed of Blueberry Plantations
With favorable weather conditions for germination and growth during the last few days, some of the summer weeds have started to emerge, including one of the most troublesome weeds in our blueberry plantations! Field bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis) is an aggressive rhizomatous perennial vine that belongs to the morningglory family. It spreads by seeds and by a deep, extensive root system. Reports indicate that seeds can persist in soil for up to 60 years, and that roots can grow up to 30 feet deep.
Field bindweed identification
Field bindweed trails prostrate along the ground until it comes in contact with other plants or structures. Stems will then rotate in a circular patter until it makes contact with a solid structure (overhead irrigation pipes, trees, blueberry bushes, other weed species, etc.), then it will wrap around the structure as it grows.
Seedlings (picture 1) emerged in spring. Cotyledons are square to kidney-shaped. Young leaves are alternate, bell-shaped with nearly parallel leaf margins and generally rounded tips. Leaf bases are lobed. No cotyledons are present when young plants emerge directly from the rhiz
ome. When juvenile stems are broken, they exude a milky sap. On mature plants, leaves are arranged opposite along the stem and are arrow shaped. Lobes at the base of the leaf point away from the petiole. Stems are smooth to slightly hairy.
Flowers (picture 2) are present from June to September and are trumpet shaped, pink to white in color. Field bindweed has two leaf bracts that grow from ½ to 1 inch below the flower, and is a key identification characteristic. Flowering is indeterminate, so flowers will continue to develop along growing stems until first frost
Field bindweed control
Mowing will not help to control field bindweed because the plant is growing prostrate on the ground (Picture 3). Cultivation may help to reduce bindweed growth and control it over the time but has to be repeated at frequent intervals. Once cultivated, it will usually take 2 weeks to the plant to regenerate fully functional above-ground vegetation, meaning that cultivation has to be repeated every 7 to 10 days. Consistency in cultivating bindweed-infested soils will promote the progressive depletion of carbohydrates stored in the root system by not allowing the plant to move back carboh
ydrates produced in the leaves to the roots. It is critical that NO timing be missed or be late! One single missed tillage can negate all the effort expended up to that point. Expect to continue the effort for 4 to 6 months! Success may require more time if the effort was not started when carbohydrate reserves in the weed were low at the start of the process.
Herbicides can be used to control field bindweed in nursery or mature plantations as long as NO herbicide is allowed to contact crop green bark, wounded trunk, leaves, or suckers. Applications of glyphosate containing herbicides (like Roundup) are effective as long as the herbicide is applied on plants that are actively growing and have flowers in late spring/early summer and late summer/early fall. Spring or fall applications may be more effective than applications made during mid-summer. Spot‑apply the higher percentage solution on the label of the product you use and thoroughly wet the foliage up to the drip point.
Repeated applications will be necessary, as the root system on this plant can be so immense that insufficient herbicide is absorbed with a single application. Use repeated applications, but allow the plant to grow and produce flowers before each subsequent application. More translocated herbicide will be moved to the root system when the plant is flowering than when vegetatively growing.
April 22, 2017 Thierry Besancon
Controlling Emerged Marestail in Blueberry
In spring, one 
of the first weeds that will break through the residual herbicide coverage provided by preemergence applications is horseweed, aka marestail. Horseweed has two primary periods of emergence, from late March through June and from late summer through late fall. Some of the most problematic horseweed emerges in the fall and over winters as small rosettes. If growers don’t control it with fall-applied residual herbicides, the weed has an excellent head start on the spring growing season, especially after a mild winter. Horseweed plants remain in the rosette stage through mid-April, followed by stem elongation (bolting) and rapid growth to an height of 3 to 6 feet. Plants that emerge the previous fall will bolt earlier than spring-emerging plants. Horseweed is most easily controlled when in the seedling, or rosette stage, and spring postemergence herbicides should be applied before stem elongation.
Treating them early is the key to success. Control of horseweed when its 2 to 4 inches is more likely than when it’s over 10 inches tall. Remember, most of the horseweed in New Jersey is resistant to glyphosate and there is a good probability that our populations are also resistant to ALS herbicides such as halosulfuron (active ingredient in Sandea) or rimsulfuron (active ingredient in Matrix). So, the most consistent options to control emerged horseweed include paraquat, clopyralid or glufosinate applied to small plants.
Paraquat – Use 2.4 to 4.0 pints/A of Gramoxone SL 2.0. Gramoxone is a contact killer that has no translocation or residual activity. So, best results will be achieved when seedlings are less than 1 inch in diameter. Two applications, two weeks apart are more effective than a single application. Regrowth may occur from the root systems of established weeds. Always use a nonionic surfactant (0.25% v/v) to improve the weed leaf surface in contact with the herbicide and enhance weed control. Do not allow spray or drift to contact green bark, leaves, or fruit as crop damage may result as shown on the picture. As Gramoxone targets the plant photosystem apparatus, applications made at sunset will increase weed control efficiency by allowing more herbicide to penetrate before being activated by sunlight in the morning.
DANGER: Do not breathe spray mist. Read safety precautions on the label.
Clopyralid – Use Stinger at 3 to 4 fl oz/A of. Stinger has a 24(c) Special Local Need label for weed control in blueberry since 2013. Stinger acts as both a postemergence foliar absorbed herbicide and a residual herbicide. The initial twisting and curling observed after application to susceptible species is due to the foliar absorption. Do not apply Stinger from one week prior to bloom until one week after bloom. Stinger can eventually be tank-mixed with Gramoxone to increase the spectrum of weeds controlled and defoliate existing foliage of perennial asters, goldenrod species and mugwort. Donot allow spray or drift to contact green bark, leaves, or fruit as crop damage may result as shown on the picture. Time all applications to maintain a 30-day PHI (PreHarvest Interval). Do NOT apply Stinger in a hand-held sprayer used to “spray until wet”. Stinger is a residual herbicide that must be applied on a rate per acre basis with a precisely calibrated sprayer. Read safety precautions on the label.
Glufosinate – Use Rely 280 at 48 to 56 fl oz/A. Rely is a foliar active, nonselective herbicide that controls a broad spectrum of emerged annual and perennial weeds. Best results are obtained when it is applied to actively growing weeds. Glufosinate does not provide residual weed control but can be tank mixed with residual herbicides for broad spectrum control. Contact of Rely with parts other than mature callused brown bark will result in extremely severe damages to the blueberry bush. Do not apply within 14 days of harvest. Warm temperature, high humidity, and bright sunlight will improve the performance of Rely. Read safety precautions on the label.
