Fruit Crops Edition - Cranberry 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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November 5, 2025

Survey on Producer/Farmer Values

You are invited to participate in a research study about farmers and their values. The study is titled: “Social values and sustainability outcomes: Measuring social processes in agriculture” by the Food Systems Research Institute at the University of Vermont. We seek to better understand what values motivate farmers, and how much they are able to make decisions that reflect those values. Your participation is completely voluntary, and your responses will be kept confidential. Completing the survey should take about 30 minutes. At the end, you will be compensated with a $50 gift card for your time. Thank you for your assistance in completing it!

Survey link

https://qualtrics.uvm.edu/jfe/form/SV_1YXuRHLpZL1u7To

Filed Under: Blueberry, Cranberry, Fruit, Organic Production, Strawberry, Tree Fruit, vegetable, Vegetable Crops, Wine Grape
September 2, 2025 and

Late August and Early September Peach Varieties – New and Standard

Cooler temperatures and sunny days during the last 10 days have been ideal for full color and flavor development of late August and Early September peach varieties. Descriptions of fruit and tree characteristics, challenges, and laboratory evaluations of fruit physical and chemical properties (Table 1) of important varieties in this harvest window are described below. Understanding these characteristics is essential for selecting new varieties or replacing existing ones. Note that these varieties were evaluated in southern New Jersey; as a result, the harvest dates could be a few days later for the Central and Northern New Jersey orchards.

SelenaTM is a new yellow, melting flesh peach from the Rutgers Fruit Breeding program. It has an excellent firmness, slightly fibrous flesh around the pit, and ripens during and between ‘Jersey queen’ and ‘Encore’. Very large fruited with an attractive 50-80% mottled red and yellow background. The fruit hangs well on the tree and has an excellent balance of sweet and acidic flavor. This variety exhibits a low susceptibility to bacterial spot. Most importantly, like Gloria, the bloom is delayed and extended, resulting in trees always bearing a crop even during the hard frost years. Fruit maintains firmness after achieving commercial maturity and doesn’t drop fruit, like Encore and Jersey Queen.

TianaTM is a new yellow freestone melting flesh peach, ripening between ‘Cresthaven’ and ‘Encore’, and overlaps with Encore and Selena. It has large fruit with an excellent balance of acidity and high sweetness.  Skin is attractive, 50-75% mottled red-on-yellow background.  This productive variety exhibits low susceptibility to bacterial spot. Like Gloria, the bloom is delayed and extended, resulting in trees always bearing a crop even during the hard frost years. Fruit maintains its firmness on the tree after achieving commercial maturity. It is a good candidate for replacing Encore.

Jerseyqueen is a very large, oblong to ovate, 55-65% scarlet red over a yellow ground color; yellow-fleshed, freestone peach, ripening August 25-28, approximately 31 days after Redhaven. The flesh is firm with a sweet and mildly tangy flavor. The tree is very vigorous and moderately productive. Challenges: It has mild to medium susceptibility to bacterial spot. The variety is not fully productive on many peach sites and tends to produce doubles.

Flamin Fury® PF#27 is an attractive, large to very large, globose to ovate, 60-70% crimson red over a greenish yellow ground color, yellow-fleshed, freestone peach, ripening August 25-28, approximately 31 days after Redhaven. The flesh is firm with very good flavor. Challenges: It has a medium susceptibility to bacterial spot.

Flamin Fury® PF 28-007 is a large to very large, globose to ovate, 50-80% dark crimson red over greenish yellow ground color, yellow-fleshed, freestone ripening August 27-31, approximately 34 days after Redhaven. The flesh is firm to very firm with a sweet and tangy flavor, with some red around the pit. The tree is vigorous and productive with medium leaf susceptibility to bacterial spot. This is an attractive late-season variety with great size and color. Fruit hangs well and has more color than Cresthaven.

Flameprince is a medium-large, firm, attractive 50-70% crimson red over a yellow ground color, yellow/white-fleshed, freestone peach ripening September 2-5, approximately 38 days after Redhaven. The flesh is firm to very firm, sweet, and mildly tangy. The tree is moderately vigorous and productive with medium susceptibility to bacterial spot. Challenge: Note: The fruit color develops early; hence, picking by size is recommended. Three to four pickings may be required to achieve a uniform crop.

AutumnstarTM is a large, globose to slightly ovate, 60-80% crimson red over a yellowish green ground color, yellow-fleshed, freestone peach ripening September 4-7, approximately 41 days after Redhaven. The fruit is attractive for a late-season variety. Fruit size is medium-large.  The flesh is firm with a good balance of sweet and acidic flavor. The tree is vigorous and productive with low susceptibility to bacterial spot. Challenge: Some tree survival problems have been noted. The performance of this variety has varied from year to year. In some years, it’s hard to size to medium-large size.

Flamin Fury PF 36 is a globose, firm, yellow-fleshed free stone peach ripening during the first week of September—one of the best late-season peach varieties. Fruit is large to very large, sweet, mildly tangy, and mostly uniform in size. The tree is vigorous and highly productive with no bacterial spot.

Augustprince is a globose to slightly ovate, 60-90% crimson red over a yellowish red ground color, yellow-fleshed freestone peach ripening August 31 to September 3 or 37 days after Redhaven. The flesh is firm to very firm, melting, stringy, with a very good, slightly acidic flavor. The tree is vigorous, productive, and has low susceptibility to bacterial spot. This sister variety ripens close to Flame Prince but consistently has better size and firmness.

Some of the excellent, yellow-fleshed varieties with few serious challenges

Encore is a firm fleshed variety with decent tolerance to bacterial spot. The tree is productive and cold-hardy, and the fruit has decent eating quality. However, it has a drop tendency. Fruit blush development has been unsatisfactory in some years. Fayette: High susceptibility to bacterial spot. A popular variety. Laurol is firm-fleshed, peach with a very sweet and tangy flavor. It has a high susceptibility to bacterial spots. It can get tiny splits at the stem end, which don’t always open, but water can get in, resulting in black gum around the pit.

White-fleshed Peach

August Rose is an attractive late-season white-fleshed peach harvested 24 days after Redhaven and a few days after the Sugar Giant. It has a longer harvest window because commercially mature fruit retains firmness on the tree. The freestone fruit is very firm and has a delicious flavor and melting texture. 60-90% medium red on cream and sizes 2 ¾ – 3 inches in diameter, somewhat nonuniform in size. It is a very sweet, low-acid fruit that hangs well on the tree after commercial maturity. This tree is tolerant of bacterial leaf spot and constriction canker. It can fill the gap between Sugar Giant and Snow Giant.

Other white-fleshed peaches have serious challenges.

Snow King is challenging to grow in New Jersey due to its high susceptibility to bacterial spots and brown rot. Snowfire has a high susceptibility to bacterial spot. Snowfire has the same problems as Snow King – low productivity and high susceptibility to bacterial spot and brown rot. It ripens earlier than Snow King and has less red skin color. Opale. It is also very susceptible to brown rot. Benedict: The flavor is subacid and very good. The tree is upright, spreading, vigorous, moderately productive, and has medium to high susceptibility to bacterial spots. This peach ripens just after Sugar Giant but is not as attractive.

Articles on Previous Season Peach and Nectarine Varieties:

Filed Under: Blueberry, Cranberry, Fruit, Strawberry, Tree Fruit, vegetable, Wine Grape Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,
September 2, 2025

Updates from EPA for Pesticide Users on How to Navigate Mitigation Measures to Protect Endangered Species

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced the availability of an online tool to help farmers and applicators implement mitigation measures to protect endangered species from pesticides. The mitigation measures were established to reduce exposure from pesticides for nontarget organisms as listed under the Endangered Species Act. Levels of mitigation that are required on pesticide labels can include mitigations for spray drift, runoff, and buffer zones. In April 2025, EPA released a mitigation menu website that includes information on these measures and how to calculate if a pesticide user has incorporated the number of “points” associated with the mitigation measures required by the pesticide labelling. It is the responsibility of the pesticide user to ensure that all pesticide labelling requirements are met, and requirements will vary among labels and products used.

The new tool released by EPA, the Pesticide App for Label Mitigations (PALM) is a mobile application that helps farmers and pesticide users use the EPA’s mitigation menu and stay compliant when applying pesticides for agricultural crop uses. The tool will combine relevant information and calculations needed to help farmers determine whether the necessary level of mitigation has been met before applying a pesticide.

If you are interested in learning more about the mitigation menu and available tools, the EPA will be hosting a public webinar on September 16th at 2 PM Eastern Time. Register here for the webinar.

Filed Under: Blueberry, Commercial Ag Updates, Cranberry, Fruit, Strawberry, Tree Fruit, Uncategorized, Vegetable Crops, Wine Grape
August 26, 2025

Spanish Course for Ag Workforce – Registration Open

People shaking hands in a field with the sun setting behind themThe Rutgers Office of Continuing Professional Education will host a course on ‘Spanish for Ag and Horticulture Workforce’ from January 16-March 6, 2026. This is an online, self-paced course with approximately 21 hours of course content designed to help participants study conversational Spanish and gain technical vocabulary specific to those in the agriculture and horticulture workforce.

There is a registration fee of $825 per person. Register by January 9, 2026 for the early bird registration rate of $795.

For more information and to register, visit https://cpe.rutgers.edu/spanish-for-ag-and-horticulture-workforce.

Filed Under: Blueberry, Christmas Trees, Commercial Ag Updates, Cranberry, Field, Forage & Livestock, Food Safety, Fruit, Landscape, Nursery, & Turf, Nursery, Organic Production, Strawberry, Tree Fruit, Turf, vegetable, Vegetable Crops, Wine Grape Tagged With:
August 18, 2025 and

Mid-August Peach and Nectarine Varieties for New Jersey – New and Standard

Gloria: Developed by the Rutgers Tree Fruit Breeding program. A large, globose to slightly ovate, 60-90% scarlet red over yellow ground color, yellow-fleshed, freestone peach ripening from August 16-22. The flesh is very firm with low acid and good, very sweet and sub-acid flavor. The tree is vigorous, spreading, and very productive with low susceptibility to bacterial spot. A unique variety because of its very attractive color, low acidity, and lasting flesh firmness. The bloom is late and extended compared to other varieties; hence, in a frost year, Gloria is more likely to avoid full crop loss. It has a very firm flesh that is slow to soften. Fruit physical and chemical (taste) properties of standard and new peach varieties grown in mid-August are described in Table 1. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Blueberry, Cranberry, Fruit, Strawberry, Tree Fruit, vegetable, Wine Grape Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
August 11, 2025 and

Early August Peach Varieties for New Jersey – New and Standard

August is National Peach Month! No wonder many high-quality peach varieties are ripening during this month. Understanding these varieties’ tree and fruit characteristics in New Jersey conditions can help make planting, replanting, and harvest-related decisions. Table 1 describes the physical and chemical properties of some new and standard, early August peach varieties evaluated at RAREC (Rutgers Agricultural Research and Extension Center), Bridgeton. The ripening dates for central and northern New Jersey could be later by a few days.

Coralstar®  is a large, globose, 60-80% orange-scarlet red over orange-yellow ground color, yellow-fleshed, freestone peach ripening August 4-7, approximately 9 days after Redhaven. The flesh is firm with a very sweet and mildly tangy flavor, with a pleasant aroma. The tree is moderately vigorous and productive, with low susceptibility to bacterial spot. It is a suitable replacement for Loring. Avoid overthinning, because Coralstar® can have many fruits bigger than 3” even in the first pick. Ideal for canning and sliced peaches.
Challenge: The fruit size is potentially very large with split pit tendencies in light crop years.
FlavrBurstTM is a large to very large, globose 50-80% scarlet red over a reddish yellow green ground color, yellow-fleshed, freestone peach, ripening August 5-9, approximately 10 days after Redhaven. The coarse-textured, firm, melting, somewhat low-acid flesh has excellent sweet flavor. The tree is upright, spreading, and productive, with medium susceptibility to bacterial spot; however, the fruit has slight susceptibility to it. This high-quality variety has excellent size and flavor.
Challenge: The biggest concern with FlavrBurstTM is that it may get a zipper in some years— a slightly open suture that can create an opening point for the brown rot.

Flamin’ Fury® PF 17 is a medium-large to large, ovate to globose, 55-70% crimson red over yellow-green ground color, yellow-fleshed, freestone peach ripening August 6-9, approximately 12 days after Redhaven. The melting flesh is firm with a very sweet and tangy flavor. The tree is vigorous. It is reliably productive, with low to medium susceptibility to bacterial spot and some fruit drop tendency. The size of the fruit improves as trees age, making it one of the most popular varieties in this season. This is an excellent peach for direct retail.
Challenges: It can have many split pits. In years with cloudy days during ripening, the background color change from green to yellow could be very slow; meanwhile, the fruit has ripened. For PF 17, a day’s delay can result in a lot more softening.

Scarlet Prince is a medium to large, globose, 80-90% scarlet red over greenish yellow ground color, yellow-fleshed, freestone peach ripening August 6-9, approximately 12 days after Redhaven. The flesh has adequate to good firmness with very good flavor. The tree is vigorous and productive with low susceptibility to bacterial spot—an attractive peach with great firmness.

Bounty is a large to very large, globose, 40-70% crimson red over light greenish-yellow ground color, yellow-fleshed, freestone peach, ripening August 6-9, approximately 12 days after Redhaven. The flesh is firm with a very sweet and sub-acid flavor and some split pit tendency. The tree is vigorous, spreading, and productive with medium susceptibility to bacterial spot. Fruits need good light exposure to develop a good red blush. This is the standard in this season because of its size and flavor.
Challenges:  Bounty can get soft fast, just like PF-17 and Messina. Look for the under-color, and as soon as it turns yellow from greenish yellow, pick it. If you wait for deep red color development from this point, the fruit will be too soft. Assess for picking every two days.

July Prince is a large to very large, globose to ovate, 60-90% attractive scarlet red over a yellow background, yellow melting flesh, freestone peach, ripening August 7-11, approximately 13 days after Redhaven. The flesh is very firm, with a very sweet, acidic, and tangy flavor, slightly fibrous around the pit. The trees are vigorous, upright, spreading, and productive.

Flamin’ Fury® PF 19-007 is a large to very large, slightly ovate to globose, uniformly shaped, 60-90% scarlet red over yellow ground color, yellow-fleshed, freestone peach ripening from August 8-11, approximately 15 days after Redhaven. The flesh is firm with very good flavor, but mealy if overripe. The tree is vigorous and productive with low susceptibility to bacterial spot.
Challenge: Fruit is prone to split pits.

Loring is a large to very large, ovate to globose, 40-60% scarlet red over yellow ground color, yellow-fleshed, freestone peach ripening August 7-10, approximately 13 days after Redhaven. The flesh is firm with very good flavor.
 Challenge: Though the tree is very vigorous and moderately productive, it has medium susceptibility to bacterial spot. This variety is more suited for direct marketing because of its relatively short shelf life.

Articles on Previous Season Peach and Nectarine Varieties:

Filed Under: Blueberry, Cranberry, Fruit, Strawberry, Tree Fruit, Vegetable Crops, Wine Grape Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,