Fruit Crops Edition

Seasonal updates on diseases, insects, weeds impacting tree fruit and small fruit (blueberry, cranberry, and wine grape). Fruit Pest Alerts are also available via this category feed.
 
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June 12, 2015

Vineyard Nutrition Monitoring

from NJ Center for Wine Research & Education

Bloom is here and it is a great time to get an accurate assessment of the nutritional status of your grapevines.

Monitoring Grapevine Nutritional Status

Grape Leaf PetioleWhat to sample? Soil or leaf petioles.
Soil sampling should be performed before planting and every 3 years, primarily to track the pH. Sample each block as you would for other crops.

The more direct method for determining the nutrient status of the vine is tissue sampling, specifically petiole sampling (Figure 1. Grape leaf blade and detached petiole). Petiole sampling should be performed every 2-3 years in established plantings. You may need to sample annually when establishing the vineyard.
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Filed Under: Wine Grape
June 10, 2015

Fruit IPM Report 6-9-2015

Peach

Clean Up Your Ground Cover – Plant Bugs and Native Stink Bugs: As we move into summer heat, catfacing insects become a primary target, especially in dry seasons.

Many orchards have ground covers composed of flowering weeds and clover, which makes an ideal habitat for catfacing insects. These insects breed and multiply in the ground cover, and then find their way to the fruit. Wet springs that help make a healthy ground cover (especially if it’s weeds), followed by prolonged dry periods can often aggravate catfacing damage, since the insects often move from the weedy ground covers to the fruit in the trees.
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Filed Under: Blueberry, Fruit, Tree Fruit
June 2, 2015

Fruit IPM Report 6-2-2015

Peach

Bacterial Spot: Leaf symptoms have been seen in only a few locations and only on highly susceptible varieties. Bacterial spot has not been troublesome this spring probably due to mostly dry conditions during petal fall and early covers. Fruit remains highly susceptible until pit hardening so management practices should be continued.

San Jose Scale Crawler

San Jose Scale Crawler (yellow)

San Jose Scale (SJS): Scale crawlers have not yet been seen but are usually active by now. The best materials include Esteem, Centaur, and Movento. Esteem and Centaur can both be applied at the start of crawler emergence. Movento may take up to a week become fully systemic. It should also be applied with a spreader. Spray volume is the name of the game when achieving good scale control. Diazinon can also be used with a maximum of 1 in-season application per year. The sprayer should be calibrated to soak all wood surfaces where there is known scale activity.

Green Peach Aphids (GPA): GPA colonies are present in northern peach orchards at up to 3 colonies per tree and over 1 colony per tree in nectarines. For peaches these levels can be tolerated, but not on nectarines where GPA damage is present on the fruit.

Plum Curculio (PC): PC activity is over in southern counties but still active in northern counties. Fresh eggs were recently deposited on peaches late last week. Activity should not last too much longer, so one additional cover of a PC effective insecticide should be all that is needed.

Tufted Apple Budmoth (TABM): Tufted apple budmoth started to emerge on 5/12 in southern counties and on 5/17 in Hunterdon County. While this insect has not been an issue over the last 6-8 years, locally high levels of moths have been captured in some pheromone traps this past week. TABM is a leafroller that can web a leaf to the surface of the fruit, and feed between the leaf and the fruit. On peaches this damage can lead to unmarketable and rotten fruit. Young larvae may get established in the stem end. When this is the case, the larva can ‘fall’ into the fruit interior in varieties where the flesh easily separates from the pit, or in split pit fruit. Degree day modeling for timing sprays dictates that the first alternate middle treatments should be timed for around 6/1-2 in southern counties, and by about 6/11-12 in Hunterdon County and northern farms. This is for conventional materials, including Delegate, Altacor, Belt and other diamide mixtures. Timings for TABM control are outlined below. If you are a grower who did have TABM damage last year, you are advised to use the timings that follow:

Conventional,
Diamides		 Conventional,
Diamides		 Intrepid,
Rimon		 Bt
County Area AM – 4 Alt Mid Sprays EM – 2 Complete Sprays EM – 2 Complete Sprays EM – 2 Complete Sprays
Southern 1st 6/1-2, 2nd 6/6-8 1st 6/3-6 1st 6/2-8 1st 6/6-8
Northern 1st 6/9-10 1st 6/11-14 1st 6/10-13 1st About 6/14-18

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Filed Under: Blueberry, Fruit, Tree Fruit, Wine Grape
May 27, 2015

Fruit IPM Report 5-26-2015

[Download PDF version]

Peach

Tufted Apple Budmoth (TABM)
Timings for TABM control are outlined below. This is now a minor pest, due to its increased control in recent years. TABM adults started to emerge in northern counties on 5/17. If you are a grower who did have TABM damage last year, you are advised to use the timings that follow:

Conventional,
Diamides		 Conventional,
Diamides		 Intrepid,
Rimon		 Bt
County Area AM EM EM EM
Southern About 5/31 About 6/3 About 6/2 1st 6/6-8
Northern About 2 weeks away

 
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Filed Under: Blueberry, Fruit, Tree Fruit
May 26, 2015

Cranberry Growers Twilight Meeting

Date: Thursday, June 18, 2015
Location: Integrity Propagation, Route 563, Speedwell

Just south of Chatsworth. Look for the Lee Brothers Ocean Spray sign and turn down the road right next to the sign. You will see the greenhouses about ¼ mile down the road on the right hand side.

 
All cranberry growers are invited to this growers twilight meeting hosted by Integrity Propagation-Abbott Lee and sponsored by Rutgers Cooperative Extension and the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station.

Meeting Agenda
5:30 Dinner
6:00 Program begins. Topics of importance to cranberry growers in New Jersey: diseases, monitoring, management of fruit quality, weather forecasting equipment, insect control, new bed establishment, pesticide storage design, pesticide storage hazard assessment, and more.

Pesticide Credits Awarded: total of 6 in 3 categories.

Filed Under: Cranberry
May 19, 2015

Fruit IPM Report 5-19-2015

[Download PDF version]

Peach

Green Peach Aphid:

Do Not use Actara, Assail, Belay or Admire, any generics or any combination containing them, if you have flowering weeds in your orchard. The presence of flowering weeds means that you will also have foraging bees present, and applying neonicotinoids when foraging bees are present is against the label.

Some individual farms have populations above treatment thresholds. Any registered neonicotinoid insecticide (Actara, Assail, Belay, Admire Pro (IRAC 4A), or premixes – Leverage, Voliam-Flexi) will control these populations. Admire Pro will control aphids only. Closer (IRAC 4C) acts like a neonicotinoid, so it is very effective against aphids, but is bee safe. Beleaf (IRAC 9C) will also target aphids and control tarnished plant bug. Movento (IRAC 23) will control aphids and scale insects.

Plum Curculio (PC): We are the peak of PC activity in all areas of the state. Moderate levels of injury were seen in both stone and pome fruit over the past week, even where effective insecticides were applied. If significant rains follow insecticide applications, then re-apply with effective materials after an inch or more of precipitation.

Oriental Fruit Moth (OFM): All 1st generation eggs have been laid in southern counties, and the second application is due in northern counties. If your trap counts exceed 6-8 males per trap 7 to 10 days after the second spray, then additional controls may be required.
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Filed Under: Blueberry, Fruit, Tree Fruit