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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July 7, 2021

Post-Bloom Insect Pest Management

Sparganothis Fruitworm Degree-Day Update: as of July 07, 2021

Based on our degree-day (DD) model for Sparganothis fruitworm, the window for egg hatch is between 895 and 1,890 DD (see chart). As of July 07, Sparganothis has accumulated 1,251 DD (using April 15 as biofix). This indicates that most eggs should have hatched by now and fruit is susceptible to infestation. Most beds are out of bloom (early varieties) or should be coming out of bloom. If trap counts have been high and you have not done so already, then you should consider treatment in the next few days to prevent damage to berries. Your best post-bloom options are Diazinon, Intrepid, Altacor, or Delegate. All treatments for lepidopteran pests should be done before the end of this week to avoid substantial injury to fruit.

Sparganothis fruitworm DD model

Root-feeding Pests of Cranberries

If your beds have damage caused by root-feeding insects, you should consider treatment with Imidacloprid (e.g. Admire Pro, Alias 4F, Alias 2F) after bees are removed. Occurrence of root-feeding insects will manifest by the presence of dead patches (see picture). Pulling dead vines and searching through the root zone and soil are needed to reveal the presence of larvae. Admire Pro (imidacloprid) is labeled for the control of cranberry rootworm, white grubs (Phyllophaga spp.), and other scarabs in cranberries.

White grubs, Phyllophaga spp. There are several species of white grubs that infest cranberries in New Jersey, the most abundant being P. georgiana. Grubs are C-shaped and often found near bog margins. Adults are reddish brown and nocturnal. Grubs attack the cranberry roots; adults have not been reported to feed on cranberries. See pictures of grubs and adults in cranberries. The life cycles and abundance of white grub species in New Jersey is not well known. Most likely, Phyllophaga grubs have a 3-year life cycle (based on previous reports and our own observations). Eggs are laid in late-June and July, and will hatch in July. First instars can be found in late-July and August and turn into second instars by the end of August-September. The second instar grubs will overwinter. These grubs will feed the following year until June and molt to third insta

Cranberry Rootworm Injury

rs, which will overwinter. The following year, the third instars will feed for some time and then begin to pupate in June. Pupation will take place in July-August. Adults will appear in the soil in August-September. Adults will remain in the soil and overwinter. They will emerge in June, mate, and begin to lay eggs, completing the cycle.

Cranberry rootworm (Chrysomelidae). Pupation starts in late May and beetles emerge in early June. Adults (see picture) are nocturnal and hide in leaf litter. Adults can be easily picked up in a

Phyllophaga developmental stages

sweep net. Females feed on foliage before laying eggs. Young larvae will feed on roots, and feeding continues until October. The mature larvae (see picture) move down the soil in the fall to overwinter. Holding of the water will delay onset of pupation. Rootworm has a 1-year life cycle. Entomopathogenic nematodes (Heterorhabditis bacteriophora) can be used to control cranberry rootworm.

Use of Imidacloprid. If treatment is needed, use imidacloprid (Admire Pro or other generic insecticides such as Alias 4F) to control white grubs and rootworms. Imidacloprid works best against early- (1st-2nd) instar grubs. Imidacloprid should be used after bees are taken out of beds. Because of the 3-year life cycle, treatment should be continued for 2-3 consecutive years to ensure control. Imidacloprid (active ingredient) is a neonicotinoid insecticide registered for use in cranberries against cranberry rootworm and scarab grubs. This insecticide is a contact and stomach poison that affects the insect

Cranberry Rootworm Adult

Cranberry Rootworm Larvae

nervous system. It is highly systemic and toxic to honey bees; therefore, can be used only as a post-pollination insecticide. Imidacloprid can be applied by ground or by chemigation. Aerial application of this product is prohibited. Imidacloprid has a long residual activity (> 100 days) as long as the insecticide is not directly exposed to the sun. Admire Pro can be used at 7-14 fl oz/acre. A maximum of 14 fl oz of Admire Pro can be used per acre per season. The PHI is 30 days.

Filed Under: Cranberry, Fruit
June 30, 2021

Available Food Safety Signs and Posters

We continue to get questions about what signage is required for an audit or the Produce Safety Rule and where to get them.  Not all the signs listed below are, but handwashing and visitor signs need to be posted in English and in the language of the workers.  For example, if you have a mixture of Spanish and Creole speakers, you will need signs in three languages.

The signs and posters listed below are available at the following locations – Rutgers Cooperative Extension office in Cumberland County (291 Morton Ave., Millville Tel. 856-451-2800 x 1) or Rutgers Cooperative Extension office in Mercer County (1440 Parkside Ave., Ewing, NJ 08638 Tel. 609-989-6830). If you would like any of the signs, please call the office to schedule a pick-up.

Please Wash Your Hands Often! (8.5x11inches) – English, Spanish, Creole, Chinese, Greek, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Vietnamese.

Please Put Used Toilet Paper in the Toilet (8.5×11 inches) – English and Spanish

Please Use Toilets Provided in the Field (8.5×11 inches) – English and Spanish

When Must Hands Be Washed (8.5×11 and 21.5×27.5 inches) – English and Spanish

Health and Safety Notice for Visitors (21.5×27.5 inches) – English and Spanish

Cleaning and Sanitizing Food Contact Surfaces (21.5×27.5 inches) – English and Spanish

Service Animals Covered by the ADA are Welcome Here (8.5×11 and 21.5×27.5 inches) – English and Spanish

Many of these signs can also be downloaded from our revised website onfarmfoodsafety.rutgers.edu starting July 1st.

Filed Under: Commercial Ag Updates, Food Safety, Fruit, Vegetable Crops
June 30, 2021

Don’t Let Your Guard Down With Farm Worker Health

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the critical and essential role of farm labor in getting food from farm to plate. However, health concerns should not stop with a negative COVID test or vaccine, especially if an employee or family member is exhibiting any of the ‘flu-like’ symptoms that are associated with corona virus.

From the Vermont Law School Center for Agriculture and Food Systems (CAFS) – “The CAFS launched the Food System Worker Law and Policy Project in 2021 with research focused on farmworkers, who—despite forming the backbone of a trillion-dollar industry in the U.S.—face a level of occupational risk unrivaled by most workers. From repeated exposure to pesticides and extreme heat, …. ” Their newly published “report titled “Essentially Unprotected: A Focus on Farmworker Health Laws and Policies Addressing Pesticide Exposure and Heat-Related illness,” … May 2021, provides an overview of the findings as well as policy recommendations that are urgently needed to protect farmworkers.”

Typically not seen until July, we’ve already had 3 heat waves beginning in May that expose workers to a number of potential health risks that may present very similar symptoms and can be equally health, and even life, threatening. Published studies from the Rutgers Institute of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences suggest growing numbers of people worldwide are at risk of heat stress and related complications, including farmers and ag laborers working in high heat and humid conditions. Last year, OSHA-NIOSH released a Heat Index App (in English and Spanish at the Apple App Store or Google Play) featuring:

  • A visual indicator of the current heat index and associated risk levels specific to your current geographical location
  • Precautionary recommendations specific to heat index-associated risk levels
  • An interactive, hourly forecast of heat index values, risk level, and recommendations for planning outdoor work activities in advance
  • Editable location, temperature, and humidity controls for calculation of variable conditions
  • Signs and symptoms and first aid information for heat-related illnesses

For more information about safety while working in the heat, see OSHA’s heat illness webpage, including online guidance about using the heat index to protect workers.

In addition to heat stress, harvesting and other activities along field edges, including going into the woods instead of using a portable bathroom facilities, create a high risk for tick bites which can also carry a number of diseases, many as or more debilitating than Lyme disease. It is critical for your employees’ health and well-being to get proper diagnosis and treatment for all of these ailments. This table illustrates how many tick-born diseases, as well as heat stress, all have potential symptoms very similar to those of COVID-19. Each is linked to additional resources at the CDC. In many cases, it may be the ‘other symptoms’ that may be unique to each disease and assist a medical practitioner with correct identification and lead to better verification with further testing.

   Disease    >

Symptoms  v

 COVID-19 Heat Stress Lyme Disease Ehrlichiosis Babe- biosis Powas-san Rocky Mtn Spotted Fever
Vector* Human Black-legged Tick (a.k.a. Deer Tick) (I. scapularis) Lone Star Tick (A. americanum) & Black-legged Black-legged Tick Ground hog(I. cookei), Squirrel (I. marxi) & Black-legged Ticks American Dog Tick (D. variabilis)
Fever or chills X X X X X X X
Cough X X
Shortness of breath/difficulty breathing X
Fatigue X X X X
Muscle/body aches X X X X X X
Headache X X X X X X X
New loss of taste or smell X
Sore throat X
Congestion or runny nose X
Nausea/vomiting X X X X X X X
Diarrhea X X
Rash X X X
Other symptoms X X X X X X
Potentially Deadly/Disabling
 X X X X X X X

*NOTE – main vector listed, but many tick born diseases may be vectored by other species of ticks, or different species causing same disease may be carried by different tick species.

Filed Under: Blueberry, Commercial Ag Updates, Cranberry, Field, Forage & Livestock, Fruit, Landscape, Nursery, & Turf, Nursery, Strawberry, Tree Fruit, Turf, Vegetable Crops, Wine Grape Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
June 29, 2021

About the safe use of glufosinate and glyphosate herbicides in apple and peach orchards

Recently, New Jersey tree fruit growers have expressed concerns regarding the use of glufosinate for weed control in apple and peach orchards.

Glufosinate is a nonselective post-emergence foliar herbicide that can be used for directed applications around trees, vines, and berries. Glufosinate provides control of many annual broadleaf and grass weeds; however, control of large or well-tillered annual grasses, such as yellow or giant foxtail  can be marginal. Glufosinate has no soil activity.

Work conducted by Dr. Brad Majek a few years ago indicated that direct application of glufosinate to the mature brown bark of the lower trunk may cause severe injury by killing the cambium layer at the point of contact (https://plant-pest-advisory.rutgers.edu/glufosinate-products-sold-as-rely-280-expand-as-generic-products-enter-the-market/). However, this type of injury is not systematically associated with glufosinate application as we observed it in a trial conducted in 2017 at the Snyder Research Farm on mature “Pink Lady” apple trees which were not damaged following glufosinate application  (Rely 280 at 64 fl oz/A). Additionally, injury in the form of vertical cracks in the of trunk bark have also be observed on apple trees exposed to glyphosate (https://nyshs.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Pages-23-28-from-NYFQ-Winter-12-12-2013.cmc_.pdf), not only to glufosinate.

As highlighted by Dr. Dave Rosenberg (retired Plant Pathologist at Cornell’s Hudson Valley Lab) on his blog (https://blogs.cornell.edu/plantpathhvl/2014/06/30/apple-summer-diseases-herbicide-problems-and-irrigation/), “NEITHER glyphosate nor glufosinate cause trunk injury to apple trees EVERY time that they are used or in every orchard in which they are applied”. Field reports suggest that injury is detected when trees are exposed to specific conditions that still need to be precisely defined. Dr. Rosenberg’s opinion is that “the potential for damage is significantly higher if tree trunks are hit with either of these herbicides during or just prior to periods of drought stress”. Under these drought conditions, “the additional desiccation from herbicide exposure may predispose the trunks to invasion by Botryosphaeria dothidea, a canker pathogen that is incapable of killing the cambium in healthy functioning trees, but which becomes very pathogenic in drought-stressed trees”. Dr. Rosenberg also suspects that similar injury can be observed on young trees following application of paraquat. Other stress factors, such as cold injury or previous bark damages, may also increase the risk of herbicide injury.

So, to safely apply glyphosate or glufosinate in peaches or apples, it is important following some guidelines that will help minimizing glyphosate or glufosinate damages to the bark:

  • As specified by the label for glufosinate products and the Rutgers 2021-22 E002 Rutgers Tree Fruit guide, contact by the herbicide of parts of trees other than mature brown bark (including suckers) can result in serious damage. It is therefore especially important to protect young trees from potential glufosinate or glyphosate injury by wrapping them with grow tubes or waxed containers.
  • For mature trees, the use of a shield boom is required for minimizing as much as possible contact between the herbicide spray and the tree bark. Shields will also minimize the bounce-back from bare soil that sometimes allows a haze of small droplets to drift upward into the trees.
  • Avoid applications of herbicides during periods when trees are already experiencing water stress or where water-stress can be expected in the near future. Additionally, weed control efficacy of herbicides such as glyphosate of glufosinate can severely decrease when weeds are under heat stress.
  • Keep the pressure as low as possible (no more than 30 psi) to minimize generation of small droplets. If not feasible, use air-induction nozzles to reduce the production of small droplets.
  • Glyphosate should not be applied immediately after suckers are cut because it is readily absorbed by freshly cut stems.
Filed Under: Fruit, Tree Fruit, Wine Grape Tagged With: , , ,
June 29, 2021

Fruit IPM Information for 6/29/21

Blueberries:

Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD): Populations are increasing.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Blueberry, Fruit, Tree Fruit, Wine Grape
June 27, 2021

Sparganothis Fruitworm Degree-Day Update: as of June 27, 2021

Based on our degree-day (DD) model for Sparganothis fruitworm, first eggs hatch at about 895 DD (see chart). As of June 27, Sparganothis has accumulated 991.5 DD (using April 15 as biofix). This indicates that eggs have started to hatch, and fruit will become susceptible to infestation since larval injury to fruit usually begins after the eggs hatch. According to our model, peak flight should have occurred about a week ago (around June 20). Insecticide applications are usually recommended 10-14 days after peak flight (i.e., June 30-July 4). Most beds should be close to the end of bloom. If trap counts have been high, growers should consider treatment by the end of next week (depending on the variety and time of winter flood removal) to prevent damage to berries. If spraying when bees are present, your option is to use an insect growth regulator (IGR), such as Confirm or Intrepid, or the diamide Altacor. Our “standard” recommendation has been, however, to wait until bees are removed to apply an insecticide. Your post-bloom options include the organophosphate Diazinon, the diamides Altacor, Verdepryn, or Exirel, the spinosyn Delegate, or the IGR Intrepid. Timing of insecticide application is critical; so, if needed, do not wait too long to manage this pest.

Degree-day model for Sparganothis fruitworm

Degree-day model for Sparganothis fruitworm

Filed Under: Cranberry, Fruit