Fruit IPM for 7/19/16

Peach:

Oriental Fruit Moth (OFM): The third flight is underway in southern counties, and about to start in northern counties. Populations are low in peaches, but higher in apples. Treatment timing will depend on the material that you choose to use. Please see the insecticide timings below for insecticide type:

Tarnished Plant Bug and other Cat-Facing Insects: Sweep sampling in flowering and weedy ground cover shows adults and nymphs present. Few to no cat-facing insects are present in weed-free turf ground cover. 

Tufted Apple Budmoth (TABM): We are between 1^st and 2^nd generations, and there is no activity at this time. If you had very high trap captures during the first flight, then you may wish to target insecticides for the second flight. These will be due in southern counties by the beginning of August:

San Jose Scale (SJS): Second generation crawlers are active in southern counties. Effective materials include Assail, AdmirePro, Leverage, Actara, Belay, Diazinon, Esteem, Centaur, and Movento. See the production guide for rates. Check the label for use restrictions, especially for the neonicotinoids, which have highly restrictive maximum use levels per season. Movento may not prevent fruit damage as it takes about a week to become fully active, and is discouraged at this time of year, since uptake in the plant tissue is difficult at this late development stage of the tree. Peak crawler emergence usually occurs sometime in late July or early August in southern counties. Diazinon is limited to one in-season application per season.

Peach Scab: Peach scab is appearing in some blocks. Scab seen now is the result of infections that occurred 6 or more weeks ago. While additional scab lesions may yet appear in orchards that had high levels of infection last year, for the most part scab treatments are over and nothing more can be done for control this year.

Brown Rot: Some rot has been seen in ripening nectarine blocks and a few peach blocks. Rot may be become troublesome because of the high degree of pit-damaged fruit. Where brown rot is present, it presents very high inoculum levels for disease control. If practicable, removal of rotten fruit from the orchard will aid in control in affected blocks, and possibly the edges of adjacent blocks that have not yet begun to ripen. Rotate fungicides and maintain a tight program.

Apple:

Codling Moth (CM): Although the model predicted timings have passed in southern counties, the next flight has started this past week in problem orchards. Applications using effective materials such as Delegate and Altacor, Belt and Voliam products should be continued where populations are high. If codling moth is particularly troublesome, then applications of Madex alternated with the insecticide program may be helpful.

European Red Mite (ERM): Mite populations have increased to treatment levels at several locations, particularly in northern locations. Up to 13 mites per leaf have been observed. At this time of year the treatment threshold is 7.5 to 10 mites per leaf. At this time of the season suggested materials include: Acramite (1 lb/A), Fujimite/Portal (2 pt/A), Kanemite 15SC (21-31 oz/A), and Nexter (8-10 oz/A). Use only 1 application of any one miticide per season, and rotate to another product if mite control is still needed after 10 days.

Woolly Apple Aphid (WAA): Colony numbers have increased slightly in northern counties. See last newsletters for control suggestions. We are using a provisional action threshold of 10 colonies per tree, and our highest count in northern counties is 4 colonies per tree.

Tree Fruit Trap Counts – Southern Counties

Tree Fruit Trap Counts – Northern Counties

Blueberry:

Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD): Trap captures increased slightly this past week, with an average of 1.2 males per trap (with a high of 7 males per trap). In a trap evaluation study, we are counting both males and females, and found and average of 12.25 flies per trap. This represents a doubling at this site from the previous week. Last week we saw an unharvested field that had not been treated for 2 weeks with larvae emerging from the fruit. Remember that most of the insecticides that you are using are targeting adult flies, but at this time of year less than 10% of the total fly population are adults. This is all the more reason to keep a tight schedule at this time of year!

Blueberry Maggot (BBM): Blueberry Maggot adult trap captures increased this past week, partially due to normal population build-up, but also to lack of insecticide sprays as Bluecrop is finishing up. Our highest trap capture was 10 adult flies per trap. Remember that the action threshold is 1 fly per trap. Be particularly aware of Elliott plantings that have woods borders. 

Oriental Beetle (OB): Adult trap captures have continued to decline. All applications of Admire should have been applied by this time. Larvae are now entering the 3^rd instar stage of development, which means that many larvae will be too large for Admire/imidacloprid to be effective if applied from this point on.

Sharpnosed Leafhopper (SNLH): Leafhopper adults counts average only .4 leafhoppers per trap. These are very low numbers and DO NOT merit treatment at this time. Growers advised to wait until significant numbers of adults are found in the second generation. 

Aphids: Aphids are still present, but not really a problem. Infestations average 8.6% of new shoots infested with small colonies, mostly on the bottoms of Elliott plants. 

Scale (Putnam and other scale insects):Scale crawlers are present, although what we saw this past week are Tortoise Shell scale on the lower portions of isolated bushes. While isolated populations do not threaten the fruit quality over an entire field, they will spread from an initial few bushes to many bushes and kill individual canes or even entire bushes if let go over the following year or two. Given that crawlers are present and berries are still being harvested, one choice is to mark that area for no harvest, and locally treat individual bushes with Esteem and plenty of spray volume. A second choice is to wait and treat with Diazinon just after harvest.

Blueberry Trap Counts

CBFW-cranberry fruitworm, SNLH – sharpnosed leafhopper, OB – oriental beetle, BBM – blueberry maggot, SWD – spotted wing drosophila

Grape

Grape Berry Moth (GBM): The timing for using Intrepid and Altacor, Belt, or Voliam products in southern counties is 7/22-23 or this Friday to Saturday. Since these are long-lived materials, it is better to apply 1-2 days earlier rather than 1-2 days later. 

Grape Root Borer (GRB): Trap counts indicate an increase in borer emergence. We Do Not suggest treatments unless you know that your vineyard itself is infested with grape root borers. The remaining text that follows about GRB is repeated from last week’s newsletter: Adults that are being found in traps are likely from wild grapes in the surrounding woods, since most NJ grape acreage does not have a borer problem. The provisional action threshold is set at 5% of vines infested as defined by the number of vines in a vineyard that are accompanied by empty pupal cases from which adults have emerged. If you do have significant borer populations then treatments would usually be applied as soon as possible using Lorsban on the bases of the vines. Use a maximum of 4.5 pt/100 gal of spray volume, applied to the ground in a 15 square ft. area around the base of each vine. For all practical purposes, given most vine spacing, this means applying the insecticide to a 2’ band on either side of the row directed to the ground. At the label rate for a spray volume of 2 qt per vine, this is a high volume application. The most effective applications will place the insecticide in the top 1-2” of soil. Since Lorsban ties up on organic matter, it can take quite a bit of water to move it down the soil profile. Therefore applications made just prior to rain events may be more effective.

Grape Trap Counts -3 locations, 6 blocks in southern counties