Recorded Pest Message – June 26, 2007

I found another orchard with fire blight on June 22. Everyone should have looked in their orchard by now to see if you see any fire blight strikes. They look like someone hit the last 12 inches of a terminal branch with a blow torch. That’s why it’s called fire blight. These strikes should be pruned out 12 inches below the damaged portion of the branch. In some trees, this means a lot of pruning. If you do have fire blight and I don’t know about it, please give me a call at 874-2967.

The only pest I see in orchards right now is European red mites. There are so many miticides that work very well, you should be able to control them. If you are not getting good control, perhaps you are not applying enough water. Spray miticides as close to dilute as possible. Dilute in full size trees is 300-400 gallons of water per acre. In dwarf trees the dilute rate is about 150 gallons of water per acre.

It is a good time to set out red sticky traps for apple maggot flies. These traps are a helpful monitoring tool.

On July 12, the RIFGA is joining the Massachusetts fruit growers at Bolton Orchard. A notice should be arriving this week in the mail.

On July 17, there is a vegetable growers twilight meeting at Pezza Farm on Plainfield Pike in Johnston. For more information call me or Kristen Dame at 874-2967.

Thanks for calling, next message will be recorded on Tuesday, July 3rd.