Hi Fruit Growers,

The Massachusetts Fruit Growers Summer Meeting is July 21. Please see below or the attachment for details. Featured speaker is Quan Zeng from the CT Ag Experiment Station talking about fire blight. Their summer meeting is always educational and fun! Hope to see you there.

It’s nearly time to apply an insecticide to control apple maggot fly. I haven’t been trapping, but Kathleen Leahy scouts many orchards in Massachusetts and has caught only one apple maggot fly so far this season. Usually the first spray for apple maggot is needed around July 20. A half rate of Imidan controls apple maggot well, though other insecticides such as Avaunt or Calypso, should be applied at the full labeled rate. A second and perhaps a third spray can be applied about 14 days after the first (and the third spray about 14 days later).

Some orchards have had problems with European red mites. The threshold for mites in July is 5 mites per leaf. If you find more than an average of 5 mites per leaf you should consider applying a miticide. Miticide choices include Zeal, Portal, and Acramite. When spraying a miticide, thorough coverage is essential. Apply at least 100 gallons of water per acre.

Continue to keep your trees protected with a fungicide, or a combination of fungicides. I’m copying what I sent to you on June 24 about summer disease control written by Dave Rosenberger.
Controlling Summer Diseases on Apples – A Brief ReminderDave Rosenberger, Anna Wallis, and Dan Donahue

Current recommendations for control of sooty blotch & fly speck (SBFS) and fruit fungal decays:

Fungicide recommendations have not changed much in recent years.  A quick summary is provided below:

• Topsin M + Captan: Standard treatment for SBFS and summer fruit rots, but late-season applications of Topsin M are not acceptable for some markets, and the Topsin M label limits applications to a total of 64 oz/A/year. Most growers are finding that Topsin M must be applied at 12-16 oz/A for good results, so that means that this combination can be used no more than 4 or 5 times per year.
• Captan plus a labeled phosphite fungicide: This combination is just as effective as Topsin + Captan against SBFS, but the phosphites have little or no activity against black rot. Thus, with this combination control of black rot and other summer fruit rots is dependent on the rate of Captan that is applied.
  Inspire Super + Captan: Inspire Super is very effective against SBFS, but like the phosphites, it is less effective than Topsin or strobilurin fungicides for controlling fruit rots. Using Inspire Super during summer may also contribute for selection pressure for DMI-resistant apple scab if primary scab was not completely controlled, although that assumption remains unproven.·         Flint + Captan, Pristine + Captan, and Merivon + Captan all provide nearly equivalent control of both SBFS and summer fruit rots. The latter two have better long-term residual activity than Flint and are therefore preferred for the last spray in August or September when a long residual is needed to cover the gap until harvest. All of these combinations include strobilurin fungicides (FRAC group 11) and have label limitations on the total number of applications per season and/or the number of sequential applications that are allowed.·         Fontelis does not have much activity against SBFS and is not recommended during summer.Captan applied alone can be effective if applied at higher rates (4 to 5 lb/A of Captan 80W) and at no more than 14-day intervals.  However, mixing captan with one of the fungicides mentioned above generally provides better results.

Annual Summer Meeting of the Massachusetts Fruit Growers’ Association

in cooperation with University of Massachusetts Fruit Program

http://massfruitgrowers.org/2015/2015summermeeting.html