First let me remind you about our third and final twilight meeting of the year. It is on
THURSDAY, JUNE 14 at The Big Apple
207 Arnold St., Wrentham, MA
The farm tour starts at 5:30 and speaking program around 6:30. The cost is $20 for those people getting pesticide recertification credit.

It should be a nice time in the orchard – primary apple scab season is finished, plum curculio are finished for the year and we aren’t yet too concerned with flyspeck and sooty blotch. We need to keep watching for mites to build up and once in awhile, green apple aphids need spraying. In most situations, aphids do not require an insecticide application. If you see aphids building on the newest leaves, wait one week. Usually what happens is the aphid predators find the aphids and control them for you. The common aphid predators are the greenish-brown syrphid fly larvae and the bright orange Cecidomyiid larvae. Aphids only require an insecticide application if you are finding about 10% of the fruit with aphid honeydew. The honeydew is the sweet, sticky excrement of the aphid. Black sooty mold tends to grow on the honeydew and can make a bit of a mess. If you need to control aphids, use Thionex or Provado.

One other insect pest that you may need to control at this time is white apple leafhopper. These leafhoppers are feeding now on the underside of primarily fruit cluster leaves. They cause a white stippling damage. The biggest problem with white apple leafhopper is that there is a second generation that doesn’t hatch until rather late in August, when you would rather not be spraying. Leafhoppers don’t usually cause much physical damage, but flying adults can be a real nuisance to pickers. Leafhoppers can be controlled with Thionex, Provado or Sevin.

It is a good time to scout for European red mites. Now, and for the rest of the season, they may be present as eggs, nymphs or adults. We have several good miticides, so everyone should be able to control their mite populations. Check the new 2007 New England Tree-Fruit Pest Management Guide for miticides. If you don’t have your copy yet, call me at 874-2967.

As I said, it should be a good time in the orchard now. Unfortunately, I am finding scab in many orchards, and in some orchards it is very severe and many fruit are infested. Ugh! The best you can do is to keep your trees well protected with a fungicide and hope for dry weather. This secondary scab doesn’t need rain fall to spread. It can spread with a heavy dew.

See you Thursday evening at the Big Apple! Next message will be recorded on Tuesday, June 19th.