What a tough year to be battling scab! Anyone that has been applying extra Captan sprays to protect fruit from scab, need to continue these applications for at least another week. Where I find scab, I still see plenty of live scab even though growers have been spraying with Captan every 7 days. This wet weather makes secondary scab control very challenging. But so far, most growers have been keeping the scab off the fruit. If you do not have scab, apply a fungicide every 2-3 weeks. With all this wet weather it is probably a good idea to stay closer to 2 weeks than 3 weeks.

I found white apple leafhoppers at several orchards. The adults fly when you shake a branch and some nymphs can still be found on the lower leaf surface of damaged leaves. White apple leafhopper damaged leaves have white speckles where the chlorophyll has been removed from leaves. The adults are laying eggs now for the next generation. The eggs for the next generation won’t hatch until August. So you can try controlling them now with Provado, Thionex or Sevin, or you can wait until August to control the second generation. It really depends on how many leafhoppers you have. If you numbers are high now, it probably makes sense to control them now. If there aren’t too many, you can wait until August to spray. Good threshold really don’t exist for this pest.

Keep checking for European red mites as well as two spotted spider mites. The threshold for July is 5 mites per leaf. Miticide options include Acramite, Kanemite, Nexter and Zeal.

Mark your calendar – July 17 we will be joining the Massachusetts fruit growers at the UMASS Cold Springs Orchard in Belchertown. We get to see their fruit tree variety trials, root stock trials, whatever tree fruit research they are performing, small fruit trials and research. It really is a great opportunity. There will be more information later.

Next message will be recorded on Tuesday, July 1