June 26, 2009
I’ve had trouble finding time to write! All this wet weather is causing so many plant disease problems and I’m getting lots of plant samples in at the URI Plant Clinic! And I’ve been seeing a lot of oddball plant diseases. So – keep fungicide on your trees. Spray every 14 – 21 days, or when trees have received more than 2 inches of rain.

Sooty blotch and flyspeck infections are occurring now, but won’t be visible until later. Captan is weak against flyspeck and sooty blotch. Adding Topsin-M, Sovran, Pristine or Flint to Captan applications arrests infections that have begun, but the infections will resume once fungicide residues are gone. Be sure to keep in mind fungicide limits for fungicides:
-Topsin-M – 4 pounds per acre per season
-Flint – 11 ounce per acre per season and do not apply more than 4 applications of Flint or any other Group 11 fungicide per season (this includes Sovran & Pristine)
-Sovran – 25.6 ounces per acre per season and apply no more than four Group 11 fungicides per season.
-Pristine – 74 ounces per acre per season and apply no more than four Group 11 fungicides per season.

Aphids love the tender growth on apple trees and this year all the cloudy, damp weather has made for very succulent growth! We usually don’t worry about aphids unless more than 10% of the fruit contain the sticky honeydew from the aphids. All the rain should be washing off any honeydew, so aphids should not be a problem.

I expect mites will take off if it ever stops raining. Good summer miticides include Nexter, Zeal, Acramite, Portal, Apollo, Savey (Onager) or Kanemite. The spray threshold for mites for July is 5 mites per leaf.

Apple blotch leafminer adult moths have been flying and laying eggs. If you see 1-2 mines per cluster of leaves around fruit, consider applying Provado against the next generation. Since the second generation is spread out, two sprays of Provado are usually needed. The first one should be applied around July 11 and the second around July 18.

We won’t need to wait for rain to help apple maggot flies emerge. Usually we start catching flies around the fourth of July – but these early flies are only troublesome in early maturing varieties. McIntosh and later varieties usually aren’t attacked before the end of July. Apple maggots are easy to kill with Imidan, so half rates are effective. Avaunt isn’t as effective as Imidan, so apply full rates if you are using Avaunt.

The summer meeting is at Tougas Family Farm is July 15, 2009 at
Tougas Family Farm
246 Ball Street
Northboro, MA

The cost is $40 per person and can be purchased on-line at http://www.massfruitgrowers.org/2009/summermeeting.html
Here is the agenda:
10:00 AM Tour of Tougas Family Farm.
Tour includes: tall-spindle apple plantings, 1st leaf dwarf sweet cherry planting under Haygrove Tunnel, bird-netting options for cherries and blueberries, containerized nursery apple and blueberry, young bench-grafted apple plantings
12:00 PM BBQ Lunch.
1:00 PM Welcome, Introductions, and Brief Remarks.
Andre Tougas, President, Massachusetts Fruit Growers Association
1:30 PM Strategies to reduce drift and enhance airblast sprayer performance with Andrew Landers and Jon Clements
2:45 PM Adjourn.
Registration for this meeting will be $50 ($40 for MFGA and RIFGA members) and will include the tour, educational program, pesticide recertification credits, and lunch.
There is so much to see at Tougas Family Farm! Hope to see you there.
Heather Faubert