It’s time to sign up for SkyBit daily weather emails, if you are interested. SkyBit company takes weather data from local ground weather stations and generates a local forecast for agriculture. The forecast includes wind speed, wind direction and a 1-10 scale on spraying conditions, as well as usually information. It also provides emails when there is a frost advisory. We also use the weather data from SkyBit to provide information for Orchard Radar which will be on the URI Apple IPM website (www.uri.edu/research/ipm).

To learn more about SkyBit you can see their website at http://www.skybit.com/cgi-bin/nav.cgi. Or you can ask me!

Also, this year we are going to include ‘Tom Cas’ which is a program that predicts disease problems with tomatoes.

To pay for the service, RIFGA will pay the basic fee and growers receiving the emails pay $10 per month. You can stop the program at any time.
Please let me know if you want to participate in the program. I plan to start SkyBit on April 1.

Winter Moth! I found hatched winter moth larvae inside of blueberry buds yesterday. The unusually warm weather of last week started egg hatch a couple of weeks early. Apples and blueberries growing in winter moth infested areas should probably be sprayed with an insecticide after this wet weather and before it turns warm again (above 50 degrees). We know there are lots of winter moths in Warwick, East Greenwich, Bristol, Cumberland. Where else winter moth populations are high is yet to be determined. I hope to get out later this week and check blueberry buds for winter moth larvae. It’s easiest to check blueberries because the winter moth larvae chew through the sides of the flower buds and this can be seen from the outside of the bud. Attached is a picture of a bud with a hole surrounded by insect frass (droppings). In apples, winter moth weasel their way between the slightly expanded bud scales and do not chew a hole. So the only way to see if apple buds are infested is to peel the buds open.

Imidan should control winter moth in both apples and blueberries.

Apple scab. Are your apple trees at green tip? Did you have scab in your orchard last year? If you answered yes to both of these questions you should spray a fungicide as soon as you can!

We are looking forward to a terrific Annual Meeting on Thursday. Hope to see you there!!

Heather