Hi Growers,
We are at McIntosh King Bloom in the Greenville area. Orchards nearer to the coast are not this advanced. What a difference a week makes! The next wetting period will release a lot of ascospores. Hopefully all orchards are well protected with a fungicide at this time, as wet weather is forecasted for Friday, May 1st.

I have not seen any apple scab lesions yet this year, but Dave Rosenberger from Hudson Valley NY found one scab lesion on Monday, April 27th. He thinks it is from an April 3rd infection period. I sure hope we don’t start to see lesions from green tip infections! I know there was some green tissue showing in some RI orchards on April 3rd.

I saw European red mites on foliage today. Orchard Radar at www.uri.edu/research/ipm predicted ERM egg hatch for April 27th. Looks like the prediction was right on. If you did not apply oil to some blocks and you anticipate high mite numbers, consider applying a miticide at petal fall. At petal fall, miticides to choose from include Apollo, Savey, Onager, or Zeal.

I did see some leafminer eggs today, as I would expect. I think it is better to wait until first generation mines appear and determine if a treatment is needed at that time. We expect to see leafminer mines around the middle of May.

We made it past last night’s predicted cold weathert. Let’s hope our luck holds throughout the remainder of bloom.

Attached is a four page document written by Lorraine Los from UCONN. It is a review of pesticide label changes and new pesticides for fruit trees. I suggest you print it! Thank you Lorraine!