Winter moth fall tree banding    2015 Winter moth is an invasive pest introduced into North America from Europe. With no natural enemies, the population is exploding and the caterpillars devastated Rhode Island trees this spring. The adult winter moths come out from late November through December. Throughout Rhode Island at this time you may see […]

Hi Fruit Growers, The following is an article from Jon Clements’ newsletter about ReTain written by Duane Greene from UMass. Be sure to read about using ReTain on Honeycrisp if you plan to do so. The section about ReTain and Honeycrisp is at the bottom. Jon Clements writes an excellent newsletter every week. For $50 […]

Hi Berry Growers, I’m afraid spotted wing drosophila are loving our humid weather! On June 8 we collected red raspberries from a commercial farm. We chose berries that looked over ripe. Out of 19 berries we reared 26 SWD pupae. That’s a whole lot of SWD so early in July! We set out traps to […]

Hi Fruit Growers, The Massachusetts Fruit Growers Summer Meeting is July 21. Please see below or the attachment for details. Featured speaker is Quan Zeng from the CT Ag Experiment Station talking about fire blight. Their summer meeting is always educational and fun! Hope to see you there. It’s nearly time to apply an insecticide […]

Hi Fruit Grower, Apple orchards are looking good! I’m happy to say that very little fire blight has been found in Rhode Island orchards this year. We are still a few weeks away from when apple maggot fly damages apples. Usually an insecticide is needed around the third week in July. Save the date of […]

Hi Fruit Growers, Wet weather that started either Sunday or Monday, depending on your location, certainly triggered a primary apple scab infection period. If your trees were not well protected with a fungicide going into this rainy period, apply a systemic fungicide – one with ‘kickback’ – as soon as possible. See the attached chart […]

Hi Fruit Growers, Our final twilight meeting of the year is next Thursday, June 18th at 5:30, at Rocky Brook Orchard, 997 Wapping Road, Middletown, RI. You will love Rocky Brook Orchard! Greg Ostheimer’s 5 acre orchard has over 80 varieties of apples plus pear and quince trees. George Hamilton from University of New Hampshire […]

Hi Fruit Growers, Next and final twilight meeting is June 18 at Rocky Brook Orchard, 997 Wapping Road, Middletown, RI at 5:30.  BRING A LAWN CHAIR! If it ever rains again, more primary season apple scab spores will be released and able to cause an infection. Usually we are past primary scab season by the […]

Winter moth caterpillars in southern New England, May 19, 2015 Winter moth eggs started hatching in southern New England around April 19. Since then winter moth caterpillars have been feeding on apple, pear, and blueberry flower buds and leaves, and leaves of maples, oaks, beech, elms, birch, cherry and other trees and shrubs. Winter moth […]

Hi Fruit Growers, If your orchard is in Providence or Washington County and your trees still have open flowers this coming Friday to Wednesday, these flowers are likely at risk for a fire blight infection. The level of risk is not nearly as high as last weekend, but the risk is still present. Young trees […]

Hi fruit growers, Jon Clements gave me permission to copy the fire blight alert he sent out to his Healthy Fruit Newsletter email list. You should all receive his messages. For $50 you get excellent advice all season long. He does a much better job than I can do! Heather FIRE BLIGHT ALERT! Dan Cooley […]

Hi, I don’t mean to scare you guys, but conditions are looking worse rather than better. The CougarBlight model on Orchard Radar now predicts the risk of fire blight infection is Exceptional for Sunday and Tuesday in Providence County, and Extreme for Monday and Wednesday . Exceptional is a worse rating than Extreme. Any apple […]

May 6, 2015 Hi Fruit Growers, The fire blight threat looks very real. (See fire blight models at https://web.uri.edu/ipm/ under Orchard Radar.) This pre-bloom heat and predicted heat means fire blight bacteria is multiplying and can infect open flowers. Fire blight needs open blossoms and moisture, once there has been enough heat to build up […]

Hi Fruit Growers, Dave Rosenberger, retired plant pathologist at Cornell’s Hudson Valley Lab, says the predictions for fire blight are even worse this spring than last year. We can track the predicted threat of fire blight by looking at models on Orchard Radar. You can see the Orchard Radar predictions at the URI Apple IPM […]

Hi Fruit Growers, Remember, we have a RIFGA twilight meeting on April 23 at 5:30 at Goodwin Bros. Farmstand, 458 Greenville Rd., North Smithfield. We’ll meet at the stand and participate in a air blast sprayer calibration workshop run by George Hamilton from University of New Hampshire Extension. Jon Clements from UMass will also be […]

April 16, 2015 Winter moth egg watchers in Warwick saw several blue winter moth eggs this morning. In Kingston today I found one blue egg. Winter moth eggs turn blue a couple of days before hatching. I think right after tomorrow’s rain is a good time to apply an insecticide to control caterpillars. In some […]

We may see winter moth eggs hatching at the end of this week. Using The Weather Channel growing degree days (GDD)calculator and their weather predictions, it looks like we will reach 114 GDD, base 40 at the end of this week. This is assuming 114 GDD is a good target number for winter moth eggs […]

Winter moth eggs are still orange and not ready to hatch. I’ve checked with cooperating egg watchers, and their eggs are still orange too. Eggs turn blue a couple of days before they hatch. Last night I compared growing degree days (GDD) recorded on the Weather Channel website with winter moth hatch dates from 2008-2014. […]

Winter moth in Southern New England 2015 We expect winter moth eggs to start hatching in Southern New England in early to mid April. The average date of egg hatch in RI is April 10. The hatching date depends on future Spring weather. Last November, I set up tree wraps at 5 locations: three in […]