Little %^*#'s

[Bowsnbucks]

We have a few more varieties that have their first apples on them this year. I snip off all but a few to give more strength to the tree, but I left a couple to try. Enterprise, Trailman crab, Liberty, and Whitney all have 1st fruits this year. I'm anxious to see how these taste. The deer are gonna have to be satisfied with our older apple trees for another year or 2 until the newer trees get big enough to produce good crops. In the mean time, we'll be doing the tasting !!! :)

 

[buckvelvet]

We have a few more varieties that have their first apples on them this year. I snip off all but a few to give more strength to the tree, but I left a couple to try. Enterprise, Trailman crab, Liberty, and Whitney all have 1st fruits this year. I'm anxious to see how these taste. The deer are gonna have to be satisfied with our older apple trees for another year or 2 until the newer trees get big enough to produce good crops. In the mean time, we'll be doing the tasting !!! :)

I like your style BNB! :)

 

[Maya]

OK, back to pests. PC is all done for the year here and we look to have a decent crop of everything........BUT, I got up this AM and got out in the orchards as I do most every day at 5- 5:30AM. I hadn't gone thru the Macouns yet to hand thin. so I went through one row and started down the second. It was so nice out, probably 60 or so, and I was really enjoying myself. Just then, there it was...fireblight! I pruned out a few limbs and got them out of the orchard to burn.

I ran to my other job, I'm a mailman. I was sorting mail for a couple hours and couldn't stand it any longer and took a break and called my rep from
Crop Production Services. I haven't had FB before and I remember getting Emails from a couple of the universities talking about this and that pest, one of which was FB. So I asked Eric if there was anything else I should be doing, or anything I could spray post infection to lesson the effect. He said, "have you been reading the emails? It's been awful with FB this year. A couple orchards in Peru, NY lost their entire orchards!" Several orchards in Vt. have had problems too. I've got to monitor things through the next couple of rains this week, and see if anything gets worse. If so he wants me to spray Double Nickel, a biofungicide that everyone has had good results with. It's got a 50 day preharvest interval, so if I'm going to use it, it will have to be withing the next week or so.

Anyways just a heads up. Keep an eye out after some rains in the upcoming days.

 

[buckvelvet]

OK, back to pests. PC is all done for the year here and we look to have a decent crop of everything........BUT, I got up this AM and got out in the orchards as I do most every day at 5- 5:30AM. I hadn't gone thru the Macouns yet to hand thin. so I went through one row and started down the second. It was so nice out, probably 60 or so, and I was really enjoying myself. Just then, there it was...fireblight! I pruned out a few limbs and got them out of the orchard to burn.

I ran to my other job, I'm a mailman. I was sorting mail for a couple hours and couldn't stand it any longer and took a break and called my rep from
Crop Production Services. I haven't had FB before and I remember getting Emails from a couple of the universities talking about this and that pest, one of which was FB. So I asked Eric if there was anything else I should be doing, or anything I could spray post infection to lesson the effect. He said, "have you been reading the emails? It's been awful with FB this year. A couple orchards in Peru, NY lost their entire orchards!" Several orchards in Vt. have had problems too. I've got to monitor things through the next couple of rains this week, and see if anything gets worse. If so he wants me to spray Double Nickel, a biofungicide that everyone has had good results with. It's got a 50 day preharvest interval, so if I'm going to use it, it will have to be withing the next week or so.

Anyways just a heads up. Keep an eye out after some rains in the upcoming days.

A heavy FB year, i wonder if that got about 3 of my trees in my nursery I made as i lost only 3 apples so far, turned brown, shriveled up, deader than a mackerel. Is it because my area is so sandy that I get really bad apple aphids? I just sprayed again this morning for those, man they get thick on their in a hurry, my first spray was on 6/4 and just sprayed again today on 6/29. I think its supposed to be 15 day intervals so I was a little late but other than the aphid leaf curl I have gotten my trees look super healthy.

I have do a count here soon and update my thread on the status of my grafts...

I have been using Imidan with a little seven mixed in, I forgot to add the Captan!

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Maya - Is there anything different there this year that would enable FB to get around ?? Warmer than usual - wetter - windier ??? I've read that rain and wind can damage blossoms in early spring and lead to FB infiltration into the young tips and shoots.

 

[Corey Peterson]

A heavy FB year, i wonder if that got about 3 of my trees in my nursery I made as i lost only 3 apples so far, turned brown, shriveled up, deader than a mackerel. Is it because my area is so sandy that I get really bad apple aphids? I just sprayed again this morning for those, man they get thick on their in a hurry, my first spray was on 6/4 and just sprayed again today on 6/29. I think its supposed to be 15 day intervals so I was a little late but other than the aphid leaf curl I have gotten my trees look super healthy.

I have do a count here soon and update my thread on the status of my grafts...

I have been using Imidan with a little seven mixed in, I forgot to add the Captan!

I got lazy with my spraying and now have a ton of aphids too and they do come on fast! I hit them with neem oil (had some BT in the tank too for cats) we will see if that kills them. Good news is I saw some lady bugs chowing down on them!

 

[buckvelvet]

I got lazy with my spraying and now have a ton of aphids too and they do come on fast! I hit them with neem oil (had some BT in the tank too for cats) we will see if that kills them. Good news is I saw some lady bugs chowing down on them!

Didn't see anything but aphids and ants, no lady bugs in my neck of the woods.

 

[NE PA QDM]

Yeah I was cursing the aphids today too
we have been hit HARD by the gypsy moths the last two years so I'm finally breathing a sigh of relief as they are in transition and no longer raping my new trees. But the aphids are filling the void.......!&*^%!

 

[Corey Peterson]

They (aphids) do a number a new growth. The neem oil seems to have knocked them back I just have to be more diligent with my spraying. Now I'm going after their little buddies the ants (just out of spite)!

 

[Maya]

Cory if you have lady bugs and/or lace wings around there is generally no need to spray for aphids in the NE. The only caveat to that is if you are near a real big soybean field or other aphid host. They can look like a lot, but they are not anything to worry about.

 

[Maya]

Maya - Is there anything different there this year that would enable FB to get around ?? Warmer than usual - wetter - windier ??? I've read that rain and wind can damage blossoms in early spring and lead to FB infiltration into the young tips and shoots.

1st from what I know, it is dependant on overwintering inoculum, weather conditions in the general area and traumatic conditions within orchards, like in my case the hail storm the year before last. I never kept up on it real well because I never had it, but I do remember a talk at one of our FG meetings. The speaker emphasized how sporadic it was from year to year and hard to predict.

Yes severe storms will spread inoculum if it is present. Bloom time is a critical time as blossoms are actually a kind of an open wound to the tree. Open tissue that is susceptible to infection. Blossom blight is possible then and then shoot blight infection is easily spread after that. I'll see if I can find some better info.

 

[Maya]

Good article on FB..... hmmm, the article mentions frost damage as a reason for it being worse. That could be a reason for it being bad this year.

http://articles.extension.org/pages/60354/fire-blight-of-apple

 

[Corey Peterson]

Well I've got a bigger pest in the orchard tonight porcupines. Had one in the fenced in area and two in my yard. I had a couple 5' top worked trees broke off at the end of last year along with bark removed from trees (in my yard not in the orchard). A new challenge from nature everyday!

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Maya - I noticed the FB was worse on my ornamental pear after heavy rain with high winds or hail. I think the damage from the storms ripped up the trees and blew most of the blossoms off. Like you said about hail - that is when I see the most FB. The FB problem DOES seem to vary from year to year, and the worst years are when we get pounding rain/high winds/or hail. It usually only affects the new growth - the new shoots and tips of limbs. FWIW.

 

[Maya]

Yup all of that is true. Also there is a reason that there seems to be more overwintering inoculum in the orchards. I will make a call to see if I can figure out why that is. We had some pretty strong storms last night. We'll see what happens. I haven't seen anymore strikes in my orchards this week.

Well I've got a bigger pest in the orchard tonight porcupines. Had one in the fenced in area and two in my yard. I had a couple 5' top worked trees broke off at the end of last year along with bark removed from trees (in my yard not in the orchard). A new challenge from nature everyday!

Can't stand those things. Get them out before the apples mature, they'll be all over the trees. They seem to move into orchards right before dark. Pretty easy to kill. I shoot a couple every year.

 

[Corey Peterson]

I feed my bees sugar water after dark each night in the orchard so I've decided the ruger single six is coming with me from now on!

 

[Maya]

Well, #1 for the year took a dirt nap. I went out at 5AM to go spray this morning. I was filling the tank and saw one cutting from one orchard toward the south of my house. I ran in to the house to get my 10/22 w/ all my PPE on, respirator and all and scared the crap out of my wife! I think she would of killed me, but I got the porkie, and she can't stand them either.

 

[Corey Peterson]

Now that's funny! Lucky she didn't have a gun in hand or we'd be seeing the story on the evening news! I haven't caught up with the offending porcupines at my house yet as soon as I started bringing the pistol with me they vanished! I know they are still around because one of the little SOB's climbed an apple tree in my yard that I use to propagate scion wood and took all the bark off one of the main branches. They also reached through and took some leaves off another tree I have caged in my yard - same one they broke off last year, and it only figures because I cut the tree down to re-graft and the wife says "hey what happened to my flowering crab apple tree" whoops thought I mentioned I was grafting that over!

 

[aerospacefarmer]

Knock on wood our fb nightmare from last year hasn't come back. I did the oil spray and streptomycin early and tried my best to get all the fb wood from last year out so keeping fingers crossed. We have had much drier conditions this year so I think that has helped also even the trees (besides the 2 Asian pears that died) that had shoot and fire light last year are doing fine

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Good news for sure Aero. FB is no picnic. We haven't seen any at our camp one county away from you, but like you said, it's drier this year. We could use more rain at camp - the storms seem to just miss our camp. We get a light spritzing of rain and that's all lately. Dusty at camp recently.