Apple Pest Report:
Thursday,
September 29, 2005
Vol. 13 No. 14
Flyspeck
For orchards north of Lewiston, as
of September 28 there has been enough accumulation of leaf wetness hours for
flyspeck infections that began immediately after the heavy rain on August 29-31
removed fungicide to begin appearing. However, because of the relatively
dry weather in early September, flyspeck infections on unprotected fruit may not
have begun until September 8 or 15. With a later starting date, infections
would not be expected to appear until around October 9. This is also the best
guess date for when flyspeck in high risk orchards might start appearing in
orchards in the in the Gorham and Sanford areas.
Flyspeck infection is heavy on unsprayed trees at Highmoor Farm. But in a check of 1300 Red Delicious which were last sprayed with captan on August 19, only 1 fruit had visible flyspeck.
Scab
This the perfect timing to do a fall scab index.
Check 100 shoots per block, quickly glancing at the top and bottom at a group of
about 15 leaves on each shoot, and count the number of leaves with scab.
The window for doing this will close soon as leaves will begin developing
purplish spots as they senesce. The spots make it too difficult to
efficiently scan the leaves for scab.
Only 1 apple maggot fly was caught on 12 traps at the Highmoor Farm research plot during the week of September 22 - 29.
Starch index values provided by Dr.
Renae Moran and Pat McManus, University of
Maine Highmoor Farm Agricultural Experiment Station.
Note: SI values can progress differently than ethylene production.
Fruit firmness and other indicators should also be used to monitor fruit
maturity and to identify optimum harvest date.
The estimated date for 10% drop of sound McIntosh fruit at Highmoor Farm is September 26 - October 3.
Because of above average temperature in
September, and forecast for the coming week,
preharvest chilling hour accumulation is much below average this year.
Lack of chilling hours has been associated with
increased risk of storage scald for susceptible cultivars.
The 5th annual Great Maine Apple Day will be Saturday, October 22 from 10-4 in the Exhibition Hall at the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA) fairgrounds in Unity. Details at http://www.getrealmaine.com/visit/great_maine_apple_day.html
or contact John Bunker at jbunker@gwi.net for details.
A planning meeting is planned for
November 1 to discuss the agenda for a combined apple, small fruit and vegetable
preseason meeting to take place around March 2006. If you have apple pest
management topics you would like to see addressed at the March meeting, please
let me know.
Sincerely,
Glen