Black cherry aphids

I let these black cherry aphids get a bit out of hand, but treated recently with Movento (Bayer). That should do an effective job of getting rid of them. Left uncontrolled, they will seriously contort and stunt growth of developing leaves/foliage. For more on black cherry aphid, see: http://jenny.tfrec.wsu.edu/opm/displaySpecies.php?pn=420

BMSB or not?

While visiting an orchard in Eastern Massachusetts earlier this week, I came across this stink bug sitting on the tip of a peach shoot.

I quickly grabbed it because it looked (initially) a lot like a brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB)! Ugh! I was not sure, however, so I consulted Dean Polk of Rutgers who confirmed it is only a (native) brown stink bug. Good! (Well, they still can cause fruit injury, so good relative to the fact it is not a BMSB.) So, here is a pict of a side-by-side comparison -- you can see the similarity, but the BMSB has more distinct white bands on the antennae. Keep an eye out there for stink bugs so we know if we are seeing more BMSB or not?

AppleTesters.net -- 'Redcort' Cortland: 26-September, 2011

AppleTesters.net - Golden Supreme, 21-September, 2011

IFTA 2011 Europe Study Tour, Day 5, Belgium

During the last day of the IFTA 2011 Summer Tour, and after an overnight stay in the City of Brussels (right by The Grand Place), we first visited a commercial pear orchard in the Sint-Truiden area (east and north of Brussels) with Tom Deckers, PCFruit Researcher. The V-form pear orchard seen here with Deckers appears to be the norm with trees planted app. 2 meters apart using the dwarfing Quince rootstock. (Which apparently is not particularly winter-hardy, limiting it’s use in North America.) Production of 60 tonnes/ha is expected at maturity said Deckers, as well as “the good fruit size essential in the pear business.”

Next stop was Carolus Trees, where Koen Carolus showed us his “sprinter” trees which are spring bench-grafted and planted 1-year nursery trees pushed hard (hence “sprinter”) with fertigation. Koen claims the sprinter trees are nearly equal to 2-year knip boom trees and it allows Carolus to be swift in production of varieties in-demand. 15-25 tonnes/ha in the 2nd-leaf.

Carolus is also an apple grower and Koen was clearly enthused with his mechanized fruiting wall ‘Fruit Management System.’ Based on a single summer hedge-prune (with a custom-built tree hedger) and blossom thinning with the Darwin string thinner Koen achieves many ‘fruiting outlets’ and has increased yield (by 20%) over the conventional production system (which is similar to a tall spindle). Fruit are more equal size and it has not been biennial. But, says Carolus, “some dormant pruning of weak and strong wood by hand is necessary every 3 years.” Carolus says a fruit grower can come to them and they supply the apple and pear trees and system(s) that allows them to “grow to spec for their customer.”

During the afternoon we visited the nearby PCFruit research center, pcfruit.be, where “research with expertise in crop protection is directed to growers.” PCFruit is non-profit with funding by grants (50%), industry and consulting (30%), Province (10%), and growers (10%, each paying 100 Euros to be a member and receive newsletters, etc.). Applied research is intended to be industry-directed and demonstrative and informative. Here, Scientist Jef Vercammen goes over a rather large pear systems trial at PCFruit. Turns out pears are an bigger crop than apples in Belgium.

For more pictures of Day 5, visit my Flickr photo album. JC

UMass Video Fruit Advisor, June 27, 2011. Super-spindle-axis sweet cherry

E-mail to 'appleman'

Huge cracking problem on my [sweet cherry] fruit. Picked and evaluated 7 cvs. today.
Black Pearl looks best among the Pearl series (vs. Burgundy, Ebony).
Black Pearl would be wonderful under covers. Birds are minimal on hill
where I put the plastic hawks. (But cracking real bad.) Birds becoming
a problem in my super-spindle cherry, I am going to Tractor Supply
tomorrow to buy more plastic hawks. Will see if that helps. I think I
am going to close-hedge super-spindle cherries with hedge trimmer
after harvest -- why not?

Hedged Silken today, look good. See: http://yfrog.com/h2v6paqj. Scab
already on Silken fruit. Have to do the rest of my apples tomorrow or
they will wait until next Friday.

Raining again here right now (Saturday night) -- this is the kind of year when cherry covers
would pay for themselves pretty quick.