Peach disease field day

Today, Botond Balogh, PhD. ('Bo') from the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, and Lorraine Los, of UConn Fruit IPM, visited the UMass Cold Spring Orchard in Belchertown, MA in search of bacterial spot of peaches (picture). Bo has a particular research interest in using bacteriophages to control bacterial diseases, and has worked in citrus (Florida) and vegetables in the past. We were also joined by Dan Cooley.

Indeed we found bacterial spot in two sub-acid stone fruit varieties from the Zaiger breeding program out of California -- in Honeykist nectarine (foliage and fruit) and Country Sweet peach (foliage and fruit). Now, I knew these varieties are susceptible to bacterial spot, no big surprise. The reason being is California does not have much rain, which is essential to spread the disease, so the breeding program does not necessarily screen for this disease. Peaches and nectarines from east coast (Rutgers) or Michigan (Paul Friday and Stellar) breeding programs are far more resistant to bacterial spot. But it can still be an issue for peach and nectarine growers in Massachusetts and Connecticut depending on what varieties they grow, the season's (wet) weather, and the diligence of their control effort, including copper and bactericide (FlameOut) sprays. A form of biological control (other than cultivar selection) would be highly desirable.

Note that we also found some nice (if you are a plant pathologist) brown rot in fruit. Brown rot is going to be be problematic with all the wet weather we are having. Consult this table of brown rot fungicide options from Cornell to stay on top of it.

While in the peach orchard, Lorraine noticed twist-ties used for peach tree borer mating disruption. (They were from 2008.) Lorraine and Bo have a SARE research-extension grant to promote peach IPM. Lorraine said adult peach tree borers are likely at peak emergence, and indeed we found the spent pupal case at the base of an infected peach tree. (We also found similar for lesser peach tree borer in a scaffold limb.) Ties for mating disruption and/or broad-spectrum insecticide sprays (pyrethroids) will prevent the adults from laying eggs and infecting trees. Based on my experience, peach tree borers are a major pest of peaches in Massachusetts, and need to be aggressively managed with mating disruption, Lorsban trunk sprays, and/or cultural practices that discourage egg laying such as white trunk paint, no mouse guards, and keeping weed-free strips at the base of trees. Note that peach trees damaged by borer infestation will particularly attract more adult egg-laying. For infested trees, it's the beginning of the end of the peach orchard.

Finally, while looking for more bacterial spot in a Southampton, MA orchard, we apparently found choke cherry (Prunus virginiana) on the woods edge of a peach orchard that had some trees showing signs of X-disease. The suspect plant, however, was later identified as pin cherry, Prunus pennsylvanica, which is not an host of X-disease. Nevertheless, choke cherry, when found, should be destroyed (systemic herbicide best) within 500 feet of peach orchards to prevent the disease from infecting your peach trees! Alan Eaton, UNH entomologist, has a good write-up on X-disease in his July 15, 2008 IPM Newsletter.

Here are the picture albums (all pictures) from our field day by Botond Balagh, Dan Cooley, and Jon Clements.

MFGA Summer Meeting

Last Wednesday (July 15) was the summer meeting of the Massachusetts Fruit Growers' Association (MFGA). Held at the current MFGA President's orchard, Andre Tougas of Tougas Family Farm, over 150 tree and small fruit growers and others from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Maine were in attendance.

In the morning, Mo and Andre Tougas leaded a tour of their orchards, including:

• potted bench-grafted apple and seedling blueberry nursery (picture)
• one acre of 1st-leaf sweet cherries (picture) to be covered with a Haygrove Tunnel
• producing blueberries covered by a Smart Net Systems net
• 1st, 2nd, and 3rd leaf tall-spindle apples (picture), including bench-graft and nursery trees, such as a Daybreak Fuji orchard that yielded 400 bushels per acre in the 2nd leaf

In the afternoon, invited guest Dr. Andrew Landers of Cornell University could not have made the subject of air-blast sprayer calibration and performance any more informative while at the same time being entertaining. Landers 2-hour presentation (picture) was supported by a Region 1 EPA Strategic Agriculture Initiative grant and MFGA. Landers discussed the three factors that determine sprayer application rate: pressure, flow rate, and travel speed, and how to measure and modify them to match the desired spray output. He also discussed the pros and cons of different kinds of nozzles, including ceramic core and disc, hollow cone, and air-induction (picture). The latter proven to significantly reduce drift, although their performance using contact insecticides might not be adequate in all orchards. He also used a 'patternator' to examine spray pattern (picture) and adjust airblast sprayer nozzle orientation to match the canopy and spray output on both sides of the fan. (Which differ because of fan direction unless nozzle direction is adjusted.) Landers also talked about how growers can make their own pattenator and finally brought out the famous Cornell 'donut' (picture) that can reduce the speed and volume of air output form the airblast sprayer. Again, useful in reducing drift where tree canopy volume is on the lower side. (Early in the season, dwarf trees.) Landers gives a real good show and is undeniabley an expert on the subject of sprayer calibration and drift reduction. (Despite being a 'Brit'!)

In case you missed any of the links to pictures above, here is my Flicker set from the meeting.

Life in East Hardwick

I have been house-sitting and taking care of animals (16, total) for my good sister Julie in East Hardwick, VT for the past 8 days. Going home to Massachusetts tomorrow. God, so much to tell.

WEATHER: in a nutshell, has sucked. Rained almost every day. But I am from Vermont. And we love to complain about the weather. (Or, expect the worse.) I have lived in Massachusetts and Michigan now, and believe me, Vermont weather takes the cake. Hands down. As I write this, it is 56 and drizzling rain in East Hardwick. On July 4 at 7 PM. I still cooked chicken on the grill. Like several unregistered -- dare I say it, junk? -- cars in the yard, a real Northeast Kingdom tradition.

ANIMALS: 16, count them. Sophie the Beagle is a real handful. (P.S. the neighbor, Charles Morrissey thinks her name is 'Josie' -- Google Charles T. Morrissey, and ssshhh!) Quarter horses, Diablo and Cody are easy. Timothy the cat, I love him, and I am allergic to cats. That says a lot. Chickens -- 6 laying hens (barred rocks?) and 6 white meat chickens. (Stupid animals, they deserve to be eaten. Where did humans, as food breeders, go wrong?). Did I miss someone? I hope not!

FISHING. The upper Lamoille River is a renowned Rainbow and Brook Trout head-water. Alas, despite the fact I contributed $30 to Vermont Fish and Wildlife for a 7-day fishing license, the River has been mostly un-fishable because of the high water. I did get out twice, and made out OK. Really, really wish I had been able to fly-fish more of this spectacular stream.

HIKING AND KAYAKING: Caspian Lake, infamous breeder of large and copious amounts of Lake Trout. (Salvelinus namaycush.). Including fireworks from my kayak. Hiked Bald Mountain on 1-July. Totally socked-in and wet. But, I did run into a trail crew form the Northeast Kingdom Youth Conservation Corps, aka 'Kingdom Corps.' I was one of the first 'campers' of a federally funded YCC in the Green Mountain National Forest in 1972 in Danby, Vermont. Trail maintenance, deer exclosure, etc. I appreciated the effort these kids and their crew leader from the NorthWoods Stewardship Center had put into the trail up Bald Mountain, despite the miserable, wet conditions. On 4-July, up Wheeler Mountain. Spectacular views, again, despite largely overcast skies and cool temps. It's like Religion to me hiking these Northeast Kingdom peaks, and I can't imagine any more spectacular scenery. I signed the log book at the terminus of the Wheeler Mountain Trail (Eagle Cliff) 'Alexander Supertramp.' Into the Wild...

P.S. It took me a week to get around to finish this posting, largely because I wanted to include my pictures. JC

Regina/Gisela 6 sweet cherry planting 1st leaf pruning

Time flies

Wow, it's been too long. Very busy. Apple trees have bloomed and that has gone by. In a week or two, we will know how set looks. So, here is what's on my mind.

• Go take my sprayer calculation quiz!
• Organic 'pesticides' with DANGER signal words. Huh?
• Photo album of what I have seen the past two months.
• What is it with those Honeycrisp? Here, lacking return bloom. Very frustrating.
• Twilight meetings this week coming up.

Apple IPM: Saving Early Season Scab Sprays

For more information, see the fact sheet 'Saving Early Season Scab Sprays' on the UMass Fruit Advisor

MFGA winter meeting

A week ago today, the Annual Meeting of the Massachusetts Fruit Growers' Association (MFGA) and UMass Extension Winter Tree Fruit Education Program was held at the UMass Cold Spring Orchard in Belchertown, MA. Over 100 members of MFGA, interested fruit growers, industry personnel, and Extension/University personnel attended on a cold, but bright, winter day.

Highlighting the Education Program was Dr. Terence Robinson of New York's Cornell/Geneva Agricultural Experiment Station. Robinson is a worldwide authority on intensive apple production systems and crop load management. Hence, he gave two excellent talks in the morning -- one on the tall-spindle apple production system, and one on new technology being developed to better manage apple crop load with chemical thinners. In the afternoon, however, was the real treat, a trip out into the UMass Orchard to demonstrate pruning of mostly young super-spindle, tall-spindle, and vertical-axis apple trees by Robinson. In a nutshell, he espoused 4 rules for annual pruning tall-spindle (or other intensely planted) apple trees:

1. limit tree height to 0.9 times row width
2. remove 2 to 3 of the largest branches on the tree
3. "columnarize" all remaining branches
4. on 'Gala' in particular, cut pendant or weak branches back to pencil-size wood

Here is a slide from his talk further illustrating these rules.

We were extremely fortunate to have Robinson give the pruning demo, and all in attendance gained significant pruning and production savvy during the daylong Program.