UMass Video Fruit Advisor, August 27, 2009

UMass Video Fruit Advisor, August 27, 2009

Sansa, Ginger Gold, Zestar! apples

at the UMass Cold Spring Orchard

Belchertown, MA

27-August apple maturity report

General comments 08-27-09 apple harvest: all these apples are nearing the end of their harvest window, although Ginger Gold has another 7-10 days. Maturity is moving along rapidly. Cooler weather will promote color development. Keep in mind there can be significant variability within and between orchards. Taste is one of the best indicators of apple maturity. Complete report.

Apple maturity report: 08/25/2009

General comments on 08/25/2009 apple harvest: all apples harvested at UMass Cold Spring Orchard, Belchertown, MA, unless otherwise noted. Ginger Gold is ready to go and should be harvested in earnest. Quality and flavor are very good. Silken was harvested because signficant pre-harvest drop was noted. It is not as good as it could be right now, but should be harvested within the week. Lindamac is a highly red coloring McIntosh strain. It is a little early, but harvest of these could begin anytime, and should be done next week. Harvest appears to be a few days ahead of last year which was average. Complete maturity report.

08/24/2009 Apple Maturity Update

General comments on 08/24/2009 apple harvest: we are largely waiting for some cooler weather to promote color development on McIntosh, etc. Sansa is very good, Akane is mediocre at best. See: http://www.umass.edu/fruitadvisor/2009/082409applematurity.htm Observed some significant drop on heavily-cropped Silken trees. Honeycrisp are HUGE, but have no color. The Mac harvest will start next week with Marshall McIntosh if we get some cooler weather.

Apple maturity report: 08/21/2009

General comments on 08/21/2009 apple harvest: maturity does not appear to be overly advanced nor overly retarded. I am a little concerned about the condition of large, early fruit because of this heat and the potential for sunburn. You may want to consider applying Surround to Honeycrisp to prevent sunburn if the hot, sunny, weather continues. Ginger Gold is also ready for the 1st pick based on some testing I did on 19-August. JC

(P.S) I apologize for the formatting, I will work on that in the future. But you can figure it out.

Cultivar

1. date
2. pre-harvest drop
3. fruit diameter inches
4. color % red
5. firmness lbs
6. soluble solids
7. starch index
8. comments

Akane

1. 08/21/2009
2. few
3. 3.2
4. 75
5. 17
6. 14.2
7. 6.9 (5-7)
8. younger trees with a lightish crop; quality is sub-par; some water core and sunburn (internal flesh browning); some flyspeck
   

Zestar!

1. 08/21/2009
2. none
3. 3.2
4. 35
5. 14.2
6. 15.1
7. 4.5 (3-6)
8. lacking red color but otherwise excellent; fruit in very nice condition; definitely ready to go, but would like to see better color

Sansa

1. 08/21/2009
2. none
3. 3.1
4. 65
5. 14 (13-16)
6. 13.7
7. 5 (4-7)
8. a nice early apple reminiscent of Gala; ready to pick but will develop better varietal flavor with time; a touch of water core

IFTA I: Sunday evening meet and greet

Bienvenue from Wolfville, Nova Scotia (NS). Sunday evening IFTA 'meet and greet' after a day of touring around Bay of Fundy, including Cape Split and Hall's Harbor.

Bill Craig, Horticulturist: the Nova Scotia Tree Fruit Industry

1.) Extension cut, about 7-8 years ago. But, government funding for 'AgraPoint,' grower has to pay for scouting. Bill is a horticulturist for them, also involved now with NS wine industry.

2.) Annapolis Valley, Digby to Windsor, most of the apples in Kings County. Water (Bay of Fundy and Atlantic Ocean) is somewhat of a moderating factor. Extreme minimum temp. -24 F. Annual precipitation total 46 inches, of which over 100 inches is snow. Frost-free period 138 days. Soils are variable, clay, loam, sand.

3.) 2 to 2.5 million bushels of apples annually, app. 6,000 acres. Minor pears (Bosc) and stone fruit (Redhaven peach). McIntosh (19%, 33% in 1996), Cortland (11%), Spy (19%), Honeycrisp (8%, no-show in 1996.)

4.) 35 to 40% fresh fruit; 15% peeler; 40 to 45% juice (one plant only now)

5.) Typically, transition from standard to semi-dwarf to dwarf (M9, B9) rootstocks. 800 trees on high side of hi-density.

6.) 10 +/- fungicide applications for apple scab the norm. Seem to be having more mildew. Ugh, never had fire blight until late 90's. Now, every year one or two infections, including 2009. New cultivar selections likely a factor.

7.) Codling moth and apple maggot primary insect pests -- export, so has to be clean for AM. NO plum curculio! Winter moth, leafrollers, aphids (rosy), mites also of concern. IPM/IFP the norm. Monitoring, traps, mating disruption.

8.) Harvesting, local and Newfoundland. More Mexican and Jamaican recently. Picked into 18 bushel wooden bins mostly. Harvest runs from mid-September to late October. Modern packing houses number 3-4 including Scotian Gold. Few pick-your-own orchards.

9.) Organic production of minor interest.

Marina Myra, MSc: Variety Research at the Atlantic Food & Horticultural Research Center, Kentville

1.) Works with Charlie Embree, research scientist; new charge to collect apple varieties from around the world, formerly helped with breeding.

2.) Earlier Kentville releases include Novaspy, Novamac. More recent releases include Cotton Candy (Redfree X Oberle), scab-resistant, ideal for u-pick, backyard; Evangeline, mid-October, great flavor, but not scab-resistant; Masonova, scab-resistant with Empire a parent. They are also evaluating several (9 discussed with no name), mostly scab-resistant, advanced selections.

Tomorrow, first day of tours, hopefully a report.

JC

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.