Another quiet week in the orchards.

The humid weather makes summer diseases more of a challenge. If your fruit is unprotected with a fungicide, Topsin M or a strobilurin fungicide like Sovran or Flint, will kickback up to 50 hours of leaf wetness. You can use Orchard Radar on the RI Apple IPM website to count the number of hours of leaf wetness for you. http://www.uri.edu/research/ipm/
In Orchard Radar, click on Flyspeck and then click on Flyspeck- Group A – July spray dates. Look when you last sprayed, how long the spray should protect the fruit, and how soon you need to spray Topsin M or a strobilurin to control flyspeck to get the proper kickback.

The threat from flyspeck increases as the season progresses. Flyspeck infection risk increases with development of 3rd generation spores around July 20. Flyspeck infection risk peaks with 4th generation spores starting around August 28.

Same as last week, watch for mites and leafhoppers. Aphids really didn’t show up this year in any orchards that I’m aware of.

Plan on spraying around July 15-20 for the first apple maggot fly spray.

Let me know by Monday morning if you want to attend the Massachusetts Fruit Growers meeting Thursday, July 17 in Belchertown. This is really a terrific opportunity. Email or call me at 874-2967.

Next message will be recorded Wednesday, July 16th