Ready to pick fruit, especially fruit held a little longer on the plant for local markets, really took up the water earlier in the week. Coming off a weekend of heavy rainfall beginning last Friday evening with episodes on Saturday and Sunday. This week started off in the 90's and some fruit were "cooking".

By weeks end the temperatures have continued in the mid 90's but, we are back to normal or near normal with fruit ripening, firmness, and flavor.

Received word from my friend Dr. Dan Horton, entomologist with Uiversity of Georgia. Stink bug numbers are jumping, especially orchards next to small grains or in open fields. Stink bug control can be more difficult than other insects. Check out the Southern Region IPM Guides for the different tree fruits and small fruits. Chemical effectiveness rating are provided. Be sure in addition to ratings and chemical rates, check re-entry and pre-harvest intervals.

Peach fruit in central Alabama are coming along. Some growers are experiencing ligher crops than they expected up to this point. Beginning to see some color development in 'Harvester', meaning we are beginning to finish up with varieties like 'Junegold' and 'Surecrop', 'Rubyprince' and picking varieties like 'Juneprince' and 'GaLa', 'Redhaven'.

Seeing some shape issues in some varieties and some fruit are softening on the shoulders and suture somewhat rapidly. I'm hopeful that as we move along, negative fruit quality issues will be less and less. I've seen some very nice looking fruit but, flavor has been mixed. Fruit in the upper portion of the canopy has better flavor in general than some of the fruit produced lower in the tree. With the amount of lower light conditions (cloudy weather) that we have experienced it has affected our early fruit.

Fruit quality related to flavor is beginning to improve. As we move into mid-June varieties we normally see a change but, we are also seeing more sunshine and that makes a big difference.

With the increase in heat and humidity we are seeing an increase in some diseases. Preventative sprays are being made to control pests. Plum curculio emergence has been erractic, however, in the last few days we have been collecting higher numbers in our traps. This new generation of adults are looking for fruit to deposit their eggs so protection is important.

Cooler and much wetter weather has been the norm up to now. Last week showers continued over much of Alabama. In central Alabama we are now seeing sunshine and temperatures in the low 90's.

Growers are harvesting fruit but, some are seeing problems. Fruit with size are maturing and much of the fruit following the first or second harvest is not sizing. This might be a combination of crop load and cold injury from back in April. Some varieties have been slow to mature, however, this might speed up with the sunshine and higher temperatures.

On the pest front we are seeing moderate to high levels of bacterial spot infections. Considerable leaf shed in many varieties not normally affected and also fruit infections, especially more sensitive varieties. Stink bugs and leaffooted bugs are gearing up and numbers in blueberries and last remaining strawberries are high. Likely numbers will be gaining in peach orchards as well.

Plum curculio adult emergence has begun. While low numbers are coming out of the soil at this time I expect the numbers to accelerate during the week. Our third insecticide in research plots will be going out this Friday or next Monday. Remember that from emergence to egg deposition on fruit takes only about 10-14 days. This summer generation will produce larva infested fruit that will not drop, more prone to rot, and will turn away customers. One of the difficulties for plum curculio and stink bug control as we approach harvest is finding an effective material with a short pre-harvest interval.

Examples: Imidan 70W, pre-harvest interval is 14 days and reentry interval is 3 days; Asana 0.66EC has 14 day pre-harvest interval and 12 hr reentry interval; Proaxis 0.5Ec, Lambda-T, Silencer, Warrior, Tiaga Z have 14 day pre-harvest and 24 hr reentry interval; Baythroid XL, Baythroid 2EC, Mustang 1.5EC, Renounce 20WP, Tombstone 2EC are all pyrethroids with a 7 day pre-harvest interval and reentry period of 12 hrs.

ALWAYS CHECK PRODUCT LABEL BEFORE MAKING AN APPLICATION OF ANY INSECTICIDE FOR PROPER RATE AS WELL PRE-HARVEST AND WORKER REENTRY INTERVALS.

Peaches
The first peaches were harvested in central Alabama last week and the rainy weather has continued. Not only has bacterial spot continued to affect some varieties but, I'm beginning to see some early issues with brown rot fungal infections. Some fruit that was damaged during the April freeze are showng infection from brown rot. With the rainy weather, any injury can provide entry for this disease to rapidly progress.

Be sure to monitor closely, varities that are within 2-3 weeks from harvest, especially in orchards that received freeze damage or early insect damage. Pre-harvest fungicide treatments should include highly effective materials at the proper rate per acre and with sufficent water volume to provide thorough coverage. Be careful that your ground speed is slow enough to allow air generated by the fan to push untreated air within the tree canopy out and replaced with your spray material. Alternate row spraying should be suspended when disease pressure potential increases.

Insects have not stopped due to the rain. Adult plum curculio numbers have declined but remain present. Plum curculio larvae that have entered the soil will likely be emerging as adults the week of May 24th. We will be monitoring emergence and making our spray on research plots one week following 1st PC adult emergence. Within two weeks the adults will have mated and be getting ready to lay eggs. Infested fruit will not be be aborting once the pit has hardened. I have not seen as many stink bugs in the past couple of weeks. However, if conditions change from wet to dry their numbers would be expected to increase in our orchards.

I was in southeast Alabama last Friday visiting a peach producer having some problems. What I found was severe White Peach Scale infestation. Dormant oil sprays had been used but, coverage or rate must have been insufficient. In-season control can be costly and monitoring of crawler emergence is critical. However, for this producer, not taking actions is going to lead to more scaffold and tree losses.

Apples
I was visiting north Alabama yesterday with Mr. Doug Chapman, Regional Extension Agent, out of Athens, Alabama. We were collecting thinning apples for my plum curculio rearing. We were getting the apples from young trees. In some varieties we found what appears to be Wooly Apple Aphids. Check your orchards by variety to be sure you don't have a problem.

Strawberries
Season is winding down around my area. Weather this season has not been the best for strawberry production. Yields will be down due to the rains. Soft fruit due to excess water uptake and in some cases diseases. Seeing some feeding by Sap Beetles in mature fruit. I would estimate that we have lost 25% of our fruit to rains. Some individual weeks have been as high as 40%.

For Pest Management Information go the Peach IPM Home Page and select appropriate link.

Over the past couple of weeks there have been several problems in peach orchards noticed. High chill varieties have been struggling as they did not receive sufficient chilling here in central Alabama. Over the last 5 days with warmer and dryer weather they are beginning to look better and getting excess fruit thinned should help even more.

Root Issues
Tree decline, due primarily to armillaria root rot, is beginning to show up all around the area. Damaged root systems were exposed to saturated soils from heavy rainfall this spring. Now with a load of small fruit and dryer weather, trees are going down.

Dr. Tom Beckman and I had a rootstock study here at our facility looking at possible resistant material for ARR. One of the rootstocks showed promise in other trials Dr. Beckman had run and performed okay here. While other material is being evealuated for the future, 'Sharpe' has been released.

'Sharpe' is a clonal plum hybrid rootstock that produces semi-dwarf peach trees (~ 60% standard size). Fruit size may also be slightly smaller. 'Sharpe' would be a good rootstock to trial on your farm in areas affected by Armillaria root rot.
To contact Dr. Beckman, tom.beckman@ars.usda.gov

Bacterial Leaf and Fruit Infections
Symptoms of Bacterial leaf spot began showing up recently. As of yesterday some of the very sensitive peach varieties are now showing severe infection. High level of leaves are shedding and young green fruit are showing visible signs of infection.

Not much can be done at this time for Bacterial spot. Stressed trees are often hardest hit so adding some addtional nitrogen may help trees keep ahead of the infection. See Southeastern Peach, Nectarine and Plum Pest management and Culture Guide for recommendations, link on Peach IPM home page.

'Carared' on 4/28/09 with leaf shed and fruit infections