Plum Curculio and Other Pests

March 23, 2009

Strawberries are ripening, peaches are still in major bloom, and other fruit types are progressing rapidly. With peaches and plums a major pest of concern that we like to keep a close eye on is plum curculio. Every peach grower is familiar with this pest. The adult moves out of hiding areas during bloom and make their way into orchards and trees. They will feed on buds and blooms and as soon as fruit development is about 3/8 to 1/2 inch diameter the females will begin to deposit their eggs.

While no insecticide should go out during bloom, you should be ready at petal fall or shortly after.

Plum Curculio activity- 2009
March 15 - 2 PC
March 17 - 5 PC
March 19 - 9 PC
March 23 - 28 PC

Plum curculio activity is increasing rapidly. Under our targeted PC management protocol we will make our first application after petal fall and shortly after 1st trap capture peak. We are on the way up at the moment and expect numbers to continue to climb for a while.

A few leaffooted bugs have been noticed on strawberries. Numbers were low and no action was warranted but be looking for plant bugs like tarnished plant bugs, stink bugs and leaffooted bugs. These piercing sucking insects will cause malformed fruit and tissue damage.

Peach Scab has been on the mind of many peach producers due to the mild weather and frequent rains. Spore production from twig lesions gets started during bloom. Lower numbers and the fact that fruit are not exposed to infection at this time reduce any fruit infections. Spore numbers continue to increase and fruit infection concerns begin at shuck-split and continue over the next 30 - 40 days. Highly active labeled materials should be used during this time period. Later cover sprays products with less activity, ex. sulfur, could be used.

Data collected from central Alabama, Dr. Harald Scherm, Savelle, Boozer, Foshee. from 1999 - 2001
Conidia production average start date - Early-mid March
Highest conidia production peak - Early-mid April