Wet Weather Blues

May 18, 2009

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.