For those growing apples with organic or “softer” pesticide programs, you might spot signs and symptoms of a hungry caterpillar that prefers to attack apple leaves and fruit: the redbanded leafroller (Figure 1). This particular apple pest is more often a problem in orchards where conventional insecticide sprays are not used. This season, I have…Read more about Signs & symptoms of redbanded leafroller[Read More]
Apples
Hi! Small fruits are beginning to ripen here. Raspberries are in full swing, our earliest blackberries have 1 or 2 ripe fruit, and a few plums are ready. Pest wise, we have been seeing damage from moth larva on a few of our plums. Things are going well otherwise. We are continuing to remove trees…Read more about Crop conditions[Read More]
Hello! Fruit crop conditions are good here with the exception of our Rosalee apples. Unfortunately, they are heavily infected with fireblight. We are in the process of removing the affected trees and destroying them offsite. Some of our first raspberries are ripening up. Applications of fungicide, insecticide, and thinning chemical have been made on schedule.
Hello! It’s been a wet and cool couple of weeks. Sprays in both the orchard and vineyard have been pushed back because of this and our limited time frame for planting vegetable crops. Hopefully we can get back on schedule this week. It has been ideal weather conditions for some fungal pathogens, so we will…Read more about Crop conditions[Read More]
The window for chemical thinning is rapidly closing in many parts of the state. Carbaryl can be effective up to 20 mm fruit diameter. After this stage, options become limited and we’re in a “rescue thinning” approach. Below is some information from Penn State University on rescue thinning options: Rescue Thinning Options – 20mm and…Read more about Chemical thinning[Read More]
Hi! This week’s crop conditions are looking quite good despite not having any significant rain recently. Most crops have set fruit and are progressing well. The grapes received their second spray this season on the 9th. This is a busy time here at Meigs as we make raised beds for our vegetable crops and prepare…Read more about Crop conditions[Read More]
Hello! This is our third crop conditions update this season. The fruit trees are progressing well as things get up and going around the farm. Most everything has passed 1 or more stages of growth since the third week of this month. Monday the 28th marked our first fungicide application in the vineyard, with the…Read more about Crop conditions[Read More]
Once flowers open in the spring, we’re hoping for warmer weather so the bees will transfer pollen and for rapid pollen tube growth. As we all know, apples require cross pollination, so for example Golden Delicious pollen will not fertilize Golden Delicious flowers. We rely on bees and other insects to transfer pollen from one…Read more about Pollination – a refresher[Read More]
We’re getting close to the time when growers need to make chemical thinning decisions – for many the most perplexing and risky decision they will make all year. This is usually a tricky call to make, even more so when we have had spring frosts. Luckily in most places the spring frosts have not been…Read more about Chemical thinning[Read More]
Welcome to our second update of crop conditions this season. Since the start of the month, our peach trees and plums have bloomed. The hard frosts we had out here last week killed many of those flowers as shown in the plum photo. They still have more yet to open, so not all is lost!…Read more about Crop conditions[Read More]