Throughout the state, most of us are in some stage of tree fruit bloom and as fruit producers, you all know how important insect pollinators are for ensuring good fruit set and even quality! Whether you’re producing tree fruits, nuts, or small fruit (even grapes, although they aren’t dependent on insect pollinators), we know that[Read More…]
Apples
Fire blight, caused by the bacterium Erwinia amylovora, is a devastating disease of apples and pears. Epidemics of the disease develop quickly, particularly in a climate of warm, wet weather like this weekend! The type of management program developed by each orchard will vary considerably based upon a variety of orchard factors, including apple variety,[Read More…]
Many people, including me, were surprised to look out the window Monday morning and see the ground and trees white with snow. A heck of a way to start the week! Although it looked frightening to see trees, buds and flowers covered in snow, luckily temperatures did not drop too low. In general, lows were[Read More…]
Beginner and experienced tree fruit producers will want to be on the lookout now for a few mite and insect pests of tree fruit: the European Red Mite, Rosy Apple Aphid, and San Jose Scale. With the back-and-forth between warm and cool temperatures this spring, you may have fruit trees at different stages of development,[Read More…]
The only thing predictable about Indiana weather is that it will certainly be unpredictable! The past few weeks of cool weather and intermittent freezes has slowed some things down. Unfortunately, scab isn’t one of those things. Failure to control early season scab infections increases the risk of economic losses. When managing scab, it is important[Read More…]
Just a reminder to all fruit producers to organize and prep your fruit insect monitoring tools for the upcoming season! Depending on your fruit crop and location in the state, there’s a suite of fruit insects that are important for you to track, including moths, aphids, scales, stink bugs, fruit and vinegar flies, and[Read More…]
Purdue recently joined and became one of twenty US states that are in the NEWA network. NEWA is a partnership of land grant universities and grower associations. If you live in one of the states listed, you can buy a weather station for your farm and connect to NEWA. For Indiana growers, this means your membership is[Read More…]
In Indiana, our ‘normal’ or average weather is one of extremes, punctuated with an occasional glorious summer day of sun and 76 degrees F. This year has been one of flooding and droughts, freezes and scorching heat. Again. With these weather extremes come physiological disorders and summer fruit rots, for those lucky enough to even[Read More…]
