San Jose scale attacks all the delicious fruit trees: apple, peach, pear, and plum. Some of you may already know that this insect is particularly difficult to manage, because most life stages are very small, even tiny, so they are not obvious until there are lots of them! In fact, you’re going to need a[Read More…]
Stone Fruits
As of right now, we simply do not know if we will have crops from our woody fruit producing plants, from apples to grapes to peaches. Remember: The ability to produce fruit is determined in the spring with flower development. Any factor, whether abiotic, insect or pathogen, that interferes with flower development will impact fruit[Read More…]
The Purdue Meigs Horticulture Facility in Lafayette, Indiana just south of campus is looking lively this time of the year. All our fruit crops and trees have begun development. I know last year I said we had a warm winter and early spring but this year was much warmer and earlier. I was working fields[Read More…]
The Spotted Lanternfly is an invasive planthopper native to East Asia. It was introduced to the US in 2014 in Eastern Pennsylvania and has since spread to 13 other states including Indiana. The Spotted Lanternfly has 70+ host species including the invasive Tree of heaven (Alianthus altissma), grapes, apples, stone fruit, vegetables, hops, walnuts and[Read More…]
We all know that growing and protecting delicious fruit is a challenge! Whether you’re producing tree fruits, stone fruits, berries, or drupes, all kinds of insect pests are out to exploit the fruits of your labor. Despite our best efforts, sometimes a few insect pests slip under the radar and all you can do is[Read More…]
At the Meigs Horticultural facility we are now seeing, more clearly, the damages from the April 24th freezing temperatures. All fruit crops are starting to grow out of that damage, which is good to see. I would still say that our loss on crops across the farm is 10-15% except for the Shiro Plums. The[Read More…]