We’ve all heard of apple June drop, but what is it, what are the causes and why should we care? June drop is more correctly called physiological fruit drop and is caused by a shortfall of carbohydrates in the tree. This shortfall is because the trees have limited leaf area for photosynthesis (supply of carbohydrates)[Read More…]
Finally we have some warm, sunny weather, and that means fruit are growing quickly. Generally, fruit are 10–20 mm depending on where in the state you’re located. Many of our common post bloom thinners such as NAA, Sevin and Maxcell work very well when fruit are around 12mm and temperatures are in the 70s. Once[Read More…]
Fire blight seems to have established itself in many orchards throughout the state, meaning it can still be a huge threat in the event of trauma, like hail, due to secondary spread. Secondary spread develops when stormy weather, especially hailstorms, occurs after the primary (blossom) infections. The amount of fire blight that develops after severe[Read More…]
I received one of the most unusual samples to identify last week that I’ve seen during my time at Purdue. The sample contained almond nuts that were severely damaged by plum curculio. First, I didn’t know we could grow almonds in Indiana and, second, I didn’t know that plum curculio was a pest of almonds.[Read More…]
Immediate post-bloom through about 3 weeks post bloom is the most effective time for leaf removal on tight clustered varieties such as Vignoles, Seyval, and Pinot gris. That time will be coming up soon in southern Indiana. Removal of 3 to 5 leaves in the cluster zone can greatly reduce risk of Botrytis bunch rot.[Read More…]
Tipping of primocanes (new vegetative canes from the ground) is an important management practice for summer bearing blackberries and black raspberries. Tipping the new primocanes causes lateral branching and most of the fruit production next year will be from buds on those lateral branches rather than buds off the main cane. Tipping also helps increase[Read More…]
The pollination season was challenging this year and it appears that chemical thinning won’t be simple either. I think in most cases, pollination turned out to be adequate to set full crops. If growers are in doubt they should cut a few fruit in half and look for normal seed development. Before we talk about[Read More…]