Warm, wet weather has led to an uptick in bacterial shot hole disease, caused by the bacterium Xanthomonas arboricola pv. pruni (XAP). We started to see a significant uptick in shot hole on peaches, nectarine and plum before conditions turned dry. Leaves and fruit susceptibility to XAP infection decreases after pit hardening (if you were[Read More…]
Got mold? Gray mold, caused by the fungus Botrytis cinerea and many other cryptic Botrytis spp., is one of the most important disease of strawberry, along with many other plants. To say this fungus is ubiquitous might be understating it! Although its damage (and name) is recognized when fruit become infected, either pre- or postharvest, the fungus[Read More…]
The recent spate of cool, wet weather has left one organism happy, Venturia inaequalis, the fungus that causes apple scab. Most of the state just underwent an extreme scab period, and unfortunately, few of us could do anything about it because of the combination of rain and wind. The revised Mill’s table (from http://www.fruit.cornell.edu/tfabp/revmills.htm )identifies[Read More…]
Late spring freezes and severe winter cold regularly causes stone fruit crop losses to approach100%. With this level of irregular cropping, disease management must focus on protecting foliage to ensure a good potential crop for next year, while reducing over wintering spore loads. Copper is fairly phytotoxic to peaches and should be avoided. Bravo is[Read More…]
In the Midwest, extreme weather events are, unfortunately, regular occurrences, even in extremely unusual times. At this point, though, it just feels like a pile-on. Most fruit crops planted in Indiana are tolerant of the cold when they are fully dormant. In the spring, as trees break bud and begin to flower, they lose cold[Read More…]
“Timing is everything.” No truer statement has ever been uttered, especially in the orchard, where the timing of fungicide sprays from “pink” (bud stage) through petal fall requires an almost psychic ability to anticipate pesticide timings. Abundant ascospores production occurs at pink and continues through petal fall, increasing the risk of infection until petal fall[Read More…]
As this outbreak unfolds, please feel free to contact me with any questions by phone or email. I am so grateful for the essential and important work that you all do and will help and support you in any way I can. In the meantime, I’ll provide you with the updated information on plant diseases[Read More…]
Rootstocks, Replant, and Reconsiderations Replant disease is a term that describes reduced productivity and ‘failure to thrive’ of new plantings of trees back into orchards of the same or closely related tree fruit (or nut) crops. Historically, it has been referred to as ‘soil sickness, soil exhaustion, replant disorder, and replant problem’. Regardless of name,[Read More…]
The symptoms of sooty blotch and flyspeck (SBFS) have begun to make their appearance. I know this because 1). I’m starting to see spots (Fig 1, 2 & 3). We have accumulated MORE THAN enough hours of post- petal fall leaf wetness needed for infection to occur, despite the sudden drought conditions. First, what is[Read More…]