Summer bearing brambles are showing the full extent of the freeze and frost damage from earlier this year. Many floricanes are failing to produce a decent crop. Primocanes are growing well and are initiating flowers now. Early types are beginning to bloom. Grape are at bunch closure with veraison not far away for early varieties.[Read More…]
Rick Foster noted in the previous issue that Japanese beetles were out. Wow are they ever! I haven’t seen them this bad in years. Small fruit growers should monitor their crops and control the beetles if necessary. Japanese beetles will feed on ripening fruit of brambles and blueberries, and on foliage of all small fruit[Read More…]
Last year some apple growers reported damage from brown marmorated stink bugs, particularly in the northern counties. BMSB will also attack peaches and other fruit, as well as a number of vegetables. Now is the time that growers should be watching for BMSB and its damage. There are a number of commercially available traps that[Read More…]
For those of you who follow me or Peter on Twitter, you know that last week I found SWD larvae in raspberries at the Meigs Farm near Lafayette. Small fruit growers should be into their rigorous spray schedules now. If fruit are ripe or ripening, growers should be spraying approximately every 5 days. The available[Read More…]
Veraison, the start of the fruit ripening process, signals the final opportunity for effective canopy management and fruit thinning in grapes. Once veraison has started, thinning and canopy management are far less effective in improving overall fruit quality. Growers should assess the need for fruit thinning by evaluating cluster number and size relative to shoot[Read More…]
Making the decision on when to harvest can be a very tricky and complicated issue. The longer you intend to store the fruit, the more precise your timing needs to be. For summer apples, most growers only intend to store fruit until their better quality fall apples come on stream, so storage times beyond a[Read More…]
Although PristineTM was selected in 1982, its history goes back to the early days of the PRI breeding program. From an original cross of Rome Beauty with Malus floribunda 821, selections and hybridizations were made incorporating Golden Delicious, McIntosh, Starking Delicious and Cazumat along the way. The cross that resulted in PristineTM was Coop 10[Read More…]
ReTain (AVG) is a plant growth regulator that blocks the production of ethylene. When ReTain is applied to apple, several ripening processes are slowed, including preharvest drop, fruit flesh softening, starch disappearance, and red color formation. In order for ReTain to be effective it must be applied well in advance of the climacteric rise in[Read More…]
Preharvest drop refers to the process where fruit fall from the tree prior to harvest. Not all apple varieties are affected, but with some, such as McIntosh and Pristine, pre-harvest drop can be extreme. Several growth regulator materials are available to growers to help reduce pre-harvest drop. These materials are often referred to as “stop-drop”[Read More…]
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