Scaffolds 2024 Digest: Week 15
This post is a text digest of the Scaffolds Podcast. To listen to the original episode, visit the following link: Scaffolds Podcast on Spotify
On this week’s episode of Scaffolds, I talked to Mario Miranda Sazo, a horticulturalist on the Lake Ontario Fruit Team, about summer pruning. I had this conversation with Mario last week on Wednesday, June 26, so keep that in mind as you’re listening as he references time points. Also over the course of the conversation we mention a drawing that was featured in the Lake Ontario Fruit Facts newsletter. This drawing and more photos are linked in the show notes. Also this week, Kerik talks summer diseases and Anna gives us our state of the state update on trap captures and degree day accumulation. Happy 4th of July!
Monique Interviews Mario Miranda Sazo
Today I’m here with Mario Miranda Sazo. He is a fruit extension specialist with the Lake Ontario Fruit Program in western New York. He’s also a graduate student in the SIPS program horticulture section at Cornell. So, hi Mario.
Mario: Hey Monique, thank you for the invite.
Monique: I am excited to talk to you today about summer pruning. I don’t know much about pruning. You definitely don’t want the entomologist in charge of pruning. So why is this a good time of the year to do this summer pruning?
Mario: So, so we just started. So this morning I sent a Fruit Facts with Janet and there I thought was the right moment to put a drawing that I drafted this morning, early, very early. And that is the best way to start sharing this kind of new pruning that we are applying or is very applicable to multiple situations. I started learning about the pruning as we start growing our own nursery trees. Initially, years ago, we did the grow through production method in the nursery, we have several on farm nurseries in Lake Ontario and through that process of growing our own nursery trees and leaving the trees for one more year in the nursery with a mini trellis that we have, part of the protocol, we start pruning the trees in the nursery phase and by pruning in the nursery a four finger length or three finger length or sometimes even shorter. We made mistakes initially, but when we start leaving a stub of four fingers more or less, you see the drawing that I put there. We call it a “una cuarta”. In Spanish it’s called una cuarta that when you put your fist and you open your two fingers and that kind of the length of that kind of pruning cut that we are making at the bottom of the trees in the orchard. But in the nursery phase, we start using four finger length stubs, and by doing that instead of that one year should to continue pushing the power or the energy in meristem in the tip by making the cut now close to summer solstice. After summer solstice, today is June 26. So the solstice was last week, June 21. We tend to produce flower buds in the inside of those one year shoots for the following year. So we bring the power instead to let the one year shoot to continue extending and growing in the nursery. We start pruning them to a four fingers staff and we start getting flower buds in less than 50%, at least one flower bud inside of those internodes where you had the leaves in that one year shoot. So that the first phase, top of the nursery growing for a second year in the grow through tree. And when we dig out those trees from the nursery and we plant those trees in the orchard, we are able to have flower buds very close to the trunk in those steps, in those step ladder, the telephone post that I call for the grower to understand that it’s more a tubular tree, more than a conical tree. The way how we were growing a tree more conical with longer fruiting units instead of shorter pruning that we are doing now.
Monique: Let me make sure I understand. So you are doing these summer pruning cuts basically as an investment in next year’s buds to keep the shoots. You want the tree to invest in next year’s buds instead?
Mario: Yeah, we want to make it very fruitful, a very fruitful tree starting from the nursery phase. So when we can, when we bring that tree, a tall tree, because it’s a grow through, we let it grow for one more year in the nursery. We bring a tree very columnar, very tubular, okay. Very stubbed, kind of short. But when we plant that tree, we can, we can crop that tree if we want, in the first year in the orchard we could do that, okay. But we continue growing the nursery tree in the orchard one more year. So you, we usually, we don’t crop that tree in the first year. Even though we had the potential to put a significant amount of apples – 8, 10, 12 apples – just in the bottom part of that tree. So that’s one phase, but the other one I started learning was through grafting. So when you graft a planting that you’re not making money with a three by twelve spacing or whatever spacing that may send to have at least 900 tree per acre or 1000 tree per acre, we start grafting. And years ago when we start grafting, we started putting the sticks on top of that trunk that we cut, okay. And we leave some nursing foliage to be able to grow that tree. Okay. So later we started using the side graft. So we start putting the stick in even lower in the trunk. In that way, we are able to grow the scion wood first year of the grafting. So as you can imagine, you have a big root system because that is already established in mature tree with a side graft and a scion that we grow the first year. Imagine this season, you also balance the top and the bottom with the nursing foliage of the old cultivar. You cannot take out everything, you need a nursing foliage that is going to start sucking up the sap from the roots and you start balancing the top with the bottom by pruning the nursing foliage during the year one after grafting and you start growing your scion wood in the first year. That scion wood also is going to generate one-year shoots like in the nursery, but perhaps at that more bigger rate, because you have a big root system from the old orchard. So sometime when you get to the moment now, in June, after summer solstice, at the end of June, we also come back to those scion wood coming from a side graft and we stub them to four fingers in the first year.
Monique: Why do we want the tree to be more tubular as opposed to conical?
Mario: So one, perhaps the biggest advantage to having a more conical tubular tree versus the traditional wider tree limbs at the bottom, the conical is light penetration and distribution. It basically that. So it’s a more narrow canopy, it’s more conducive to orchard mechanization, it’s more conducive to mechanical pruning, it’s more conducive to pneumatic defoliation that we are using a few machines in western New York now. So because the canopy is more narrow and especially at the bottom, you can even grow the trees in a relationship of one to one. Because in the past, we were growing the trees in a relationship of 70, 75 or 80%, depending on the between in row spacing. But if you go, we’re having a wider bottom with a conical tree. And if we go very tall and it’s very bushy at the top, we sacrifice the light penetration and distribution in the lower part of the canopy, because here in western New York, we plant north-south. So definitely we want light penetration all the way down. We cannot shade the bottom if we have very bushy top. So today we can plant even closer between rows. So we can plant 11ft instead of 12 between row spacing. And we, by having a more narrow tree, we can go even taller, but very narrow at the top. So we can really reach the light from the bottom to the middle to the top. And by having a more narrow canopy, we have those two or three apples fully exposed or better exposed to color development at the end of the season. In a more conical, more bushy tree, sometimes you sacrifice those apples in the inside because they don’t have good color. So perhaps you go in a second pick or a third pick of Honeycrisp, a bicolor cultivar that you think is going to color at the end. When you go first, you get the first pick, the second pick, but still you leave nine apples or six apples at the bottom that are never going to color. So by having a more narrow canopy, you are able to color the fruit from the bottom, the middle and the top. So your fruit quality, your packout, everything is improved. And if we really want to push it even further, we have the vision systems that are going to be able to see that fruit or bud or flower even easier, than is too complex. The canopy at the bottom in a conical tree shape.
Monique: So on the bottom branches, you’re leaving them longer because are those branches more mature?
Mario: In this case, of the drawing that we put in the Fruit Facts the morning, yes, so that is why we are using the recommendation of una cuarta of hands like that. Because when that pruning was done in that, that is a side grafted tree. I didn’t bring that explanation. But that particular situation is a side grafted tree that grew last year that was pruned of two forefingers that generate a shoot. There we have those flower buds at the bottom. And because you already have flower buds today, this week we moved the pruning cut decision until around one quarter, more or less 12 to 14 to 16 inches at the most from the trunk. So you have already flower buds there. What you cut again is the one year shoot extension of the growing season. Okay? So thats why, if you see the drawing, we are making those cuts in one year shoots that are coming from the fruiting units that are loaded with buds. But if you see the tree at the top, as the tree is growing there, you have extension one year shoot that are growing this year. And this week in that particular tree, we were stubbing those one year shoot to four finger length, okay, because those shoots are the shoot of this year. But at the bottom, we were moving a little way from that initial frame because we already have flower buds there. And we are cutting that energy by doing this kind of pruning this week. So we were doing two things at the same time. Sometimes in the nursery, you are just going to be cutting one year shoots in preparation, okay. For those trees that are going to be planted later in the orchard. But in a situation like this one, that is through grafting, you have a significant amount or more power because that root system is already established. So you can get a big tree like that in one, two seasons through grafting.
Monique: When it comes to this shape, are you supposed to be trimming every branch to get that shape? Or do you only trim what is going outside of the shape?
Mario: Okay. So that drawing doesn’t have that particular recommendation. Because one year shoot today, this week, that was calm, that was open, that perhaps has a terminal bud at the tip. We didn’t touch it. We didn’t prune it this week, that one year shoot in particular, that is already more open, more flat. And that’s a terminal tip, because at this time of the year, we start seeing the shoot already set with a flower bud sometime there. We don’t touch those ones, okay. We let it stay there. And when that is going to be floral, that is going to bend naturally and it’s going to be settled. That is the trick. The best trick is to have flower buds and fruit to be able to calm down the tree, okay? But when we had those shoot growing, growing, and growing, and growing. This week, we cut those on a four-finger. And when we were down, when we were down and we have flower buds already in that section of 12 or 14 inches, the cuarta, that shoot, that was coming from that surface area, we cut it to a two finger or one finger, okay. So it’s a lot more photography. That is just a drawing. It’s an entire presentation that I haven’t presented, to be honest, recently, that knowledge is the first time that they do that drawing in a Fruit Facts, okay. Because a lot of more growers trying to understand these steps, the protocol. And I was talking about the pruning in the Fruit Facts of last week, okay. And I was saying that we were getting close to the pruning. And a grower on Friday text me or email me saying, Mario, could you please describe more details? The pruning that you are talking about that is coming pretty soon? So I told her, yes, I can have drawings for you on Monday of this week. Okay. So I come out with this drawing that I have and I was ready to share it this morning via the Fruit Facts. So very fresh. It’s a very new things that can be accomplished or should be accomplished by multiple tree types. One is the nursery first, that should be done in the nursery this week or start to be done this week. The other one is through grafting situations in the orchard. And we had three main grafts that we have been conducting. One is the side graft, the topwork, and the beaver graft. So we had three grafting techniques that growers have been implementing. We have also the ellepot trees. Okay. There is a new tree type. That is a tree that is being grafted in a bag early in February. And that tree is grown during this spring. And you can buy that tree by the end of June, early July. And you can plant that tree, the ellepot tree in the summer, in the middle of the summer. So you can start planting those tree by the end of June, early July. So those trees have been planted in the last five years in the western New York region because we have a nursery here in Wolcott that the grower there is growing these trees. So growers have been trying to get a tree the same year and they’re able to plant that tree in the same summer.
Monique: Okay, so, yeah, that’s awesome. So could you maybe describe the difference between side grafted, top worked, and beaver grafted?
Mario: Yeah, the top worked tree is oldest since I came here. And I start seeing that kind of graft traditionally, kind of, you imagine you take out a McIntosh, a Jonagold, anything. You cut the, you cut the tree in the dormant season, perhaps 5ft tall, 6ft tall. You take out all the tree. And the day of grafting that we usually graft in western New York around Mothers Day, on May 12, that day, you go and you make a very clean cut above whatever is the lower nursing foliage that you’re gonna leave in that old trunk. And by that time in May, you usually, you put two sticks in and you peel and you put there the stick to make full contact with the cambium. Okay, so there you had two sticks. And in the past, all the scion wood, or the shoots the grower were braiding, them and making a trunk, but they were mixing and putting together all those shoots. What we do today, we take those shoots, we prune them, and we single two leaders or one main leader or whatever we want to do with the tree. So that is the top working situation, you start very high because you need a nursing foliage in the top working situation. But when you go with a side graft, you go lower. You put a stick in May, the same timing, and you put a stick in that trunk lower, 8 inches, 9, 10 inches above the ground. And there you start the tree, the scion, and you manage the nursing foliage. Okay? That is very quick, very fast. Have been done a lot in western New York. And the newest, the most challenging, is the beaver graft. The beaver graft is something that one single grower developed the protocol in Orleans County. The grower learned the hard way by doing this, but today he has the most perfect protocol for the beaver grafts. It’s a two year management of protocol to be able to be very successful. So this one is a big trunk, okay. You go with a chainsaw and you make a “beaver teeth” half moon. You cut half of that trunk and you put two or three or four sticks in one side of the trunk, okay, the year that you are doing the grafting, you grew the scion wood the first year, and in the second year, you cut the other half moon of that big trunk. Okay, so we had mistakes. We lost trees in the beaver graft situation. But today the protocol is pretty standard and very successful. So the same can be done with the beaver graft than we can do with the top worked tree or the side grafted tree.
Monique: I just looked up a picture of the beaver graft and if you have not seen a beaver graft, you should definitely look it up because it looks pretty crazy.
Mario: Yes. Yeah, yeah. It’s a very, it’s a very; That’s the most difficult thing to do through grafting. But I tell you, like, we have very good blocks done through that with a big root system. These are big trees where the growers who had done this kind of thing, very committed to be, to put additional posts, okay. To go very tall, because these old plantings using M9 with big trunks, 20, 25, 30 years ago, the first ones, the in-row spacing is 14ft apart or 15 or 16. So with that spacing, you can go very tall with the leaders. Okay. So we have even Sweet Tango plantings with the beaver graft that today are very tall canopies, very, very tall canopies where the grower had to invest more wire and more posts to be able to go taller because you have a big between row spacing.
Monique: So for those taller, you know, if you have a beaver graft and it’s a much taller tree, how does this affect picking? Can the platforms reach up that high?
Mario: Had to be like that. Yeah. All these plantings can imagine that cannot be done without platform, okay. So had to be done with mechanization. It’s a very narrow canopy, especially at the top and a little wider at the bottom. But it’s still way more tubular or columnar than a traditional conical tree that we were growing before.
Monique: So I guess as a final question, I wanted to ask you about the new leader at the top of the tree. Did you do anything with that? Or is that just stay there as upwards growth for this pruning?
Mario: For the main leader that we are growing in the orchard. Whether it’s grafted situation, ellepot tree or even a plant in place project that we have also plant in place. So we have growers also doing exactly what we do in the nursery. But we are growing that nursery tree in the orchard from the beginning. Okay. So we also had that situation going on. But for the last three or four weeks, we had this leader select, what you are asking me Monique, so we were working at the top. We were really taking out the competition below the ring of growth. Where we had the one year shoot growing in that tree, and that lower competition, we were clipping, okay, we were clipping early June. We were taking out the one year shoot that are coming, okay? Selecting the main leader. Clipping to a two finger or three finger, and putting all the energy in the main tip in the main leader. Okay, so when I got here, growers were used to debudding below the leader. So they were taking out the buds, number one or number two or three or four or five sometimes, taking out the bud so the shoot can take the main energy. Now, what we are doing, we are just clipping. You have a bunch of shoots at the tip of the tree. You select one, you start training that growing, supporting with a vertical element. And by before June 10, before June 15, you start clipping, taking out the competition and leaving the leader. Okay, so when you have the leader done and we are by the end of June, we start going to the bottom of those trees. That what we are doing now, we are doing that kind of pruning.
Monique: This makes a lot of sense. I was thinking that we were just doing pruning on the bottom of the tree. But it sounds like this pruning process has been going on for a while.
Mario: Yes, we’re pruning the tip, we start pruning the tip to grow the main leader. Because the leader, the growth rate of that leader is already, we passed the peak. Okay. So the first half of June is when that should be growing very vigorously. So you need to do all what they needed to be able to maximize that growth. Okay. In some cases. In some cases, we even Promalin the tips. Okay. So we put even a plant growth regulator to be able to maximize vertical growth. Not all the growers are doing that, but some growers have been able to do that. And with the use of Promalin and leader selection, some of them can get 2.5, 3ft of shoot growth. Okay? So usually a good grower should get 18 to 24 inches of vertical growth with good nitrogen, good practices, healthy tree. But you cannot put too much also, because that could be conducive to issue with fire blight. Okay, so it’s a balance. In New York, we are always, whatever we do in the orchard is around fire blight, especially at this time of the year. Okay. So with the heat, with the heat that we went through, we were not clipping or touching the tree too much last week. So this pruning start happening more in big blocks starting this past Monday when we’re cooler. The same with mechanical pruning. You know, you use just common sense. Okay, but those three that we are pruning this week, on Tuesday or Wednesday, they were applied with the strep, a Kasumin or some kind of product. Okay, after all the pruning cuts, if I show you the pictures and everything, it’s a huge amount of one year shoot cut that are being left there in the row middle. Okay? Because the worker is taking the one year shoot pruning, taking another one pruning. And then ended up with a hand full of one year shoots and putting it in the row middle. As the growers start at the worker start pruning the rest of the trees, clipping, cutting, cutting, cutting. So you don’t want to put the energy outside those tips. You want to put the power inside of those one-year shoots. So that is what we are doing. This is not the summer pruning at the end, pre-harvest for color development. That is what they very well know, that kind of pruning, in McIntosh or all the kind of pruning that is done at the end of the growing season just to let that fruit to take color. No, the idea of this pruning is to induce and redirect energy where you want the energy, the rest of the energy of the growing season to go. I don’t want to end up with a long shoot by the end of the growing season. Because when it’s going to be the dormant season, when I see a long, very aggressive shoot, one year shoot, what I’m going to do is I’m going to prune it. And I’m not going to be able to get anything done in that piece of wood that I’m leaving there. But if you do it now, at this time of the year, and you take it out with four finger, five finger, you are able to put the power inside of those internodes. And by September, sometimes I can see flower buds there being developed. So we make it more fruitful, that section, that canopy, okay. And once it’s more fruitful at the base, the one year shoot later, you’re still, you’re gonna prune it, but the tree is gonna be more calm because it’s fruitful. Have flower, have fruit.
Monique: Yeah, I think I understand what you’re saying. So this is just a redirection of energy to basically force the tree to invest in the fruit for next season, rather than other pruning that we might do, which was, you know, enhancing color, open up the canopy later, or the winter pruning, which is moreso big cuts, right?
Mario: Yes, yes. And we’re also, as the grower, start bringing or developing this kind of canopies that are more narrow, more soft, the texture, so not so thick wood. It’s just two, three, four year old wood. Okay. As you prune, you prune less big wood. Because it’s less big wood, growers who have been pruning like this, they’re able to bring their help late in the winter season, almost late winter, early spring, because the pruning can be done so quick with orchard platform and mechanization that you don’t need to start pruning those trees in December or January or even February. You know, you can really accomplish a significant amount of work, just because the pruning is so soft, is so no taking out big wood every year. You had to be pruning and redirecting the energy, whether it’s the dormant season or it’s a spring pruning, midsummer pruning, whatever kind of pruning we’re trying to for any objective. But it’s less pruning that is being done now than ten years ago. Definitely less. Definitely less.
Monique: With all of the labor costs, that’s a good thing.
Mario: So, yes, so this. This was the week. This was the last week. Last Friday was the last moment that grower had to make that decision. And how many people, how many people they’re bringing to harvest because they didn’t know about. You know, we had this very stressful April 25 and 26th day. We didn’t know initially what is going to happen when there are thinning. We had the natural thinning. We had this heat way in the middle of the 8, 9,10, 12mm. At the end the trees thinned very nice. And to be honest, the thinning, the hand thinning has been very quick, because we have a natural thinning effect with the heat that came during that time period that we were doing thinning. So with the heat wave last week, some growers were asking the crews, the hand thinning crew that the first one that started last week to work from six to eleven, from six to noon and take a rest the rest of the day. Just because we have a good thinning from Mother Nature, okay. Because the chemical thinning worked very good. And because we didn’t have a lot of fruit to thin and the people, and on top of that, we had the heat wave that people were not forced to work so many hours. The labor situation for some growers here by then, on last week, early this week, some growers, I need 40, no I need 38, 36 people, 32. And that is what they sign up for the H2A order that they couldn’t continue waiting any longer. It’s definitely an early season. It’s going to be an earlier season, at least seven, eight, nine, ten days before than another season, than a normal season. If we can talk about normal season.
Monique: It has been a pretty strange year, but I think it looks like things are working out okay.
Mario: Yes, I am very happy. It was a very stressful season with that frost that we got, with the heat that we went through. But I think growers who did blossom thinning and they did petal for thinning. And with the natural thinning of the deficit that the tree went through, we got a perfect thinning in some situations and growers were taking out only the tops, 20 Galas, 18 Galas out because they had the numbers, some of them had the numbers. Some overturning gonna happen in some situations, but overall, I think so we have a crop again.
Monique: Yeah, and we’ll see, we’ll see how that goes towards the end of the season. So, Mario, I want to thank you so much for coming on and talking about this. I’m sure the listeners can tell I’m a little bit out of my wheelhouse here, but I always learn something when I talk to the horticulturalists.
Mario: Yeah, yeah. It’s just a preliminary drawing. I appreciate that you saw that drawing some growers were asking me. I put that drawing for me. It’s easier, I love to do drawing, kind of things like that. And what the opportunity for me to hopefully explain and not confuse more the people. So hopefully the podcast is going to help in some way.
Monique: I think we need a presentation on this, this winter.
Mario: Yes, yes, yes, definitely.
State of the State with Dr. Anna Wallis
And now for the state of the state, your weekly roundup of phenology and degree day accumulations from the major fruit production regions of the state. As usual, I’ll be sharing information aggregated from the regional specialists around the state and my own observations.
According to the Northeast Regional Climate Center, it’s been a sizzling start to summer, including a very warm month of June with several places recording record high temperatures. Overall it’s been about two to four degrees [°F ] warmer than average for the month of June. Temperatures have been a bit of a roller coaster with very warm temperatures with highs in the upper eighties to nineties and high humidity, followed by a break in the warm temperature after a storm front moved through. So we’ve been in a bit of a cooler trend over the past week. These fronts moving through have meant there’s been several severe weather events in isolated locations. Storm reports in many locations, including precipitation, but also high winds, a couple of hail reports and even a couple of funnel cloud sightings. You can check on storm reports on the NOAA Storm report website, which will be linked in the show notes. These storms have been especially problematic where trees are heavily cropped in the top of trees and we’ve seen a little bit of breakage in locations where that is the case. Rainfall has been a little bit sporadic, very dependent on location across the state. Mostly over the weekend, many places were relieved of some of the drier conditions again, but the range of rainfall has been only a 10th of an inch recorded at some NEWA weather stations, to over an inch and a half in other locations. The early part of this week is in a bit of a cooler trend with a little wind, less humid with rain and a return to warmer temperatures expected again at the end of this week. We’ll be back to hot temperatures and potential storms at the end of the week and over the weekend, with highs returning to the mid to upper eighties across most of the state. Both the short- and medium-term outlooks on the NOAA Climate Prediction center, the 6 to 10 and 8 to 14 day outlooks indicate that the next couple of weeks it’s expected to be much hotter again than average, with slightly more precipitation than average across the entire state.
And now looking at phenology across the state, we are near terminal bud set on most apples. Again, it’s a very compressed season with similar phenology across most of the state. Fruit is coloring and sizing well. In the Hudson Valley things are looking good with fruit about 40 mm or more depending on variety, location and the thinning that’s been done. Fruit being about golf ball size, this is a good time to be doing peel sap analysis on Honeycrisp if you’re participating in that program. In other tree fruits, cherries are harvesting both sweet and early sour cherries. Plums are also beginning harvest for early varieties. Peaches and nectarines are sizing and nearing harvest. There are several locations with apricots in the Hudson Valley, and so those are also being harvested. In terms of small fruit, June-bearing strawberries are really at the end, in most locations, the heat wrapped them up pretty quickly with a few people still picking a few strawberries. Other berries, there’s lots of good berry picking at this time, blueberries, raspberries, black raspberries, and other small fruit. In the Capital Region, things are right behind that, with many of the similar crops picking at this time. In western New York, the Lake Ontario region, things are just a few more days behind that. Again, degree days and phenology indicate a pretty compressed season. And in the Champlain Valley, degree day accumulation is actually pretty similar to some of the lake sites in the Lake Ontario region. And that sometimes happens because the lake sites in the Lake Ontario region are so delayed from the water moderation. So again, just a very compressed season across the state.
Now moving to some upcoming pest events. Oriental fruit moth second flight is just beginning. In some places of the state, including the Hudson Valley, it’s still too early to be doing any management for that pest at this time. Codling moth we are seeing the first little bit of damage in unmanaged areas. Remember that codling moth prefers to feed on the seeds, so you’ll see tunneling from the side of the fruit or the calyx end, an entrance site with lots of frass, and then tunneling directly to the seeds in the apple where they’re feeding on that really rich nitrogen protein source. In the Hudson Valley, the biofix was May 6 in Highland, and accumulated degree days since the biofix until June 30 is 1017. So the second generation is continuing the emergence at this time. In the Champlain Valley peak flight and egg hatch of the first generation is on the tail end. And so if it’s been a week or two since your last application, you might want to get another good lep material on in your next cover. When we’re predicting emergence of this insect, remember that the first insect generation, we target larval emergence at 200 to 250 degree days base 50 after the first sustained capture the second generation can be estimated the same way, 200 to 250 degree days base 50 after that second biofix, the first sustained capture of the second generation. Or you can estimate emergence using the first generation biofix and 1200 to 1250 degree days base 50 since that biofix.
Oblique banded leafroller trap captures continue in most of the state with sustained flight in many places for a couple of weeks, now. First terminal and fruit feeding damage observations were made over the past week in the Hudson Valley, in the capital region, and some in western New York. Remember that you’re looking for rolling and webbing of the youngest terminal leaves and also inside fruit clusters where they like to be protected and feed on the skin and just under the skin on fruit. Again, the guidance for this is to monitor growing terminals at 600 to 700 degree days base 43 after the biofix. So in an orchard with heavy infestation, you would be applying an insecticide targeting young larvae at about 350 degree days base 43 after the biofix, and then following that with a 10 to 14 day later, a second application. In the Hudson Valley, the biofix was set on June 3, and so the accumulation of degree days since June 3 until June 30, was 802. So we expect to see that damage this week, or maybe you could have seen that a little bit last week.
Apple maggot emergence is beginning this week or last week across most of the state. So we’ve had some verified trap capture reports. This is the second week of very low captures in the Hudson Valley, at the Hudson Valley research lab, and at a commercial site. Just one insect per trap. We’ve had our first capture in the Lake Ontario region. Also some captures in the Capital Region and in the Champlain Valley. Trap captures are still pretty low. They’re below the five flies per trap threshold for baited traps that we use to initiate a management action.
We are seeing more mite activity across the state, including European red mite and two spotted spider mite. These outbreaks are common in hot, dry, dusty weather, as we’ve had early in the summer. Now that we’re in July, the threshold is five mites per leaf. And so if you’re doing sequential sampling, you’ll use five as an indicator of presence, and anything less than five mites per leaf would be absence. And then you’ll use the table in the Cornell guidelines to determine whether you should continue sampling, or you can stop sampling and make a treatment or wait to sample again at a later date.
Other insects that we’re seeing at this time include continued woolly apple aphid activity, with colonies increasing pretty rapidly in some locations and moving more and more to leaf axils. We’re seeing Japanese beetles move into orchards in many locations, and they can skeletonize and defoliate trees very quickly. So it’s important to be monitoring for those. Brown marmorated stink bug and other stink bugs have been captured in both Eastern and Western New York. Apple leaf curling midge is again a relatively new pest for New York. We’re seeing a couple of weeks now activity with curled, hardened leaves. You can uncurl those leaves to see the nymphs, which are very white at the beginning, and then turn bright orange right before they pupate and drop to the ground. We’re mostly seeing that in isolated locations in western New York and in the Champlain Valley.
Looking at diseases, we continue to see a few fire blight strikes observed in places where we know there is high pressure historically, and so mostly across the state, knock on wood. We haven’t seen too much fire blight this season. Scab lesions continue to pop up in kind of unexpected locations, so keep on the lookout for secondary infections to make sure that doesn’t get out of control. Powdery mildew continues to be pretty severe in some places given the hot and humid weather, very distorted terminal growth and then even to the point of really darkened, stunted growth.
We’re in the season now for summer diseases and so as Kerik’s been reporting, it’s a really high risk period for sooty blotch and fly speck. So make sure you’re having a cover on or protecting from that disease complex. With all the rain and wetness we’ve had, we’ve seen a couple of fruit here and there with rot on them. No big problems reported yet as far as fruit rots. Also, this is the time of year we start seeing symptoms of Marssonina, glomerella and necrotic leaf blotch. These are all yellowing blotch type symptoms that you can see on leaves, and so they’re important to distinguish because they have different causal agents and so to treat them requires slightly different management. And so making sure to identify the Marssonina, glomerella and necrotic leaf blotch is really important as they start to show up this time of year. We’re not seeing very much of that as of yet, but we expect to see them pretty soon.
As far as cherries and berries, again, we’re continuing to see spotted winged drosophila across the state with sustained trap captures remaining fairly low in many locations, but in some locations populations have increased really rapidly, so it’s important to keep an eye on that. To continue to get updates about spotted wing drosophila activity through the Spotted Wing Drosophila Monitoring Network, we encourage you to subscribe to the Berry Pest Monitoring Blog, which again is a new blog this year, including spotted wing drosophila as well as several other berry pests. We are recommending that anyone that would like to get updates about spotted wing, berry growers, cherry growers, and other people. Subscribe to the blog to continue to get updates. Information on how to access and subscribe is included in the show notes.
Notes another quick announcement we hosted our second virtual orchard scout training on Monday of last week, and in this training we had an hour and a half of reviewing monitoring and identification for several orchard pests, including diseases and insects. We did some disease identification, mite sequential sample sampling, a review of internal lepidopteran, a plum curculio damage and monitoring review, woolly apple aphid identification, apple maggot monitoring and thresholds, apple leaf curling midge, brown marmorated stink bug, and spotted winged drosophila monitoring and traps. So if you’re interested in viewing that video, it will be up on the New York State IPM YouTube channel shortly. So you can review that video as well as the recording of the first orchard scout training that happened before bloom.
And now here are the current degree days in the major fruit producing regions of the state. Throughout the season, we’ve been aligning this information with previous work done by Art Agnello relating to McIntosh phonology and degree days base 43 Fahrenheit. In Geneva, we are at 1784; Highland, the Hudson Valley Research Lab, 1920; Clifton Park, 1773; Peru, 1532; Medina, an inland site, 1733; Appleton North a lake site, 1592; Fairville, an inland site, 1674; and Williamson, a lake site 1691. That’s all for now, and have a great week.
| Phenology & DDs for NY NEWA Stations from 1/1 – 7/1 | |
| Station | DD Accumulation |
| Geneva | 1784 |
| Highland (HVRL) | 1920 |
| Clifton Park | 1773 |
| Peru (Forrence) | 1532 |
| Medina – Inland | 1733 |
| Appleton North – Lakeside | 1592 |
| Fairville (The Apple Shed) – Inland | 1674 |
| Williamson (DeMarree) – Lakeside | 1691 |
Phenology & DDs for NY NEWA Stations from 1/1 – 7/1
Station || Stage || DD 43F || Weekly Rainfall (in)
Geneva || fruit sizing || 1784 || 1.3
Highland (HVRL) || fruit sizing || 1920 || 1.41
Clifton Park || fruit sizing || 1773 || 0.62
Peru (Forrence) || fruit sizing || 1532 || 1.11
Medina – Inland || fruit sizing || 1733 || 0.98
Appleton North – Lake || fruit sizing || 1592 || 0.52
Fairville (The Apple Shed) – Inland || fruit sizing || 1674 || 1.26
Williamson (DeMarree) – Lake || fruit sizing || 1691 || 0.11
*all DDs Baskerville-Emin, B.E
Upcoming Pest Events
Pest/Phenology Event || DD Base 43˚F || Approx. Date
Apple Maggot Traps Set Out (in orchard) || 1-Jul”
ERM Sample – 5.0 mites/leaf || 1-Jul
Comstock mealybug tape traps set out || July 1 (ENY), July 15 (WNY)
OFM – 2nd flight starting || 1180* ± 136* || 29-Jun ± 5 days
OBLR Summer Gen. 1st Sample || 10-Jul ± 5 days
STLM Summer Gen. 1st Sample || 9-Jul ± 7 days
RBLR – 2nd flight starting || 1367 ± 105 || 29-Jun ± 6 days
AM – 1st catch || 1509 ± 285 || 4-Jul ± 12 days
Lesser peachtree borer – peak catch || 1234 ± 470 || 25-Jun ± 19 days
STLM – 2nd flight peak || 1563 ± 207 || 6-Jul ± 8 days
Codling moth – 1st flight ending || 1557 ± 262 || 6-Jul ± 12 days
Peachtree borer – peak catch || 1579 ± 465 || 7-Jul ± 19 days
Lesser appleworm – 2nd flight starting || 1768 ± 339 || 14-Jul ± 12 days
OFM – 2nd flight peak || 1450* ± 147* || 11-Jul ± 9 days
American plum borer – 2nd flight starting || 1850 ± 290 || 16-Jul ± 11 days
RBLR – 2nd flight peak || 1721 ± 232 || 13-Jul ± 7 days
San Jose scale – 2nd flight starting || 1804 ± 170 || 15-Jul ± 8 days
Codling moth – 2nd flight starting || 1887 ± 313 || 20-Jul ± 13 days
Dogwood borer – peak catch || 1611 ± 226 || 8-Jul ± 10 days
STLM – 2nd flight ending || 2167 ± 177 || 28 Jul ± 8 days
American plum borer – 2nd flight peak || 2290 ± 285 || 1-Aug ± 8 days
OFM – 2nd flight ending || 2044* ± 233* || 31-Jul ± 7 days
*Base temperature for OFM 45F
Virtual Orchard Scut Training #2
https://www.youtube.com/user/NYSIPM
Berry Pest Monitoring Network – NEW Blog!
https://blogs.cornell.edu/berrypests/
Quick Guides for SWD Management
https://fruit.cornell.edu/spottedwing/management/
https://fruit.cornell.edu/spottedwing/
NOAA NWS Storm Prediction Center
https://www.spc.noaa.gov/