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Monique and Kerik interview Vaughn Gingerich, Lake Ontario Ag Consulting

Monique Rivera: Welcome to Scaffolds podcast, a weekly roundup of the timely updates on insect and disease management, as well as phenological developments across New York State for apple growers. This is Monique Rivera, your host and assistant professor of entomology at Cornell AgriTech. Co hosting with me will be Kerik Cox, associate professor of Plant Pathology, along with Anna Wallis, IPM fruit Coordinator. Welcome to the season finale of Scaffolds. In this episode, Kerik and I talk to Vaughn Gingerich, owner of Lake Ontario Ag Consulting, to review the season’s biggest problems. And Anna Wallis gives us our final State of the State update on degree day accumulation. So today we’re recording the season finale of Scaffolds, and we have with us Vaughn Gingrich today. He is a consultant that has about 10,000 acres in western New York, and his company is Lake Ontario AG Consulting.

Monique Rivera: Hey, Vaughn.

Vaughn Gingerich: Hi, thanks for having me.

Monique Rivera: Yeah, I’m so excited to talk to you. So, over the course of those 10,000 acres, what do you think are our top entomological problems this season? I have some guesses, but I’ll let you answer.

Vaughn Gingerich: Well, this year our biggest challenge has turned out to be Woolly Apple Aphid. With the loss of Diazinon for most growers, it’s left us in a pretty challenging spot.

Monique Rivera: Has there been any buzz about anything actually working?

Vaughn Gingerich: There’s been a lot of trial work done by Cornell and by some other places, and there’s been some interesting results. As far as anything that I’ve been doing commercially, I’ve had some halfway decent results with Sefina or Versys. That’s probably been better than Beleaf and some of the other options I’ve used in the past. The other thing that I’ve had a couple of growers playing around with now for a couple of years is some ground applications of imidacloprid. So the Wrangler type products or Admire type products, and we’ve seen some interesting results with that as well.

Monique Rivera: So when they ground apply that, they’re just applying right to the root zone and then watering it in with the irrigation?

Vaughn Gingerich: The ones that have been applying it, they’ve been trying to time it for before rainfalls because they don’t have irrigation available. And so far that’s worked reasonably well.

Monique Rivera: So it knocks back and suppresses the population, or do you see what you would call significant mortality?

Vaughn Gingerich: It’s generally been done before populations grow too much, so it’s kind of been more of a suppressing thing to keep the population from exploding. In some blocks where we’ve had historically some problems, it’s done reasonably well of keeping them back to more reasonable levels.

Monique Rivera: So the mythology that I’ve been following, which seems like it’s true, is that this pest is rearing its ugly head because of the loss of Lorsban. What are your thoughts on that?

Vaughn Gingerich: Certainly in the years since the loss of Lorsban, we’ve seen a steady increase in problems and in populations. So I think that’s been part of the story, but I don’t think it’s the entire story. I think we’ve got some other things going on. Having Diazinon as kind of the burn down nukem option has saved us, quite frankly, for a number of years. And now that most growers don’t have that option, we’re having to figure out what the other issues are and figure out how to address them.

Monique Rivera: So Lorsban was also used for black stem borer, is my understanding. Have you seen a lot of black stem borer popping up as well?

Vaughn Gingerich: I can’t say that we’ve really seen more black stem borer than we have in the past, but part of that is because in the areas where we have issues on young trees, we’ve been fairly aggressive with pyrethrins to stay ahead of the situation. What I’m more worried about is it does seem like we’re in the last couple of years maybe seeing some more issues with some other borer species that are a little bit more concerning.

Monique Rivera: Have those been identified? Do you know what they are? I heard a little bit of buzz about this about midseason, but as far as I knew there wasn’t a solid ID. But maybe I wasn’t talking to the right people.

Vaughn Gingerich: Well, we’ve seen an increase in dogwood borer, we’ve seen an increase in actual borer holes, and I’ve seen an increase in the number of adults that I’m seeing active out in the orchards as well.

Monique Rivera: What about mating disruption for dogwood borer? Is anyone adopting that as a next step?

Vaughn Gingerich: Not yet, but we’re hoping to change that in the future. I do think it’s going to be a viable option for us to help and I think it’s one that growers are going to have to start investigating more seriously.

Monique Rivera: Yeah, I’ve heard that it actually works quite well for them and the scale is not as much of an issue as it is with the moths. What else have you found to be an issue, like secondary wise? So we’ve got woolies. Was there anything else this season that really stuck out to you besides that and the borers?

Vaughn Gingerich: On the insect side of things – no, not really. It’s actually been a fairly calm insect year. We’ve had some issues with some green aphids, but they’re relatively easy to deal with. It’s really not been a very bad year for mites. It’s not been a bad year for a number of the insects. Even internal worm species seems like it’s been a little bit lower pressure year this year than in recent years.

Monique Rivera: Yeah, that sounds about right. I’m going to let Kerik take us into the pathology side because I think there’s been a lot more spicy things happening there this season.

Kerik Cox: Okay, well, I don’t know about spicy. Vaughn, what’s your feeling on fire blight this year? What are your thoughts on that whole scenario? It’s always a problem what’s it like for the growers in your area this year?

Vaughn Gingerich: Yeah, it’s been, I think a little bit better year than recent years. There definitely are some strikes around. And I do have a couple of growers that did get in some trouble in some hotspot areas, but overall, I think it was a little bit easier year for fire blight this year than in recent years.

Kerik Cox: Best tools and approaches that you’ve seen the growers using that may be different from streptomycin. That’s always a good one.

Vaughn Gingerich: Yeah, I mean, the key is rotation. That’s definitely one of the keys, rotation and tank mixes when you’re talking about antibiotics and some of the other chemistries. On younger trees especially, we’ve had some good success with some of the SAR products, products like Actigard and Vacciplant and some of the others have definitely been helpful in young trees.

Kerik Cox: Hey, let’s switch gears a little bit. We had a lot of rain. Can never seem to see an end of it. What are your thoughts on scab? Anybody having any trouble or have there been any concerns this year?

Vaughn Gingerich: Yeah, this has been a more challenging year for scab than we’ve had in a lot of years, actually. Between having some issues with really rapid growth early in the season and then primary scab season extending actually considerably later than normal. Definitely got some guys who have some primary lesions out there. And with continued rains all summer. Yeah, some guys have continued to see secondary scab really creep up on them. Fortunately, in most cases, fruit is staying relatively clean, but there’s a lot of leaf scab out there right now in spots.

Kerik Cox: Yeah, we’re seeing a little bit of that here too. Vaughn, what’s your number one pick for burnout material? Let’s say someone does have leaf scab. What are you telling them to do?

Vaughn Gingerich: We’ve had good success in the past with some higher rates of Captan tank mixed with Miravis and even doing Miravis back-to-back. We’ve had some good success with that. Some of the other SDHI’s and SI’s can be quite effective as well, especially if you happen to get a little bit of a dry spell to help you out, which hasn’t really happened much this year.

Kerik Cox: Okay, let’s one last gear change before we kick it back to entomology. What’s your thoughts on mildew? Do you ever see it prevalent? Are any growers concerned with special and unique varieties that seem to be more mildew prone?

Vaughn Gingerich: Yeah, again, been a really challenging year for mildew this year. Yeah, we definitely do see mildew, especially up right along the Lake Ontario shoreline, traditionally has been a lot worse. Idareds can get it badly. Cortlands can get it badly. Honeycrisp can really get it badly in certain situations. So, yeah, there are some varietal differences. This year has been a bad year for some growers.

Kerik Cox: Yeah, my Idareds are making potatoes right now they’re so heavily russeted. You can tell it’s all mildew because I didn’t spray them. So what do you recommend growers go after mildew? What are your thoughts on best mildew products? Best mildew tactics.

Vaughn Gingerich: Yeah, biggest thing on mildew is early in the season, don’t let up on your SDHI’s and SI’s, especially when you get a little bit of a dry spell. And I think that’s where some growers got in trouble this year because we were dry early. So that’s definitely one of the things. I wouldn’t do it this time of year, but early in the year, sulfur can be helpful as well. That definitely has been helpful along the lakeshore where guys traditionally have more mildew problems.

Kerik Cox: I think that’s real good advice. That’s everything I say, yeah, those dry spells can be tricky because mildew loves dry weather, but you don’t really think about that, but it also loves the humidity. Great advice, Vaughn. Let’s kick it back to Entomology.

Monique Rivera: So I guess based on the pathology, because really we’re talking about an overall IPM program here. So, when you’re using Captan, and this prevents using an adjuvant for Movento, is there some refined recommendation for growers that have blocks with persistent woolly problems? Is there something to use as an alternative to Captan?

Vaughn Gingerich: Generally, when I’m recommending Movento, I’m doing it early in the season at a time where we’re trying to stay away from Captan anyway on a lot of varieties due to fruit finish concerns. So at that point, we have been using the Mancozebs in the past, we’ve been using Ziram, which now is not an option for some growers. So that’s not been an issue with Movento, but later in the season when we want to come back with some other products and we have adjuvant concerns, yeah, it can be a concern. Definitely on fresh fruit, at least you don’t want to tank mix Captan with some of the adjuvants. We’re a little bit less concerned about it on processing fruit, but where we want to come in with some other products that are oil based or using adjuvants, we have to stay away from Captan for a little bit. We just may have to take a break on one of the cover sprays and not have Captan in the mix.

Monique Rivera: So it does kind of break my heart to prophylactically recommend Movento early in the season, but that’s what you’ve been doing, right? I think if you have a history of a block and does that really ring true, that the history of the block, if you have woolies one year, the chance that you’re going to have them the next year, have you seen that consistently across fields or there are new populations coming up?

Vaughn Gingerich: There are new populations coming up, and this seems like it’s been a bad year for woolly aphids, but definitely history of the block does play a role. They overwinter down in the root systems, certain root stocks are more susceptible, and we do see blocks year after year have problems. So those traditionally have been the blocks that we’ve targeted with Movento early on, and that has definitely been helpful in those situations. Going forward without the use of diazinon, we’re going to have to reconsider how we do some things. It may mean some more Movento, and it may mean adjusting in the future going forward. What root stocks we’re choosing when we’re deciding to plant a new orchard.

Monique Rivera: Have you heard of anyone trying entomopathogenic nematodes for the root dwelling stage of woolies?

Vaughn Gingerich: No, that’s not something I’ve run across yet.

Monique Rivera: Yeah, that might be something that I’m interested in the future if I can figure out how to actually study it, since my lab is actually going to start looking at entomopathogenic nematodes again. But I can’t tell if there’s been a lot of conversation, particularly with Janet Van Zoeren and I, about using some of the alternative products that are more typically used in an organic production system, but I just can’t tell how well that will fit into the overall. I’m going to let Kerik hop in.

Kerik Cox: Well, I just had a question about that, Monique. How do you get the nematodes? Are they soilborne nematodes, or are they some kind of foliar nematode that you somehow throw onto the woolies? How’s that work? How would that work?

Monique Rivera: So basically, what you would do, you can even tank mix them with imidacloprid and apply them to the soil. It would take preliminary research to figure out what species are going to work best for Woolly apple aphid, but I could see if they were applied, let’s say, during bloom, before they’re really infesting the tree. You can’t do the imidacloprid on the trees at that point, but you could maybe if I could find an efficacious species, put down the entomopathogenic nematodes. But it’ll take some time to figure that out and also introduce it to the growers and also explain to them how to apply. Because when I’ve done this, I’ve done it basically riding on the back of a sprayer that has, like, a hose, and you would just wet it into the ground, that mixture. But there’s probably some other ways to fiddle around with it. But one of the products that Janet and I were discussing was a garlic-based product. So there’s a lot of essential oils and stuff that are used in organic production, but because in my experience, they haven’t been very efficacious in those production systems against pests that are easier to control than woolies, I’m having a hard time feeling like it’s worth recommending if we can’t have organic production apples. Have you seen anyone try any of these weirder products Vaughn or not really?

Vaughn Gingerich: Not really too much in conventional orchards. I do have a little bit of organic acreage that I work with, and they’ve been doing some different products, and quite frankly, some of them maybe even are working better than what we’re doing conventionally. It’s definitely something to consider. We don’t have to stay in the same line of type of products that we’ve always looked at in the past.

Kerik Cox: Yeah.

Monique Rivera: What were the products that they were trying, that you felt they were pretty efficacious?

Vaughn Gingerich: I’ve seen a little bit of success with Azadirachtin products at a high enough rate. Unfortunately, it’s not inexpensive for the rates that we’re talking about.

Monique Rivera: So one thing that I have had experience with in the past working with Azadirachtin products is that the formulation of Azadirect, that particular brand name, seems to work really well in comparison to some of the others. So if anyone wants to try that, that would definitely be my recommendation is start there. I do think we have some deeper, maybe cultural spray issues with water volume. Even though we have an advantage to have the fruit wall. Right. This makes our spray coverage a lot better than a standard size tree. But still, 50 gallons per acre just seems to not cut it with most products. Are you also seeing that, Vaughn?

Vaughn Gingerich: Yeah, we’re definitely seeing that water volume matters when you’re talking about woolly aphids and some other insect species as well. And it’s not just water, it’s coverage in general. We have growers that do better job getting coverage than others for the growing system that they’re using. Yeah, water definitely is part of that equation.

Monique Rivera: So do you think 50 is the standard low point or do you see people applying with even lower gallon per acre?

Vaughn Gingerich: 50 generally has been the standard, although I’m starting to see a shift with more and more growers actually going higher on some of the full dwarf trees. And I think it’s the realization that that canopy is thicker than we ever thought in the past.

Kerik Cox: Yeah, I was just going to agree with Vaughn. I also think that even in our efficacy trials, we move away from that really fine mist 3x dilute spray to a more soaking thing. We seem to get better control, particularly when canopies get thick and leafy. So it may be that while it’s inconvenient and I hate refilling my sprayer as much as anyone else, might be better to just creep that thing up a little bit for all our various pests and diseases.

Monique Rivera: Yeah, I also hate refilling, so I think collectively we understand the pain of this. But I just feel like the worst case scenario is at the end of the season, people coming and telling me that products don’t work and it’s more about the culture around the use of the product than the product itself, because then it’s just money wasted rather than making sure. And then Vaughn, you and I had talked at the last big Western New York grower meeting about water quality. What are your recommendations to correct the water quality? I think most people are having a hard water issue. Do people need water filtration systems? I mean, obviously adding something like citric acid is going to bring your pH down, but are any other recommendations on that?

Vaughn Gingerich: Well, the first thing is to test your water to understand what you’re dealing with and the biggest thing that we commonly see around here is pH issues. We generally will see some high pH’s, and we see issues with water hardness. So pH can be corrected with acidifying products, such as phosphoric acid products or citric acid or other types of products. Your water hardness can be dealt with with ammonium sulfate. It can be dealt with products like Choice or Quest or some of the other water conditioners. And then there are some growers that are pulling surface water, and you may have turbidity issues there as well. And if that’s the case, then, yeah, you need to be looking at some filtration systems because getting organic matter and soil matter into your water can really wreak havoc on some of these chemicals.

Monique Rivera: Are you seeing the same thing on the pathology product side Kerik with those issues?

Kerik Cox: With water, I don’t really. We only use the gross water we have at the experiment station, which is city water. So I haven’t really played a lot with looking at water type stuff, but I know it can be a factor because it can drastically affect how the different products go into solution mix and are effective when they’re applied. Especially pH seems to be a real big concern as well, particularly when you get into the coppers and all the other issues. A lot of the products, like a lot of adjuvants, are sort of focused for these sorts of things. Yeah, but we haven’t gotten into that ourselves.

Monique Rivera: Well, Vaughn, any last words about this season? We have any good hopeful words for next season?

Vaughn Gingerich: Well, there’s always next year. It’s been a challenging year, no doubt about that. It does look like it’s not been a real stressful year for trees, at least in terms of dealing with summer droughts and such, so I would expect that probably return bloom will be pretty decent next year in most cases, but time will tell.

Monique Rivera: All right, Vaughn, thanks so much for joining us today. We’re almost at a thousand listens for the season, so I hope this brings us even above that.

 

State of the State with Anna Wallis

Anna Wallis: And now for the State of the state. This is your last update of the season, your weekly roundup of degree day accumulations and phenology from the major fruit production regions of the state. As always, information has been aggregated from your regional specialists, NEWA, and my own observations. We’re down to the last couple of weeks before harvest, or maybe just a week. I know the harvest maturity programs are getting up and going in both places, doing some testing for early varieties this week. As far as weather, heavy rainfall has unfortunately continued across most of the state after five to ten inches recorded across the state throughout July. We’ve already had one to two inches in many places in just the first ten days of August. And after this record wet record warm weather in July, it looks like those trends are expected to continue into the next week. With warmer and wetter than average conditions. However, over the month of August, the NOAA forecasts are expected to be fairly close to average, so hopefully we can catch a break as you move into harvest.

We are continuing to track Degree Day base 43 as an indicator of insect activity and phenology. As always, 43 and 50 base temperatures are summarized in the table in the show notes, and you can also find an average range of Degree Day accumulations for phenology and arthropod pest activity in the Cornell Tree Fruit Guidelines, that’s table 7.1.4.

A few things that are active now as we approach the end of the season include apple maggot, which is active in some places, and over threshold, although in western New York it seems to be slower in the locations that we are trapping, perhaps due to the drought last year or the really cold conditions in February, which may have reduced overwintering of these populations. You can be monitoring for this pest with red sticky sphere traps which are hung along the borders where there’s known pressure, and again, the threshold for that is five flies on average per baited trap, or one fly on average per un-baited trap.

Stink bugs are increasing in activity across the state. They’ve been detected in most parts of the state, although in most of the locations we’re trapping in western New York, counts are still pretty low. There are a couple of options for monitoring this insect. Clear sticky panels are a good option that are placed on wooden stakes. Approximately one or two insects indicate general insect activity and can be used as a threshold gauging general activity. Also, black pyramid traps, which mimic the shape of a trunk and the insects crawl up and fall into a container on the top, can be used. Both of these have a lure in them.

Mite pressure has increased in some places in the past week. As of the start of August, the threshold is now 7.5 mites per leaf for a threshold.

Woolly apple aphid continues to be problematic across the state, as Monique and Vaughn discussed, and there’s lots of research going on investigating solutions to this problem.

Codling moth second generation pressure remains low across most of the state.

Obliquebanded leafroller is also in low numbers in traps across the state. We would be expecting a second generation now if there were pressure in the past in certain blocks, so now would be a great time to be breaking apart clusters looking for feeding on the fruit surface for diseases, as Kerik and Vaughn discussed.

Scab has been a bit more problematic this year with all the wet weather, so we’ve seen a bit more pressure as far as secondary scab goes.

Summer rots and sooty blotch fly speck have also been detected in many locations. These diseases thrive in wet, humid conditions like the ones we’ve been having, so hopefully you’ve been staying covered typically with a 10 to 14 day interval, although you may have tightened that up with all of the rain that we’ve had.

We’ve had more reports of Marssonina leaf blotch or apple leaf blotch in some locations, especially where lower spray programs are employed. And we’ve also had reports and sightings of necrotic leaf blotch, which is a physiological disorder unique to Golden Delicious and strains of Golden Delicious that looks something like Marssonina or Glomerella with necrotic lesions and bright yellowing leaves that tend to drop. This is not caused by a biotic agent, so not a fungal or bacterial pathogen. It’s typically worse in a warm summer followed by rain such as the year that we’re having this year.

We’ve seen a little bit more sunburn this week, although not extensive in most places that we’ve been looking.

And finally, here’s the rundown of Degree Day base 43 accumulations at NEWA weather stations throughout the state. As of the end of the day, August 9 degree day accumulations are: