Category Archives: Christmas Tree IPM

March 7, 2020

Christmas tree IPM Update 3.6.20

Happy spring!  It just started snowing again here but that’s still okay.

 

I’ve decided to expand (and also contract – good trick, huh?) the program I did last summer with some growers to send out information on scouting and treating for insect pests based on growing degree days.

 

You won’t get information specifically for the weather station you choose, but I will give information for 3 sites – Southold (the warmest), Geneva (somewhere in the middle) and Champlain (the coldest).  If you want to promote your site as the warmest or coldest, let me know.

 

GDD for March 6 – and the 5 day forecast for March 11

Southold              3                              3

Geneva                0                              0

Champlain           0                              0

 

I’m a little late as the earliest insects are out starting about 7 GDD. You need to be ready to scout and to treat if necessary.  (Sorry, Long Island!). We use 50F as the base temperature and calculate GDD starting March 1.

 

Your mission (should you choose to accept it) is to go to the NEWA (Network for Environment and Weather Applications) site and find your best weather station.  http://newa.cornell.edu/index.php?page=station-pages (Click on New York under Station Pages if NY doesn’t open automatically).  When you click on the station name, you will get information on the site  – elevation might be important and you can compare the Daily Summary temperatures to what you have had at your farm.  Questions?  Send me a note.

 

So what should you be scouting for if GDD has started to accumulate in your area?

 

Spruce spider mite eggs (7-121) –  Scout for eggs on trees previously infested and the surrounding trees (fir, Doug fir, pine, spruce). Egg hatch is before bud break and often starts on the south side of the tree.  A dormant oil spray (not on blue spruce) should occur prior to egg hatch.

 

Elongate hemlock scale (7-120) – Check under scale covers for living scales on trees previously infested (fir, Doug fir, pine, spruce).  Remove heavily infested trees before bud break (and carefully – don’t spread scale to uninfested trees when moving them). You can use a dormant oil treatment for EHS.

 

White pine weevil (7-58) – Scout for adults on spruce, pine, Doug fir, occasionally fir – especially in areas where you have had it previously.  You can use Tedders traps with a lure.  An indication is soil temperatures above 50F on the sunny side of the tree. You can also look for droplets of sap on the leaders indicating feeding sites.  Treat top 1/3 of the tree when adults are first found.

 

Pales (7-121) and Eastern pine weevil (7-100) – Destroy stumps before adults emerge.  Remove cull piles and dying trees. Adults will also be attracted to Tedders traps. For Pales weevil, pull duff away from last year’s stumps to look for adults.  Pines, occasionally Doug fir and spruce.

 

Eriophyid mites (7-22) – Scout for eggs on branches with gray or rusty color.  Use dormant oil before bud break.

 

That should keep you off the streets!  Your records of where insects were last year are invaluable in making scouting easier this year!

June 14, 2019

GDD update 6.14.19

Inching up there – although today probably isn’t adding much!

Things to be looking for:

‘Shepherd’s crook’ wilted leaders on spruce, pine, Doug fir – occasionally fir – are caused by white pine weevil.  Cut them out and destroy the leaders before July (even this year!) to prevent adults emerging.  Prune down to healthy green wood.

Another note on white pine weevil – 2-5% of trees damaged this season is the threshold (in forestry) for treating next season.

Hey, they don’t read the books! Spruce spider mite should be a cool season mite but according to Branching Out they are being found in high numbers even in warmer seasons, so keep scouting if you’ve had them before – especially spruce.  Tap tests – and when you smear them on paper, they leave a green streak (from all the chlorophyll they have been sucking out of your plants)

 

And keep scouting for cryptomeria scale even after 700 GDD.  Spray recommendations from PA suggest continuing management beyond that point if you find crawlers.

 

Continuing:

Two spotted spider mite – 363-618 GDD

Cryptomeria scale crawlers – 600-800 GDD

Elongate hemlock scale crawlers – 360-700 GDD

Gypsy moth larvae – 90-448 GDD

Douglas fir needle midge adults –  200-400 GDD

Pine needle scale crawlers – 298-448

Striped pine needle scale crawlers – 400-500

Introduced and red-headed pine sawfly larvae – 400-600

 

Have a great week!

 

February 22, 2018

Christmas tree IPM update 2.22.18

I hope you are all sitting with your feet up – briefly – until the scouting etc. season starts.

Or maybe now you are ready to get out there and get started for this year. The weather at the beginning of the week might have helped. But it was also warm enough that ticks were out questing. NYS IPM’s Joellen Lampman posted on our blog with lots of useful tick information

It’s also time to start planning . . .
WPS training requirements have changed. Be sure you know what is required in terms of who can do the training and how it must be presented. Lots of resources are available from the Pesticide Educational Resources Collaborative including the appropriate training videos

Don’t forget to sign up for Branching Out  There’s a clickable subscription form and more information.

And you can contact Sarah Pickel to get on her scouting email list from PA at c-sapickel@pa.gov (Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture | Bureau of Plant Industry, 2301 North Cameron Street | Hbg PA 17110, Phone: 717.772.5227 | Fax: 717.705.6518)

We are planning, too. Brian and Amara have been planning our new Christmas tree and beneficial insect habitat demonstration trials. They got the soil samples before the snow started again.

 

January 15, 2018

Christmas tree IPM update 1.14.18

Those warm spells probably aren’t that good for the plants, but oh, I do enjoy them!

We are doing a survey at the CTFANY meeting this year on tick borne diseases and exotic Christmas tree species. If you won’t have a chance to fill it out at the meeting, you can do it here.

I’ve had a couple of questions that relate to DEC matters – pesticide choice and pesticide recertification credits.
I’ll do the easy one first. There are very few instances where credits from another state are allowed for recertification of NYS pesticide licenses. The organizers of the events have to register them with NYS DEC and meet all the specs so it doesn’t happen often. If you can’t find the event on NYSPAD it won’t count – except for making you smarter!

Which reminds me of another question… it rarely makes sense to add another private pesticide category even if you add new crops. DEC says “Applicants should choose the category based on their primary crop, it is not necessary to hold additional categories within the Ag Production series (21-25)”. If you decide to do aquatic pest control, for example, that’s another story.

Now back to the hard question – what to do about pesticide applications in mixed species Christmas tree plantations? Of course, you don’t want to spray anything that would damage any of the species – blue spruce comes up a lot here as some pesticides will take the blue off the needles. But even if the pesticides are all ‘safe’ for the species, the law says that the host and the pest must both be on the label for you to apply that compound to those trees. And finding information on the label – and understanding it – can require you to be quite a sleuth.

I often resort to pulling up the label in NYSPAD ( a different part of it) and using the search button on the computer to look for key words.

Some labels use ‘conifers’, some use ‘Christmas trees’ and probably some use the exact species. Some specify where the trees can be – Christmas tree nursery beds, production plantations, tree seed orchards, etc. Some include the species with the insect or disease and others just list the disease or insect. But you have to find both the host and the pest on the label to use the pesticide.

This is one reason that single species fields are easier to deal with.

There’s more helpful information on which pesticides to use for what and what’s allowed – AND lots of IPM information to reduce your need for pesticides – in the Cornell Guidelines and the 2018 “Tree and Shrub Guidelines” are almost ready!

This is a good time to plan for the insect and disease pests that you usually have, check your pesticide list, and read those labels. Put your feet up first – it might help.

January 7, 2018

Christmas tree IPM Update 1.7.18

My good intentions for 2018? To get these updates out more regularly…. Unless there are NO pest issues, of course!

How was the season? How many customers mentioned the press on the thousands of microscopic insects supposedly infesting all the trees? Definitely an education for me on how inaccurate information can travel with the speed of a click!

Coming soon – the Christmas Tree Farmers’ Association of NY annual winter meeting in Syracuse, January 18-20. Lots of good information – and please visit the IPM table in the vendor area!

Michigan State is holding a Sustainable Nursery and Christmas Tree Production Webinar Series starting Jan 31. The webinars are $15 each or $40 for the series and will be recorded.

Now is a good time to get signed up for scouting reports and to learn how to find growing degree day (GDD) information on NEWA! Click the links for information!

Branching Out

Sarah Pickel’s PA Christmas Tree Scouting Report – contact her directly at c-sapickel@pa.gov

UMass Extension Landscape Message

NEWA GDD

 

We’ve got some projects coming along that relate to Christmas trees and nursery growers so I’ll keep you posted as they progress!

I hope you are all dug out and warmer than the last few days! Have a great week!