August 13 Conference Call

*note: This is the last call of the season. If you participated in the calls, I may be calling you soon to get your feedback. Also, my apologies, the first five minutes of the call were not recorded.–Lisa
John’s Updates

1. Stink bugs: If you are situated closely to soy fields, you may find more stink bugs in your orchard this year.
2. OBLR and OFM: Continue to monitor these populations for a few more weeks. Make sure your lures are fresh.
3. San Jose Scale: Crawlers are active right now. You can find them with a 10X hand lens on damaged apples. Scale may spread very rapidly in the next 5-6 weeks.
4. Sooty Blotch/Fly Speck: Keep monitoring leaf wetness hours. You may need to reapply if you have surpassed 175 leaf wetness hours since your last fungicide spray.
5. Spintor: Don’t use Spintor with a buffering solution. Spintor breaks down in a pH lower than 6.
6. CM Virus: In terms of economics, this may be a good time to try using the virus.
7. Spray Patterns: Be sure you are aiming your sprays correctly.
8. If you planted new trees this year, it’s a good idea to make a note of their health going into the fall. This will help you to anticipate trouble in the future.
9. Scab: Even in areas with generally good scab control, John has recently seen new lesions. Especially where there has recently been rain, consider continuing to apply a fungicide.
10. Black Rot: In areas experiencing rain and high temperatures, be on the lookout for black rot.
Discussion Topics:

1. Presence of wooly apple aphid linked to weeds in new plantings.
2. CM: effects of rain on CM, criteria for determining the presence of a third generation, correlation between second generation CM trap counts and effectiveness of first generation control.
3. Second generation of OBLR.
4. Japanese Beetles: their migration into orchards, considerations for control.
5. Spreader Stickers: lack of applicable research on effectiveness of spreader stickers for retention of chemicals used on apples.
To hear the recording of this week’s call, dial (641)715-3436. Access code: 516817.