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Techniques, observations, and frustrations related to fruit crop loading, return bloom, and biennial bearing.
Re: plant sap analysis - 6 weeks ago
Thanks Mike, I agree with you 100%. Four of us HON folks coordinated together and sent in leaf samples for plant sap analysis (PSA) this summer. We interpreted the results with the help of Dane Terrill, a consultant. The results were instructive, but I have the same reservations. I took the project in a different direction and sent subsamples of the same batches of leaves to 3 labs--New Agby Brian Caldwell - Grower Research
Re: curculio progress - 4 months ago
It sounds like PC may operate differently in different orchards. We have never had a noticeable issue with spring PC feeding on leaves. However, our pressure is very heavy and if not controlled, very close to 100% of the fruit would have scars in many years, with most also small and deformed. After drop, the ones left would still mostly be small and deformed. Then comes late summer feeding byby Brian Caldwell - Bug by Bug
Re: curculio progress - 4 months ago
The science is no doubt correct when you kill PC with a stronger pesticide. When you repel them and they are still around, you need to go longer than that model. I have learned this years ago the hard way. I choose 6/20 as my end target for coverage. (I find phenology and dates to be better than degree days.) We had more damage from spring PC egg laying. However, we were able to remove mosby Brian Caldwell - Bug by Bug
Re: curculio progress - 4 months ago
2022 PC sprays: Our petal fall was 5/17 for most vars. That day I applied Surround @ 25#/100 (~50#/A) 5/24--25# Surround + 1.25# Grandevo per 100 5/31--1.25# Grandevo per 100 6/7--half or orchard as 5/24, half as 5/31 very windy, marginal coverage 6/13--1.25# Grandevo per 100 So, I skipped Surround on about half of the 6 sprays, in the latter half of the PC onslaught. We were able to haby Brian Caldwell - Bug by Bug
Re: curculio progress - 4 months ago
Alas, I tried Grandevo without Surround this year with poor results. Tons of egg laying scars, followed by far too many August feeding holes in the fruit. Way more than in the past with Surround alone. I will be sure to rely primarily on Surround in the future!by Brian Caldwell - Bug by Bug
Re: bicarb for scab and mixing - 7 months ago
Lots of mysteries here. I don't think anyone actually knows how bicarb + Silmatrix works. The 5 day coverage window has worked for me; I stretch it to 15 days after mid June for secondary scab and sooty blotch/flyspeck at half rate and get decent (not perfect) control of SBFS and seemingly very good control of any secondary scab. In the very wet fall of 2021 I felt like it would have beenby Brian Caldwell - Fungal Pathogens
Re: bicarb for scab and mixing - 7 months ago
I've used bicarbonate + Silmatrix the same as I would sulfur--as a protectant. I assume I have 5 days of protection after I spray, barring a very heavy rain. I think that is easier than using it in the tight window after an infection, but having that option is valuable if one misses a spray. Silmatrix is a labeled fungicide based on potassium silicate, similar to sodium silicate, "by Brian Caldwell - Fungal Pathogens
Re: bicarb for scab and mixing - 7 months ago
The reference that got me started with bicarb + Silmatrix for scab is at: I'll send more soon!by Brian Caldwell - Fungal Pathogens
Re: bicarb for scab and mixing - 7 months ago
PS. 1 qt/100 gal potassium bicarb is about 2#/100 gal. Since I use about 200 gal/acre, that works out to about 4 lb bicarb (AI) per acre. I have sometimes used twice that rate with no apparent phytotoxicity.by Brian Caldwell - Fungal Pathogens
Re: bicarb for scab and mixing - 7 months ago
I mixed 2 qt Biomin calcium + 2 cups potassium bicarbonate + 1 cup Silmatrix + 1 cup golden (soy) oil per 100 gal and got a pH of 8.2. 2 cups of bicarb is about 1 lb, so this is a very low rate. I use it twice a month for sooty blotch and flyspeck after the scab season is finished. It also controls any secondary scab and leaves the orchard with very low inoculum for the next season. I use tby Brian Caldwell - Fungal Pathogens
bicarb for scab and mixing - 8 months ago
I've become more aware of pH issues in tank mixes since I've been working with potassium bicarbonate vs apple scab. Bicarbonate mixes have high pH, above 8, so they will inactivate Bt, for instance. Be sure to check labels to see what tank pH range works for each component. Also, if you mix bicarbonates with EM or other acidic ferments, you will very likely get precipitates. Tby Brian Caldwell - Fungal Pathogens
Re: 2022 Thinning trials - 8 months ago
Thanks Chris for the great information. My experiences this year-- I put on a spray of food grade baking soda @ 10#/100 gal on 5/12 during full bloom of early varieties. I saw little browning of the blossoms, so the following day I sprayed another batch of later-blooming trees with a 16#/100 mix. The weather was warm, with highs in the lower 80's, so bloom was progressing quickly.by Brian Caldwell - Organic Thinning
Re: 2022 Thinning trials - 8 months ago
We expect full bloom in 2 days with warm, clear weather. The following day I plan to put on a thinning spray on the heavy bloomers @ 10 lb baking soda per 100 gal. I'll let you know what happens.by Brian Caldwell - Organic Thinning
Re: plant sap analysis - 10 months ago
Hi Brittany and all, Let's continue this conversation. I wrote up a piece on sap analysis for this issue of the Community Orchardist--hope I did it justice. Please share your thoughts!by Brian Caldwell - Grower Research
Re: plant sap analysis - 1 year ago
It sounds like the sap analysis approach is targeted at reducing bitter pit and biennial bearing, as well as perhaps improving fruit quality (I would not use the Bionutrient approach to evaluate that). That gives me something to work with. On our farm, bitter pit has been a difficult problem on some varieties. If doing an R2 sap test (6 weeks after petal fall?) will help solve it, I'm upby Brian Caldwell - Grower Research
Re: plant sap analysis - 1 year ago
getting down to basics, what results are we trying to achieve from sap analysis and these various spray materials? Michael, you mention the better quality of last year's crop--what was better and how good was it? Do you have controlled comparison trees that didn't get the treatment(s)? For those of us not already immersed in all this, it would be good to see specifics. Thanks!by Brian Caldwell - Grower Research
Re: bicarbonate for thinning - 1 year ago
Not sure where Ike got that info. Sadly, I was too shy this year and only used pot bicarb @ 10 lb per acre-- 5 lb per 100 for me. It did nothing to thin the crop, though the petals were burned.by Brian Caldwell - Organic Thinning
Re: bicarbonate for thinning - 1 year ago
Sounds good Brittany and Josh. I just use straight food grade baking soda. I'm still not sure of the best rate. I would spray at about 25-40% bloom, then again a week later for the fullest effect. Brittany, I'll also be curious to hear if you see any differences in fire blight (hopefully you won't see any F where you spray the bicarbonate. I wonder if there will be less bee viby Brian Caldwell - Organic Thinning
Re: bicarbonate for thinning - 1 year ago
An update from the 2020 season--we had frost during bloom so I held off until I could see the crop. I used no bicarbonate, but sprayed overset trees with a full rate of fish oil + lime sulfur when the fruit was about 10 mm in diameter. It didn't seem to do anything. We did a lot of hand thinning.by Brian Caldwell - Organic Thinning
codling moth and Entrust - 1 year ago
We seem to have lost effectiveness on codling moth with Entrust on one of our two sites. I sprayed twice at max rates last summer to hit the second flight, timed by pheremone traps, and we still had 15-20% CM damage. The other site was fine, almost 0 CM damage. I'll be switching to Cyd-X virus this year. Has anyone had success with Grandevo on this pest?by Brian Caldwell - Bug by Bug
Re: combining the use of potassium bicarbonate and micro sulfur - 2 years ago
Hi Nat, I've used separate sprays of sulfur and potassium bicarbonate in a scab program for a couple years, leaving at least 5 days between sprays. I start with the bicarb, then switch to sulfur at pink for a few sprays when pressure is highest, then switch back to bicarb. I'm not ready to say it will always work, but in one block I've had near zero scab for those two years. Inby Brian Caldwell - Spray Nuance
Re: jugs of spinosad - 2 years ago
I generally only use 1 spray of Entrust per year, targeted at the second generation of codling moth and lesser appleworm. For us that is in mid-July. I make an effort to encourage bee/beneficial habitat (lots of blooming broadleaf weeds) under the trees through the summer, so I do wonder whether I'm killing lots of good bugs with that spray. Sometimes if European apple sawfly is heavy Iby Brian Caldwell - Spray Nuance
Re: curculio progress - 2 years ago
Hi Mike and all, Here is a quote about the range of nematode host species: Infections were carried out in the laboratory to determine the host range, specificity, and virulence of Steinernema rarum, S. feltiae,and Heterorhabditis bacteriophora that were isolated from different regions of Argentina. All insect orders showed a remarkable susceptibility to the three nematode species, showing morby Brian Caldwell - Bug by Bug
Re: curculio progress - 2 years ago
As far as establishing beneficial nematodes goes, Elson Shields at Cornell has produced native strains of the Steinernema and Heterorhabditis nematodes that have established in NYS by simply spraying them--no irrigation or adjuvants; no two weeks of wet weather. This has been done on hundreds of acres of alfalfa with success. We have hand-applied them with watering cans from large barrels, whicby Brian Caldwell - Bug by Bug
Re: bitter pit - 2 years ago
Thanks for the good comments on this tough subject. Certainly, testing can shed light on the situation. We use Idared as our tissue test "subject", since that variety gets bitter pit severely here (oddly, Honeycrisp has not so far). In 2018, a bad bitter pit year, it showed low Ca, K, and Mn. Soil tests tend to show low pH and calcium; high K and Mn. We are throwing the book at it-by Brian Caldwell - Tree Fruit Nutrition
Re: Microarthropod grazers? - 2 years ago
Thanks Eliza, very interesting! In one article I found, it seems as though AO was planted quite densely, two for each black walnut on a close 1.2 x 2.4m spacing. We can't do that easily in our apple orchard, but can imagine lightly introducing AO. Seems like it will interfere with mowing under/around our semidwarfs. Coppicing once a year might work, but not multiple mowings. This may beby Brian Caldwell - Ecosystem Connections
Re: Ripening mystery - 2 years ago
Thanks all, Yes, Todd, I certainly agree that overcropping can delay maturity. I was hoping that with last year's well-thinned crop, we'd have better ripening, but alas, not so. (We seem to have no problem with red varieties like Melrose and Empire, etc.) Mike, the seeds were dark and I tested brix on a green dropped Spy and it was around 10, terrible. It occurs to me that even thby Brian Caldwell - Tree Fruit Nutrition
bitter pit - 2 years ago
I'm surprised not to find a thread about bitter pit. Are we the only ones who have it? A long lapse in soil testing allowed our soil pH to drop to 5.6 before we realized what was happening. We started getting serious BP in Idared and Jonagold. It is a long haul to dig out of the hole we put ourselves in! We seem to be making some progress. We applied high calcium lime (twice @ 2 T/A) aby Brian Caldwell - Tree Fruit Nutrition
Re: Ripening mystery - 2 years ago
We have a heck of a time ripening Golden Delicious and Jonagold. The problem stared about 15 years ago when our semidwarf trees were about 20 years old. About 1/4 of the fruit will ripen on time, and the rest will be mostly green and will straggle along, many dropping before they are fully colored and flavored. I used to think it was a result of inadequate thinning, but last season they were tby Brian Caldwell - Tree Fruit Nutrition
Re: Marssonina 2019 - 2 years ago
I agree with Mike. I think we had a gap in our spray schedule focused on scab and sooty blotch that helped Marssonina get going--we applied no fungicides between 5/22 (end of primary scab) and 7/1 (start of biweekly SBFS sprays). M probably got a foothold then. That said, our spray program definitely reduced M compared to unsprayed trees. Brittany, Marssonina symptoms on our Baldwin trees looby Brian Caldwell - Fungal Pathogens