Berry Bulletin August 11, 2017

In this bulletin:

• crop updates
• Anthracnose
• SWD management
• pollinator habitats

August 11, 2017                                                              PDF available Berry Bulletin August 11

Blueberries: Blueberry yields continue to look good across the province. Continue to monitor for SWD in your own fruit with a salt water test. Spray every 5-7 days if SWD is present. If you are not monitoring for SWD on your farm with salt water traps it is time to start protecting your crop when the fruit is ripening.

Raspberries: Summer raspberry harvest is winding down in most parts of the province, with fall-bearing raspberry harvest beginning in southern Ontario this week and next week in Eastern Ontario. SWD management will be a top priority for fall bearing raspberry growers. Keep the fields picked clean from the beginning, and maintain insecticide coverage. Clean up summer raspberries if you have other small fruit susceptible to SWD on your farm.

Strawberries:

Day neutral harvest continues and yields are improving from the beginning of the season. Anthracnose has been noticed in a couple fields. Switch 62.5 WG, Pristine, and Cabrio are registered for anthracnose control. Switch is also registered for botrytis control and powdery mildew suppression. Use Switch when there is high disease pressure from botrytis and anthracnose, during warm, rainy weather. Spray for botrytis and anthracnose, and rotate with a fungicide with a different mode of action. Check Pub 360, page 147 for fungicide activity on different strawberry diseases.

Aphids in June bearing fields continue to be found. Similar to SWD, aphids should be monitored throughout the season. After an aphicide application aphid numbers should drop to zero. Once aphid counts increase again it is time to spray again- up to every 3 weeks. It is important to protect your renovated fields along with your new plantings.

Spotted wing Drosophila will be present for the rest of the season, and populations will increase. Continue to monitor and manage for this pest. SWD are most active later in the evening or in the early morning, so spraying at these times will hit more adults.

Spotted-Wing Drosophila:

If you have ripe fruit it is at risk of SWD infestation. SWD numbers continue to climb across the province and populations will grow for the rest of the summer. Protect all ripe fruit at this time.  Optimal temperatures for SWD are between 20-25C, which is contributing to the higher, earlier SWD counts this year.

SWD management is a combination of weekly insecticides, regular, thorough picking (every 2 days or less) and immediate post-harvest cooling to 5C or cooler. Re-apply an insecticide after a rain to maintain coverage- reapplication is needed after 1/2inch of rain.

Dave Jones, from MSU extension, wrote an article on SWD management and approaching it similar to disease management. The article includes how to use trap counts- not as a tool to determine when to spray, but to learn what the pest is doing and where it is in the field.  Trap counts let us know when the populations are building and when they start flying in the summer but do not show the risk of fruit contamination. Instead, once SWD is found in your fields you need to start regular management, including but not limited to insecticides. To read more about their SWD recommendations click here.

Twitter: Follow me on twitter @PateErica for regular updates and berry information!

Pollinator Habitats: Local farmers and researchers met at Howe Family Farms for a great morning this week learning about pollinators and creating pollinator habitats on your farm. To learn how to enhance pollinator habitats on your own farm visit http://www.farmsatwork.ca/