In this bulletin:
- Ontario Crop Protection Hub
- Crop Update
- Strawberry disease diagnosis testing
- Strawberry and Raspberry IPM Training
Ontario Crop Protection Hub: The Ontario Crop Protection Hub is now available and ready for growers to access the latest crop protection information: Ontario.ca/cropprotection. There are short training videos available on YouTube on how to find rate, PHI, REI, and max app information: Ontario Crop Protection Hub- How to find rate and comment information for specific crops and pests.
Crop Update:
Strawberries: After a cold week with a couple of frosts strawberries have been moving along slowly. Overwintered day-neutrals are beginning to bloom and row-covers are coming off. June-bearing fields are at variable stages; in row-covered fields buds are extending from the crown, and fields that weren’t row-covered are starting to see buds in the crown in early-mid season varieties.
Planting is beginning with both day-neutral strawberries and June-bearing strawberries. Apply 50 kg of nitrogen with phosphorus and potassium or as a side dressing 2-3 weeks after planting.
Disease: Now is a good time to apply Bravo or Echo for botrytis control on June-bearing strawberries to reduce disease inoculum and help with overall disease management later in the season. If there’s time apply 2 applications, 10 days apart. Make sure to get these applications on before bloom with the 30-day PHI.
Once bloom is present applying a group M product multiple times during bloom is important for resistance management and broad-spectrum disease control.
Neopestalotiopsis: All growers should be scouting for this disease. Neopestalotiopsis can cause leaf blighting, fruit rot and crown rot. Leaf lesions are light-tan brown with a slightly darker border. Lesions will eventually expand and become irregularly shaped. The University of Florida has an excellent post distinguishing between the different leaf spot diseases we see on strawberries: Leaf Spot Diseases of Strawberry. The University of Guelph Agri-Food Lab can now detect this new species for strawberry growers.
Samples cost approximately $120 per sample and results will be provided in 5-10 days. For more information on submitting samples check out www.afl.uoguelph.ca/submitting-samples or contact Katie Goldenhar (katie.goldenhar@ontario.ca) or I (erica.pate@ontario.ca) if you have samples you would like to test.
Insects: Watch fields closely after taking row-covers off for increased pest pressure- including aphids, cyclamen mite, and tarnished plant bugs. Check young, folded leaves for aphids. Aphids will likely need to managed 3-4 times a season to control viruses.
Cyclamen mite: Start checking for cyclamen mites and damage. Damage looks like stunted plants and crinkled, tough leaves. Agri-mek and Vegol Crop Oil can be applied to control these mites. Agri-mek works best on cyclamen mite when plants are succulent and actively growing. If applying Agri-mek make sure to keep a 10-14 day gap between Agri-mek applications and chlorothalonil (Bravo or Echo) or captan applications
Blueberries: are at bud burst.
Mummy berry: Blueberries can be infected with mummy berry shoot blight at the bud burst stage. If you have a history of mummy berry, control is required from this stage through to early bloom, prior to rain. Infection occurs after wetting periods of 6 or more hours depending on temperature. See the fungicide options on the Ontario Crop Protection Hub.
Use fungicides from different groups to control cane diseases such as phomopsis and anthracnose twig blight, including broad-spectrum fungicides like Bravo or Echo. Once bloom arrives, use fungicides that control both anthracnose and botrytis.
Raspberries: Primocanes are beginning to emerge and floricanes are leafing out. Ferbam is no longer registered for use on raspberries. Tanos can be used prebloom for early season disease control.
For raspberry crown borer control Diazinon can be used when new growth is 10cm above the ground. Only 1 application per year is permitted.
Strawberry and Raspberry IPM workshop webinar. May 10th, 10:00-12:00am, via Zoom. This workshop will cover strawberry and raspberry pests, including spotted wing drosophila, thrips, cyclamen mites, and aphids. Check out the pre-recorded videos which provide an introduction to berry production systems, strawberry diseases and viruses, and root pests: ONhortcrops YouTube Channel (URL: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJr20gvrwcOzO-Xr20OAu3A). These videos are available now. Videos from other OMAFRA specialists are also available on this channel. Pre-registration is required for the Webinar: Click here to register
Follow our ONfruit blog for regular updates and berry information.
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