June 5 Berry Bulletin

Strawberries

The last 10 days have been fairly rainy with some areas receiving 2-3 inches of rain the last weekend of May, and more this week. Early June-bearing strawberries that weren’t row covered are ripening and beginning to be picked along with row-covered June-bearing and overwintered strawberries. Malwina is beginning to bloom and there is green fruit on Valley Sunset.

New plantings are looking good for the most part with all the moisture. New plantings need 50 kg of N per ha, which can be applied as a side dressing 2-3 weeks after planting.

Insects: continue to monitor for aphids, cyclamen mites, two-spotted spider mites, tarnished plant bugs, and in new fields flea beetles and potato leafhoppers.  

• Cyclamen mite: Cyclamen mite injury can be found with cracked, seedy berries and crinkled, stunted leaves. In late varieties there is still time to apply a miticide now to reduce injury. In varieties with harvest beginning plan to spray after renovation. Pick in clean blocks first before moving to infested blocks or fields.
• Thrips: thrips can cause similar damage to cyclamen mite with bronzed and seedy berries. To determine if the bronzing is caused by thrips look at the calyx and underside of the sepals for rusty discolouration. To monitor blooms gently breath on blossoms to encourage thrips to move out of the bloom.  
• Tarnished plant bug: pressure remains fairly low where growers have applied an insecticide but don’t forget about late varieties like Valley Sunset and Malwina, especially if Malwina hasn’t had an insecticide yet.
• Slugs: With regular rainy weather slugs may be an issue. Sluggo or Deadline can be applied for slug control. There is a 6 day PHI on Deadline- use a band treatment between rows and do not allow this product into direct contact with foliage or fruit. Sluggo has a 0 day PHI, and should be applied to moist soil. Reapply as the bait is consumed or at least every 2 weeks if slugs and snails continue to be a problem.
• New plantings: Watch for flea beetles and potato leafhoppers in new fields.  Some of the insecticides applied for aphids will also provide some control of flea beetles, including Assail, Cygon or Lagon. Malathion may also provide some efficacy when applied for leafhoppers. Potato leaf hopper pressure has been low at this point but watch for them in new fields.

• Disease management: Powdery mildew can be found in June-bearing and day-neutral fields. Make sure to protect any late varieties that are blooming now for botrytis and anthracnose, like Malwina. Spraying after bloom for anthracnose and botrytis is needed if there are warm & wet conditions. See the 2024 Strawberry Disease Decision Support System for the risk of anthracnose and botrytis infection. There is a high risk of botrytis and anthracnose in some areas June 5 and June 6.
• Once harvest begins use Switch/Button (9+12) or Miravis Prime (7+12) for anthracnose control when there is high disease pressure (hot & humid with rain). Another option is Diplomat (19), however, under high disease pressure Diplomat alone did not provide acceptable control. Note that there is a maximum of 3 applications of fludioxonil-containing products per year, which includes Switch, Button, Miravis Prime, and Scholar. Do not rely on group 11s alone for anthracnose control.  
• Use broad spectrum fungicides (group M) during bloom as much as possible for botrytis control (June-bearing and day-neutrals). There are multiple formulations of captan products available- SC (suspension) and WSP (water-soluble pouches). For SC formulations (Captan 480 SC, #34551; Sharda Captan 48 SC, #32300) apply 5.8 L/ha in 1000 L water/ha. For WSP formulations (Maestro 80 WSP, #33488; Supra Captan 80 WSP, #33641) apply 3.5 kg/ha in 1000 L water/ha. Note the 6-8 day PHI for captan products.  
• With a fairly wet spring so far check out Phytophthora crown rot of strawberry for information on identifying and managing this challenging disease.

Blueberries

Blueberries are at green fruit and the crop continues to look promising.  If you have a history of scale infestations monitor for crawlers by using black sticky tape or flipping over hard scale shells for crawlers underneath. It is important to control scales at the crawler stage, when insecticides are most effective. New scale damage will be easiest to see on new growth and foliage. 

Raspberries

Raspberries are at bloom to green fruit. Do not apply an insecticide during bloom. Check new foliage for leaf shredding- raspberry sawfly damage has been seen. Check primocanes for raspberry cane borer injury. Cut any affected primocane tips below the lower girdle/zipper when you see injury. Cut down the cane further if there is tunnelling damage in the cane, indicating the larva has hatched and move further down. Destroy the prunings.

Spotted wing drosophila

Spotted wing drosophila monitoring: the Berry Growers of Ontario are supporting SWD monitoring this season. Traps are going up this week. Watch the Onfruit.ca blog or the berry bulletin for updates on trap catches.

Thrips workshop

Thrips workshop- greenhouse conference: Sign up now for a thrips species identification workshop at the greenhouse conThrips workshopference, in Niagara Falls Oct 9 or 10. Go to the events page for the Thrips Identification Workshop and follow the instructions to pre-register.

AgRobotics Demo Day

AgRobotics Working Group Demo Day: Mark your calendars for in-field demonstrations of autonomous solutions, technology and more! Thursday, July 11, 2024, 9:30am- 3:00pm. To register visit: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/agrobotics-demo-day-at-simcoe-research-station-tickets-918884376907