Crop Update

Strawberries

The volume of June-bearing strawberries is increasing this week; although strawberries have been ripening slowly to this point in the season there is hot weather coming and berries are ripening quickly now. Pick-your-own operations are opening, with early and mid-season varieties available. Late varieties including Kate and Valley Sunset have green fruit and there is bloom in Malwina.

New June-bearing fields and spring planted day-neutrals are establishing well for the most part but make sure they receive enough irrigation with the dry weather we’ve had and hot conditions coming up. Remove flower buds and bloom in new fields. In day-neutral fields, once there are 4-6 leaves you can leave the bloom on. Runners should be removed from these new fields. Apogee or Kudos can be used for runner suppression in day-neutrals where runners aren’t needed. Apply before runner formation.

Disease:

• There is a high risk of anthracnose and botrytis across the province this week- consider applying another fungicide before any rain. Switch/Button (9+12) or Miravis Prime (7+12) have 1-day pre-harvest intervals and may be a good choice where a fungicide is needed before harvest.   
• Botrytis fungicide resistance to multiple active ingredients has been identified in Ontario. Continue to use broad spectrum fungicides when possible, rotate between multiple FRAC groups that are active on Botrytis, and use the Strawberry Disease Decision Support System to time fungicide applications.

Insects:

• Insect pressure has been fairly low so far in new fields but watch for aphids, potato leafhoppers, and flea beetles. Admire can only be used post bloom or once bloom and blossom clusters have been removed.   
• Don’t forget about insect control in Malwina- an insecticide for tarnished plant bug will likely be needed, and watch for thrips.
• Take note of Cyclamen mite damage (stunted plants, bronzed, seedy berries) and plan to apply a miticide at renovation in these fields or blocks. Where cyclamen mite is present plan to work in these fields last.

Raspberries

Raspberries are mostly at the green fruit stage with some later cultivars at late bloom. Make sure raspberries are well-irrigated; at the green fruit stage raspberries need 1-2 inches a week. Check new growth and primocane-fruiting raspberries for potato leafhoppers; nymphs will be on the underside of the leaves.  

Blueberries

Blueberries are at the green fruit stage. Check for aphids on the underside of new leaves. Use black electrical tape to monitor for scale crawlers and to time insecticides. It is important to control scales at the crawler stage, when insecticides are most effective.  Movento can be used postbloom when lecanium scale crawlers are present.

Product Update

Gatten® (flutianil, PCP# 34297, FRAC group U13) is now registered for powdery mildew control on strawberries (outdoor). See the Hub for comments and more details.

Allegro ® (fluazinam, PCP# 27517, FRAC group 29) label expanded via Emergency Use Registration to manage Neopestalotiopsis on field strawberries. Allegro has receive emergency use registration for suppression of Neopestalotiopsis leaf blight and fruit rot (Neopestalotiopsis sp.). When applied for Neopestalotiopsis leaf blight and fruit rot Allegro may also have activity against Botrytis and anthracnose fruit rot. See this blog post for more information.

Spotted Wing Drosophila Monitoring

Traps have gone up for spotted wing drosophila at a few sites across the province- Norfolk, Elgin, Halton, Haldimand, and Hamilton. Watch the berry bulletin or the onfruit.ca blog for regular updates on traps catches.

SWD was identified this week at one site in Norfolk. No SWD was found at the other locations.

Watch the onfruit.ca blog for updates later this week as we are checking traps again this week.

Keep an eye on strawberries as they are the main ripe berry crop around. Use salt water tests to evaluate fruit quality, watch for soft, juicy fruit, and prepare to manage SWD.

Trap collected period of:	County/region where SWD was trapped	# of traps with SWD	Total number of SWD trapped this week	# SWD/positive trap
May 26- June 1	0	0	0	0
June 2-June 8	Norfolk, Elgin	2	2	1
June 9- June 13	Halton	1	1	1
June 14- June 17	Norfolk	3	3	1

See Friday’s onfruit blog post Registrations for SWD and Monitoring Update June 13, 2025 for a list of products registered for SWD control or suppression.

• Calibrate your sprayers now to get excellent spray coverage.
• Spray when adults are most active, in the early morning and evenings.
• Keep alleys clean, and destroy unmarketable fruit
• Pick regularly and clean
• Cool fruit as quickly as possible after harvest
• Make the environment less favourable to SWD- prune the canopy and manage water to reduce humidity (repair leaking drop lines).

Herbicide Resistance Testing

• No-cost Molecular Herbicide Resistance Testing Available for Ontario Growers. Check out onfruit for details on submitting samples for fast, accurate, resistance confirmation- for Free!

Upcoming events

Mark your calendars for these exciting events coming up for berry growers!

• July 8– AgRobotics Demo Day- Bradford Research Station (register here)
• July 22– AgRobotics Demo Day- Simcoe Research Station, 1283 Blueline Rd, Simcoe, ON (register here)
• August 12-13– NASGA Summer Tour, Nova Scotia
• September 3– Strawberry High Tunnel Grower Day, EZ Grow Farms (more details to come)
• September 4– BGO’s Annual Twilight Meeting, Howe Family Farms