FFF03-09
July 25, 2003


Crop conditions:

Peach harvest is progressing well, with about average ripening times
and good crops.  Red Haven harvest is winding up in southern areas of
the state.  Early varieties of grapes are just starting to ripen
(veraison) in southern areas. Raspberry harvest is winding down in
central and southern areas. Blueberry harvest is well underway across
the state. Japanese beetles are the major concern at this time.

More rain:  Rain has continued to fall in the last 2 weeks, especially
in northern areas of the state.  In some northern areas flooding and
power outages were common. July rainfall (inches) in areas across the
state is reported in the following table.

Location July to date July average LaPorte 4.67 3.79 Kendallville 6.71
4.05 Indianapolis (SE) 4.51 4.78 Vincennes 2.07 4.67 North Vernon 7.01
4.12

Of the 7" of rain in North Vernon, most of this (over 5") fell on July
10. (Hirst)

Leaning trees:  When we have a lot of rain combined with wind, often
the result is a lot of leaning trees.  The biggest mistake that people
make is to wait until the ground dries out then go and straighten them
up, and in the process damaging the tree further by snapping more roots
than are already broken.  The trick is to straighten trees while the
soil is still fairly wet.  This is likely to allow roots to move in the
soil rather than break.  Options are to tie up a leaning tree to a
post, some kind of trellis, or to the trunk of the adjacent tree.
(Hirst)

Japanese Beetles: Japanese beetle adults are out in full force
throughout the state. The reports vary from location to location, with
some people reported lower populations than normal and others reporting
very high populations. Japanese beetles can be very problematic for
fruit growers. The beetles feed voraciously on the leaves of many
different fruit crops. The most serious damage, of course, comes when
the beetles damage the fruit. There are a number of insecticides that
are effective against Japanese beetles. One that is commonly used by
many growers is Sevin (carbaryl). Using Sevin on tree fruits is usually
no problem, since the PHI is 3 days, which is about the expected
effective life of the insecticide. However, the PHI on small fruits is
7 days, which can be a real problem during harvest season. Over the
past two seasons, I have had good results using products that contain
neem (azadirachtin) such as Neemix or Align. Neem has little or no
toxicity to the beetles, but does seem to act as an effective
repellent. It is best to apply the neem before large numbers of beetles
are present on your crop. If you use it, don't expect to see immediate
results. It may take a few days for the beetles to leave the plants.
However, even with several heavy rains, I have seen over a week of good
repellency. Neem has a 0 day PHI and a 12 hour REI for small fruits. A
reasonable approach during harvest would be to spray after you finish
harvesting for the day, which will give plenty of time before the next
day's harvest begins. (Foster)

Apple Fruit Rot Alert: An 'alert' in any business means to have
heightened awareness of a specific 'situation'...the specific situation
we have in mind is the combination of wet weather and the fungi that
cause fruit rot, a deadly combination. Wet weather is ideal for fungal
diseases such as sooty blotch and flyspeck, black rot, bot rot, bitter
rot and any other rots that might have made their way into your
orchard.  If wet conditions do persist the most critical thing you can
do is to maintain a tight spray schedule; see  ID-168, "2003 Indiana
Commercial Tree Fruit Spray Guide ", for suggested fungicides.  As
always, good orchard sanitation is a must for control of summer rot
disease problems.  Remove and destroy all dead and/or dying wood from
your orchard...NOW; this means brush piles, old prunings on the orchard
floor, dead trees, dead limbs in trees, etc.  Also, many summer
diseases can further be reduced through IPM strategies that lower
humidity and promote rapid drying.  These include keeping grass mowed
during summer and keeping trees well pruned.  Tree spacing within and
between rows should allow air movement between all trees.  Removing
adjacent woods or cutting breaks in hedgerows will also help improve
airflow in the orchard. (Pecknold)

Black Rot and White Rot: Branches which show bright yellow leaves that
eventually turn brown and die are likely candidates for having black
rot or white rot cankers.  All such yellow "flags" should be pruned out
completely several inches below any signs of obvious cankering or
discolored wood as soon as they appear.  Removing dead wood, mummies
and cankers from the trees is critical in the management of these
diseases.  Current-season prunings should be removed from the orchard
or chopped with a flail mower.  Prunings piled on the orchard perimeter
(let alone within the orchard!!) can serve as important disease
sources...both this year and next!  Act now to get rid of such sources.
(Pecknold)

Late Season Grape Disease Control:  Early July usually signals the
shift from early season to late season disease control strategy in
grapes.  From now until harvest the spray interval can generally be
extended to 14 to 21 days (depending on rainfall).  While we can
normally extend our spray intervals this time of year, growers with
severe black rot leaf spot should be prepared to respond to an
infection period with one of the sterol inhibitors such as Nova,
Bayleton, Rubigan, etc within 72 hrs of the start of the infection
period. On most grape cultivars the last application of mancozeb is
recommended two weeks post-bloom because it has a 66 day pre harvest
interval.  One of the other protectant fungicides must be substituted
for mancozeb for the remainder of the season.  Materials currently
available for late season disease control are captan, ferbam, ziram,
and copper.  Ziram has been granted a 24c label (Special Local Needs)
for Indiana that allows its use during the late season (21 day PHI).
The protectant should be combined with one of the sterol inhibitors
(SIs) such as Nova, Bayleton, Rubigan, etc.  Another option is one of
the strobilurin products such as Abound, Flint, or Sovran. We are at
bunch closing so it is time to make an application for Botrytis bunch
rot control on varieties that are susceptible such as tight-clustered
hybrids (Vignoles, Seyval) and most vinifera, especially Riesling and
Pinot noir.  Use either Rovral, Vangard, or Elevate and follow the
guidelines in the 2003 Indiana Commercial Small Fruit and Grape Spray
Guide (ID-169). (Bordelon)

Tissue Analysis Grapes and Small Fruits:  Plant nutritional status is
important for all phases of plant growth and has a direct effect on
vigor, fruitfulness, cold hardiness, and other factors. Tissue analysis
is the most reliable means of determining plant nutritional status.
Combined with soil testing, tissue analysis can help pinpoint the
source of problems and determine what measures may be needed to ensure
proper nutrition of the crop.  Tissue analysis samples should be
collected at the appropriate time to give the most meaningful results.
For strawberry, sample the first fully expanded leaves after
renovation, usually in mid to late July.  For brambles, sample leaves
on non-fruiting canes (primocanes) between August 1 and 20.  For
blueberries sample leaves during the first week of harvest.  For
grapes, samples should be taken about 70 days after full bloom, usually
early to mid August.  Samples should be adequate in size.  Collect
30-60 leaves for strawberries, brambles, and blueberries, and 100 leaf
petioles for grapes (for grapes submit only the leaf petiole, or stem,
for analysis, discard the leaf blade).  Collect samples to represent
the entire field, not just from a few plants.  Sample different
cultivars separately.  If specific problems exist, collect separate
samples from both normal and problematic areas of the planting. After
collection, leaves should be washed gently to remove any pesticide
residues and dust that might affect analysis, laid out to dry for a
couple of days, then bagged in paper bags for submission to the lab.
Some labs offer tissue analysis sample kits.
	There are several private companies and a few universities that
provide tissue analysis. Your county extension office has a list of the
ACP Certified plant and soil analysis labs in Indiana.  The Midwest
Small Fruit Pest Management Handbook has a chapter on tissue analysis
and fertilizer recommendations.  It is available on line at
http://www.ag.ohio-state.edu/~sfgnet/ (Bordelon)

Indiana Winegrowers' Guild Summer Meeting:  The Indiana Winegrowers'
Guild will hold its summer meeting Aug. 11 at Butler Winery and
Vineyard, 6200 E. Robinson Road in Bloomington. For a map and
directions to the vineyard see http://www.butlerwinery.com.  The
general meeting will start at 2 pm and will include a vineyard tour
with Jim Butler and Bruce Bordelon. At 3 pm Ellen Harkness will host a
blind tasting of Vidal wines from across the eastern U.S. This will be
the first of a continuing series of blind tastings focused on grape
varieties currently grown in Indiana, or that have potential for
Indiana. Indiana wineries are urged to bring any Indiana grown Vidal
wines they would like to have included in the tasting. The Business
meeting will follow the tasting at 4:30 pm, which should make for some
lively discussion. Dinner will be served for those wishing to stay and
enjoy the evening watching the deer feeding on Jim's grapes. Dinner
cost will be $10. Please call Butler Winery at 812-339-7233 to reserve
a dinner ticket. We need to know how many to expect for dinner.

Upcoming meetings:


July 30	Southwest Michigan Viticulture Field Day and Steak Cookout.
Southwest Michigan Research and Extension Center, Benton Harbor, MI
Contact SWMREC at 269-944- 1477 or see
http://www.msue.msu.edu/swmrec/index.htm

Aug 11	Indiana Winegrowers' Guild Summer Meeting  See note above.

Jan. 26-28	2004 Indiana Horticultural Congress.  Put the date on your
calendar and plan to attend.