FFF04-06 June 4, 2004 Crop Conditions: Warm weather and frequent rain has led to rapid fruit growth. The window for chemical thinning is essentially over, and hand thinning of apples and peaches is underway. Summer Meeting of IHS is at Anderson Orchard, Moorseville, IN. The summer meeting of the Indiana Horticultural society will be held June 28-29 at Anderson Orchard, in Mooresville, IN. Once again this year, we will be meeting in conjunction with the Indiana Farm Marketing Association. The Andersons have a lot for us to see, both on the growing side and from a marketing perspective. Among the crops grown are apples, peaches, pears, plums, cherries, blueberries and several nut varieties. The pumpkin patch is also a popular attraction. The Andersons have recently installed a kitchen area in their market where they produce elephant ears, fried biscuits and cobblers. Meeting Agenda: Monday evening we will meet for a program and roundtable discussion at the sales shed at Anderson's. We will have a cookout for the evening meal there at the sales shed. For the roundtable, bring your questions or comments to discuss with your fellow growers and marketers. If you have an innovative solution to a problem, bring that along to share. Tuesday we will assemble again at Anderson's for a full day of touring the market, checking out the facilities and touring the orchards. We will have a program dealing with issues relevant to growers and marketers and a short business meeting of the Hort. Society. Schedule of events Monday, June 28, 2004 5:00 - 6:00 pm Assembly at the sales facility and registration 6:00- 7:00 pm Cookout (small charge) 7:00 - 9:00 pm Round table discussion 9:00 pm Adjourn Tuesday, June 29,2004 Assemble at the sales building, Anderson Orchard 8:00- 8:45 am Registration and coffee 8:45-9:45am Introduction of guests Comments from: Dr. Randy Woodson - Indiana Dept. of Ag.? Ms. Kathy Altman - Agri-tourism Ms. Annette Phillips - Farm worker housing 9:45-10:30 am Tour of market and facilities 10:30-12:30 noon Tour of orchards 12:30-1:45 pm Lunch on the grounds prepared by the Cattlemen's Association (small charge) 1:45 -2:30 pm Hort. Society Business meeting 2:30-2-45 pm Move by auto to west orchard 2:45-4:00 pm Tour west orchard 4:00 pm Adjourn to return to the sales room for refreshment, and/or to travel home Overnight Accommodations: The closest motels are at the junction of I-70 and SR 267 in Plainfield. There are 11 motels at that intersection. There should be good availability of rooms for Monday night, June 28, according to innkeepers contacted. Ameri-Host Inn 317-838-9300 $84. +11% T Comfort Inn 317-839-9600 $69.+ T Days Inn 317-839-5000 $69. + T Hampton Inn 317-839-9993 $89. + T Holiday Inn Express 317-839-9000 $94. + T Homewood Suites 317-839-1900 $104.-119. (No discounts) Lee's Inn 317-837-9000 $79. + T Ramada Limited 317-837-8360 $54.95 + T (with discount) Super 8 317-837-8888 $53.95 + T (Corp. Rate) Directions to Anderson Orchard: Anderson Orchard is located at 369 East Greencastle Road, which is an extension of Main Street in Mooresville. From the traffic light in downtown Mooresville the orchard is two miles west. If you are coming south on SR 267 into the west side of Mooresville, turn west at the Junction of Monroe Street and Main Street, then about two miles to the orchard. Dr. Jennifer Dennis, Marketing Specialist, Starts at Purdue: We are very pleased to announce that the new specialty crops marketing professor, Dr. Jennifer Dennis, has arrived at Purdue. Jennifer officially began her new position this week. This is a new position created with some assistance from a USDA grant administered by the Office of the Indiana Commissioner of Agriculture. Dr. Jennifer has a dual appointment in the Departments of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture (HLA) and Agricultural Economics. Her primary responsibility will be extension, although she will also teach a senior level marketing class. Jennifer comes to Purdue from Michigan State University, where she received her Ph.D. in Horticulture with an emphasis on Marketing and Consumer Behavior. She has a B.S. and M.S. both from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Horticulture. Some of Jennifer's areas of expertise include consumer behavior, survey research methodology and statistics, service quality, and emotion research. Her dissertation focused on understanding switching behavior within gardening consumers and the effect of plant guarantees on horticultural products. When asked why she chose Purdue, she stated "I think we (Purdue) chose each other. Purdue had a need for a specialty crop marketing faculty member and my background in consumer behavior, horticulture and marketing met well with what they needed. Two of the greatest selling points were the chance to work collaboratively with numerous horticulture organizations and the close proximity to both Champaign and Chicago, IL." Jennifer will focus on Farm Markets and work closely with the Indiana Farm Market Association. She will also serve on the New Ventures Team, a team of Ag Econ faculty members and extension educators committed to aiding new businesses. Jennifer brings both expertise and enthusiasm to this new position. She can be contacted at Purdue University, 320 Horticulture Building, West Lafayette, IN 47907, 765-494-1352, or jhdennis@purdue.edu . Apple Diseases, What To Do: In addition to fire blight, now is the time growers need to be walking their orchards looking for symptoms of apple scab, powdery mildew, and rust. When looking for diseases select those blocks that are most disease prone. Ida red, Jonathan, and Rome are "good" trees to inspect for disease doings; they are all highly susceptible to scab, blight, mildew and rust. If you do see symptoms of any of the above-mentioned diseases we suggest the following: Apple scab - the safest bet is to apply Rubigan or Nova in combination with a FULL rate of Captan, OR, use one of the new strobilurin fungicides, Sovran or Flint. Fire blight - immediately cut out blighted twigs 10 to 12 inches below any sign of infection, being sure to sterilize pruning tools between each cut; maintain good control of sucking insects which are primary carriers for secondary spread of blight and apply streptomycin within 24 hours following injury from hail storms. Special attention should be given to young trees and trees on M9 and M26 rootstocks or interstems. Powdery mildew - maintain mildewcide sprays until terminal growth stops. Rust - relax and enjoy the colorful display of orange spots on leaves and/or green depressions on fruit.... no further infection from rust will occur this year, therefore rust is one disease you don't have to worry about any longer. (Pecknold) Cedar Quince Rust: In some areas of the state this has been a banner year for rust infection. Many growers only think of cedar apple rust when we talk about rust, however, there is another rust that often goes unnoticed and can cause extensive fruit injury, namely cedar quince rust. One reason we take note of cedar apple rust is because of the very colorful display it provides every year as orange, jelly-like, projections on cedar trees and bright, red-orange spots on apple leaves. Cedar quince rust often goes unnoticed both on cedar and apple. On cedar trees quince rust appears as simply an orange slime on stem tissue. On apple, quince rust seldom affects leaves; rather it is the very young developing fruit that suffers the most harm. Infection is nearly always on the calyx end of fruit. Infected tissue will be indented and often have a dark green coloration. Such fruit will typically drop prior to harvest. Refer to the efficacy table on page 35 of this years tree fruit spray guide for a listing of what fungicides to use for rust control. Of course it is now much too late to apply fungicides to control either quince rust or cedar apple rust. Tight cluster and pink is when sprays need to begin for control of rust, keep this in mind as you admire this years rust display. (Pecknold) More on Crop Load Adjustment in Grapes: I wrote about shoot and cluster thinning in the last issue. Since then we've gone through bloom and it is apparent that we have set a very large crop this year. Conditions during bloom have been ideal for full fruit set and most vineyards I've seen have three or more clusters per shoot on most varieties. While this may not be a problem on small-clustered varieties such as Foch and Vignoles, it can lead to serious over cropping on large-clustered varieties like Chardonel and Chambourcin. Growers will want to carefully monitor potential yield and make adjustments. There will likely be a need to reduce the number of clusters on many varieties this year. If you have questions about crop load adjustment, don't hesitate to contact me. (Bordelon) Shoot Positioning and Canopy Management: Now that we are past fruit set and shoots have toughened-up, it's time to get serious about shoot positioning in grapes. Varieties differ in their need for shoot position due to their growth habit and vigor. Some varieties such Vignoles and Chancellor tend to have relatively short shoots that stand up well on their own, so shoot positioning is seldom needed. Other varieties such as Traminette, Foch and all the American varieties produce horizontally growing shoots that tend to run along the top of the trellis and cause significant shading of the fruit and renewal zone. Shoot positioning is very important with these varieties. The need for shoot positioning on other varieties will vary depending on vigor of the particular site. In high cordon-trained vines shoot positioning involves pulling lateral-growing shoots off the top of the trellis to hang vertically downward. In mid-wire cordon-trained vines, shoot positioning is done by tucking shoots between sets of catch wires, or pulling catch wires up into position so that the shoots grow vertically upward. Shoot positioning is critical to improving sunlight exposure of fruit and increasing fruit quality. Additionally, it improves fruitfulness of the basal nodes on the shoots for full fruiting potential next year. Shoot positioning may need to be repeated two or three times during the summer. (Bordelon) Effect of Rain on Fungicide Wash-Off: I've had several calls this year (and in years past) from growers wanting to know what they should do about spraying with all the rain we've had lately. That reminded me of an article previously written by Jim Travis, Plant Pathologist at Penn State. Jim notes that when using protectant fungicides, you need to consider the effect of rain on wash-off of the materials. The strobilurin (Abound, Sovran, Flint) and sterol inhibitor (Nova, Procure, Rubigan) fungicides are absorbed into the leaf and fruit tissue after application (once the residue has dried) and are not affected by rain wash-off. The protectant (Dithane, Manzate, Penncozeb, Captan, Ziram, Thiram, Polyram) fungicide residues can be affected by rain. A general rule-of-thumb for the effect of rain on washing-off protectant fungicides follows: _ Less than one inch of rain since the last spray will not significantly affect residues. _ One to two inches of rain will reduce the residue by one half. Reduce the number of days until the next spray by one half. _ Over two inches of rain since the last spray will remove most of the spray residue. Renew the fungicide deposit as soon as possible. So, during all this rainy weather, growers have a couple of options. They can use the new strobilurins or sterol inhibitors and time sprays so that residues dry on the plants before the next rain event, or they can continue to use protectants and monitor rainfall to determine appropriate timing of the next spray. Not spraying because of frequent rainfall is not an option unless you want to have a major disease outbreak. We are still in the critical period for control of black rot. The first two post-bloom sprays are critical. (Bordelon) Indiana Winegrowers Guild Summer Meeting and Workshop: The Indiana Winegrowers Guild will hold its summer meeting at Chateau Pomije Winery in New Alsace in Dearborn Co. The main workshop topic for the meeting is "Port, or something like it" with Chris Stamp from Lakewood Vineyards in Watkins Glen, NY. Lunch will be served at the winery and a tour of the vineyards will follow. Chateau Pomije has the largest planting of vinifera grapes in the state including Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, and Riesling as well as French hybrids and American varieties. The afternoon session will feature a tasting and discussion of Foch wines from the region. Registration begins at 9:30 am Eastern Standard Time. Registration is $20 for Indiana Winegrower Guild members, and $40 for non-members. Contact Jill Blume, Purdue University, 765-494-1749 or visit www.indianawines.org for more details. Blueberry Growers of Indiana Spring Meeting and Farm Tour: BGIN will meet at the Blueberry Ranch, 54743 Buckeye Road, Mishawaka. The farm tour will begin at 4:00 pm and the potluck dinner will start at 5:00 pm. The BGIN and MBG business meetings will follow. Directions: From I-80/90, take exit 83 south to Mishawaka. Turn left on Capitol Ave., left on Douglas Rd., then right on Buckeye Rd. Contact John Nelson 574-255-5773 or Melvin Van Kley, 219-956-3687. Upcoming Meetings: