East Michigan fruit regional report – July 22, 2016
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EmailSpotted wing Drosophila trap catch and apple maggot numbers took a big jump this week. A few tenths of an inch of precipitation came to some fruit farms Thursday afternoon, while most others received none. Our drought continues across the region.
Weather
Some growers received a quarter on an inch of rain from the line of thunderstorms that moved over the region on the afternoon of Thursday, July 21, but most growers only saw a dusting of precipitation. Drought continues across in the eastern part of Michigan for almost all growers, except for a few in a narrow band in Oakland County that saw some good rains last week. Soils remain very dry across most of the region. Growers continue to devote a great deal of time to irrigation in both tree and small fruit crops.
Hot daytime and nighttime temperatures over the last week have continued to push our season ahead of normal for both degree day totals and our fruit crop growth stages and beginning of harvest.
Tree fruits
Apples are mostly at 2.25 inches in diameter for growers across the entire region. The first apple maggot trap catch was reported early last week, and since then most farms have seen their trap catch on yellow sticky boards continue to slowly climb. So far, almost all of the trap catch has been on yellow sticky board traps, with just a few on red sphere traps. However, a few farms have seen very high trap catch in mostly yellow sticky board traps. These farms need to consider an insecticide application to control apple maggot.
Small fruits
Raspberry harvest continues for summer red raspberry varieties, although small berry size continues to be a problem at many farms due to drought. Trap catch of spotted wing Drosophila (SWD) has taken a big jump this week across the region, from an average of less than one per trap last week to an average to just over 14 SWD per trap this week. In my opinion, due to this jump in trap catch, growers need to begin to protect summer red raspberries now for SWD infestation. For fall red raspberry growers, when fruit is approaching harvest, protection measures need to begin as well. Look for a complete SWD report on Friday published on the Michigan State University Extension Fruit & Nuts News website for results for this week from our statewide trapping network.
Blueberry harvest continues. As in raspberries, this week trap catch of spotted wing Drosophila (SWD) has taken a big jump across the region, from an average of less than one per trap last week to an average to just over 14 SWD per trap this week. In my opinion, due to this jump in trap catch, blueberry growers need to begin to protect now for SWD infestation. Look for a complete SWD report on Friday published on the MSU Extension Fruit & Nuts News website for results for this week from our statewide trapping network.
