Regional report on southeast Michigan fruit – September 13, 2011

Pest and fruit updates for southeast Michigan.

Southeast Michigan
Southeast Michigan

Apple harvest is in full swing across the region. Galas are picking well ahead of McIntosh this year. Many folks are finishing up on Gala and have already started on a few earlier maturing strains of McIntosh. Honeycrisp are being spot-picked for their first picking. Apples are picking out a bit longer than what many growers anticipated.

Peach and pear harvest is now complete. Stanley plum harvest is ongoing. Fall red raspberry harvest is continuing, blueberry harvest is pretty well wrapped up across the region and table grape and Concord grapes are being harvested now.

I have visited a number of fall red raspberry farms where gray mold has now become evident as of mid- to late last week. This gray mold outbreak is primarily in the southern two tiers of Michigan counties where we had a persistent east to west rain pattern that prevailed last week. Two fungicide applications about 7 to 10 days apart may be needed to overcome this disease.

I continue to see increased amounts of pin head apple scab on apple leaves. This disease is causing early leaf drop in several orchards. This late season apple scab means that fruit destined for long term or controlled atmosphere storage could develop lesions later in storage. This also has implications for increased amount of apple scab pressure for the 2012 growing season. I also see increasing amounts of black rot on apples, particularly in Gala and Honeycrisp.

I have had numerous calls from people asking for identification of spotted wing Drosophila. I have been able to eliminate almost all of them as “look-a-likes.” I’ve also had a number of calls on possible discoveries of brown marmorated stinkbug. All of the samples that I have identified have also been look-a-likes.

If you need to see me at your farm for a farm visit, contact me via email or call my office at 810-244-8555 (remember this is a new number as of the first of the year) or my cell at 810-516-3800.

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