Apples:
Late winter snow cover aided overwintering of apple scab ascospores. We had green tip showing on Idared apples by March 19. Scab spores were first trapped with rains last Monday morning, March 22. By our AREC records, the extended wetting from 8 PM March 25 to 11 AM March 26 was not quite long enough for scab infection, but showers in the area were variable and one more hour’s wetting would have resulted in a scab infection period.
Peaches:
Peach leaf curl spores overwinter all over the surface of the tree and, if not controlled by a dormant fungicide, typically infect with the wetting periods soon after bud swell. This would have occurred with rains March 25-26.
Disease management information directed mostly to the Frederick County Virginia tree fruit industry, updated as needed throughout the growing season. Keith Yoder, Virginia Tech Agricultural Research and Extension Center, Winchester, Virginia
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About Me
- Keith Yoder
- Professor Emeritus of Plant Pathology, Virginia Tech Ag. Research and Extension Center, Winchester, VA
