Accumulated wetting hours (starting April 29, 10 days after petal fall, Apr 19): 218 hr. The wetting hour threshold for presence of sooty blotch and flyspeck fungi on unprotected fruit is 250 hr. It is expected that we will reach that threshold in the next week. Update: Rappahannock county (Washington, VA) has surpassed the 250-hr threshold, with 282 wetting hours as of June 16.
June 9: Apple scab infection period; wet 11 hr at mean 61º.
This is a reminder of the breakfast meeting at our AREC Thursday, June 17 at 7 AM. The main purpose of this meeting is to further assess weather-related crop losses to tree fruit in our counties and the submission of a crop damage assessment to the state government. Bill Whittle will lead this assessment at the meeting on Thursday, with the intention of collecting updated information on crop damage that may be used to trigger some remedial actions at the state level. We encourage you to provide feedback regarding your crop loss situation. In addition to addressing this topic, Plant Pathology and Entomology updates will be given during breakfast.
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
About Me
- Keith Yoder
- Professor Emeritus of Plant Pathology, Virginia Tech Ag. Research and Extension Center, Winchester, VA
