North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Patsy King" <pking888@gmail.com>]

I am so pleased to hear the details of your experiences with the codling controls you've described.  I had not heard from anybody who had tried the CYD-X virus  and did not even know that "Last Call" was available yet or what its name was,  just a description.  This info will help many growers. And thanks so much for the link to the site for trying to calculate when to do the controls.  I knew it was online somewhere, but you've saved me lots of time searching for it!!!

I'd be interested too to hear how your experiences have been with scab.  I would suspect your location would be even more scab prone than mine.

People's experiences with the major apple problems would be a great topic for articles in Pomona in my opinion, since so many people grow apples.

Thanks again to all who've been giving their ideas...
patsy  in SW oregon zone 7-8

Message: 4
Date: Sat, 5 Apr 2008 18:03:50 -0700
From: Karen Tillou <arboretum@homeorchardsociety.org>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Codling Moth Control (Richard Moyer's)
To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID:
       <D521E733-9747-4BD5-8226-4B8FBCB550B8@homeorchardsociety.org">D521E733-9747-4BD5-8226-4B8FBCB550B8@homeorchardsociety.org>
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patsy - i have a maybe 100 apple trees that i manage organically here
in the pacific northwest.

the two uses for codling moth traps do not require different pheremone
lures, it is merely a matter of the number of traps you put out, as
you suspected.  i use just a few traps to monitor the emerging
population each spring, but costs prevent me from buying two traps for
each tree to trap them out....

there exists a product called "Last Call" that combines the codling
moth pheremone with a synthetic pyrethrin pesticide - you apply 5-10
"droplets" scattered on the branches of each tree (i think that was
the recommended #) - the male moths home in on the pheremone, but die
when they come in contact with the pesticide.  it is not OMRI listed,
because of the pesticide, but is much less destructive to beneficial
bugs than spraying.  if you have the time to apply the stuff, i think
it might be a good solution for a small orchard.

my experience with CYD-X has been on the positive side, for a small
orchard.  a group of us with small numbers of trees got together and
split the cost of one bottle, which has a shelf life of 18 months if
you freeze it between uses.  i have seen gradual reductions in my
codling moth populations over the three years of use, and that is from
a once or twice per year spray regime (terribly lazy, i know) with no
other controls beyond religious removal of windfalls during the
harvest period.
my neighbor and his 20-30 big old trees has also been happy with his
results.

one organic grower i know splurged on his $300 bottle of virus,
sprayed it intensively every week during the first and second
generation egg hatch periods, and so completely wiped out his
population that he has not had to spray for the two years since.

the thing with CYD-X is timing: it has only a 3 day life out in the UV
light, and must be injested by the larvae before they enter the
apples.  which means the best time for them to do that is as they chew
their way out of their egg cases.  WSU researchers Brunner and Hoyt
came up with a phenology model for the codling moth, linking degree
days to their egg hatching.  this model is available online, where you
can plug in a local weather station's data and find out when the eggs
are hatching, to better time your sprays.  i use the site www.pnwpest.org/wea/
  that has links to oregon, washington and idaho weather stations.
(are there other sites out there for different parts of the country?)

i think part of my slow results from using the virus are from poor
timing, as it is inevitably raining the days i need to spray....

hope this helps
karen

oregon city, OR - zone 8a and wet