North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[<dmnorton@royaloakfarmorchard.com>]



Our pressure here in Zone 5 is very heavy.  I usually leave 1 tree untreated with anything on our most wooded orchard edge asa a control.  Each season almost every apple has ovipositioning on it.  I set a trap in hte tree using a lure of plum essence and pheremones to attract them to that tree and have trapped PC each season in it as well.  When I trap the first PC, usually prior to any ovipositioning since the females are ready to lay eggs prior to fruit set, I know I have them and will need to get some protection on the new fruit pronto.  I do hold out to coincide with my first CM spray.

 

A new video was jsut posted to the Growing Produce web site on Optimizing Insecticide Performance To Control Plum Curculio at http://www.growingproduce.com/gptv/?cid=2 .  It is the best I have seen in describing the various products for PC control.

 

Dennis Norton
Royal Oak Farm Orchard
Office (815) 648-4467
Mobile (815) 228-2174
Fax (609) 228-2174
http://www.royaloakfarmorchard.com
http://www.theorchardkeeper.blogspot.com
http://www.revivalhymn.com

----- Original Message -----

From: Alan Haigh

To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org

Sent: Thursday, May 07, 2009 10:27 AM

Subject: [NAFEX] PC tilling

  " Alan, you are sounding like those nay-saying scientists who claim
something won't work, probably because they didn't think of it."

 

Jim, I don't think so.  I only get about 2 good ideas a year so I am open to some input.  Plus I'm far from being a scientist, I don't even take notes, unfortunately.

 

The thing is that before I got into this business I did a lot of research including studying Prokopy's in Mass.  At the time he was one of the leading authorities at PC control.  They do fly in from elsewhere according to him and all the other info and can scar up your apples pronto.  Even Dennis says this is just a piece of his control and he's up pretty far north where PC maybe isn't quite as intense as what I have here in Z6 NY.

 

Michael Phillips commented in his book that he didn't even experience PC in his, I think, Z4 orchard.