Repost of Critical Temperatures for Frost Damage to Fruit Trees

With the prediction of temperatures in the low 30’s for tonight in northern Illinois, I thought I would repost the “Critical Temperatures” again for those who grow their own fruit at home.  Our trees here at Royal Oak Farm Orchard should be far enough along that the low 30’s should not have much effect on the current clusters and blooms.  But here is an explanation of how the fruitlets, clusters or blooms can be effected if the temperatures get low enough.

As the trees develop in the spring and buds start to swell, they lose the ability to withstand the cold winter temperatures that they could withstand in dormancy during the cold winter months. The young, actively growing tissue can then be damaged or even killed. Swollen fruit buds can better withstand temperatures in the teens without any damage. As the buds open, temperatures in the low 20s can cause harm, but sometimes leave other buds undamaged.  As growth moves from green tip to 1/4” green to 1/2” green to tight cluster to pink in apple trees, temperatures in the upper 20s can cause considerable harm to an early blooming tree. Near bloom, the range between slight and severe damage can be very small. So the stage of bud development determines how susceptible any given fruit crop is when freezes occur.  For more information on what those critical temperatures are that can cause freeze damage to trees during development, I have uploaded two charts from Utah State University below that you can download by clicking on either chart below.

Spring 2013 Has Arrived!

The apple trees have silver tipped in the orchard here at Royal Oak Farm orchard in northern Illinois and that is a sure sign that spring has arrived!! It also indicates that just as soon as the nights stay above freezing, it will be time to do our dormant oil and copper spray. The oil (mineral oil) is sprayed for mites, scale and aphids because spring is the time to cover those eggs at the base of the buds. Below you can see aphid eggs that were laid fall.

Copper is also sprayed at this time for control of fire blight and to aid in the suppression of apple scab pathogens, both being severe diseases that can destroy a crop as well as the trees. We also have to be aware of the spring critical temperatures as the buds progress in development. Each spring I post the spring critical temperatures chart from Utah State to help you determine at what stage your fruit trees may be at as spring progresses.

As I mentioned earlier, now is the time to do our fire blight copper spray and our horticultural oil spray.  We want to get the copper on the trees before they reach full 1/4” green and the horticultural oil can be sprayed at the same time in a tank mix or done as a dormant,silver tip,green tip, or 1/4” green spray.  In other words, your oil can be sprayed at any time from silver tip through 1/4” green providing you are using a mineral oil based product such as Superior Oil 70sec or an off the shelf Horticultural Oil such as Bonide’s All Seasons Horticultural Spray Oil.  Your copper spray should be done before the trees reach 1/4” green to avoid any phytotoxicity issues.  For your copper spray you can also use an off the shelf brand such as Bonide Copper Fungicide RTU (Ready to Use).  Both of these products should be available at your local hardware store or garden center of from Amazon.com.

A dormant oil and copper spray should not be done until we get at least a 24 hour period that is above freezing at night. The oil cannot freeze on the trees, but it pretty much dries within about 24 hours. We usually get at least one 24 hour period above freezing at night before the trees get to 1/4" green. 

 

This “window of opportunity” for dormant sprays for fruit trees depends on the bud stage of your target fruit tree. You can follow these guidelines:

Apples: swollen bud - 1/2” green
Pears: swollen bud - cluster bud
Peaches/Nectarines: swollen bud - pre-bloom
Apricot: before bloom

When applying, spray trees just until they are dripping to get good application on all the stems and crevices at the buds. If you are using horticultural oil alone, use a rate of 2% (mixed in water) for best resultsor your chosen product’s label rate.  For situations where aphids have been real problems in the past, consider adding an insecticide (such as acetamiprid, etc.) to 1.5-2% oil or use one of the Bonide RTU (ready to use) pre-mixes for insect pests.

Critical Temperatures for Frost Damage!

With the burst of warm weather we had over the past several weeks, our apple trees are about three to four weeks ahead of schedule.  And now we have a frost/freeze warning for tonight and tomorrow night.  Normally we would be at or near green tip, but those 80+ degree days we had have placed the trees at tight cluster/pink.  The real problem is that we have accumulated about 230 - 240 growing degree days thus far this spring.  Last year at the exact same time we had accumulated around 20!  So we are at least a month ahead for degree days and more than three weeks ahead for tree growth stages, compared to 35-year averages.

This spring degree days have been accumulating faster than tree growth can keep up. The degree days are way ahead of the tree growth stages this year and may continue that way for the rest of the growing season.  As the trees develop in the spring and buds start to swell, they lose the ability to withstand the cold winter temperatures that they could withstand in dormancy during the cold winter months. The young, actively growing tissue can then be damaged or even killed. Swollen fruit buds can better withstand temperatures in the teens without any damage. As the buds open, temperatures in the low 20s can cause harm, but sometimes leave other buds undamaged.  As growth moves from green tip to 1/4” green to 1/2” green to tight cluster to pink in apple trees, temperatures in the upper 20s can cause considerable harm to an early blooming tree. Near bloom, the range between slight and severe damage can be very small. So the stage of bud development determines how susceptible any given fruit crop is when freezes occur.  For more information on what those critical temperatures are that can cause freeze damage to trees during development, I have uploaded two charts from Utah State University below that you can download by clicking on either chart below.

 

Given the weather patterns we have experienced so far this spring, and the fact that we have gotten snow as late as mid April, a spring frost is highly possible within the next few weeks.  We will need to constantly assess the stage of development our trees are at and their susceptibility to freeze injury. If we continue in this spell of warm weather, apple trees will continue to develop quickly and the critical temperature will rise from the low 20’s to the high 20s, to levels just below freezing at bloom time.

Record Breaking Spring and Its Impact on 2012 Spray Protocol

Here it is March 21 and  today will mark the 7th day in March 2012 with record-setting high temperatures.  As I write this it is a balmy 82 degrees outside.  Amazingly, the average high temperature for this month so far is a warm 61 degrees.  The normal high temperature for this month is usually around 47 – 50 degrees!  And these temperatures are playing havoc with fruit trees all over the Midwest.  Last Friday our apple trees were at silver tip and by noon today, our southern most trees were beginning to show tight cluster.  That growth process would normally take several weeks at our normal average temperatures for this time of the year!

This weather pattern is greatly effecting our fungal disease sprays applied during the dormant period and up to fruit set.  These sprays are critically important. Usually, these sprays are applied when the trees reach their specific developmental stages during this period or on an extended spray program of every seven to ten days. An additional timing consideration is the actual or projected occurrence of infection periods, the wetting periods of sufficient duration for the various fungus diseases. This factor helps determine when a treatment may be most advantageously applied during the range of a given key growth stage. Additionally, in cool wet springs, it may be necessary to apply one or more "additional" or "in-between-growth stage" fungicide treatments. This action is most generally taken  for us in coping with apple scab.

The number, timing, and the type of disease treatments applied between the dormant and the fruit set period varies from year to year. These differences are dictated by the pest complex present and by the amount of precipitation falling during this growing season. The amount of precipitation will directly determine the prevalence and extent of fungal  diseases such as apple scab in the orchard and thereby the extent to which fungicides are needed in the spraying program.  But when we have the type of spring temperatures we are having this spring, it is going to be necessary to adjust the normal growth stage sprays to compensate for the accelerated growth the trees are experiencing.

We did our normal dormant/green tip copper spray for fire blight control today with the trees being at 1/2” green.  That being the case, we adjusted the rate of copper from 6 pints/acre to 2/3  pint/acre per the Champ label to avoid the potential for phytotoxicity on the trees or russeting on apples. The copper rate should be reduced for any applications made after green-tip, and no copper sprays should be applied to apples after half-inch green.  We were cutting it pretty close!!

This is the earliest we have ever had to apply our copper spray to the orchard.  We normally apply copper the last week of March to the first week of April and we had to drop our dormant/green tip oil spray for fear of the oil adding too much efficacy to the copper causing it to stay on the leaves too long and creating a  phytotoxicity issue for us. 

We will be adjusting our scab sprays to reflect the accelerated growth stages of the trees by jumping to our tight cluster stage spray and dropping the 1/4” green and 1/2” green sprays.  This will allow us to maintain our fungicide rotation in our resistance management program.  

Biointensive Integrated Pest Management (Bio-IPM) at Royal Oak Farm – A Review

We are getting close to February and February is the time of the year when I assess our IPM program from the previous season and prepare our IPM program here at Royal Oak Farm Orchard for the coming season.  As I begin to lay out an IPM strategy for the coming season, the first thing I always do is review our entire approach to IPM to make sure we are on target and remain true to our philosophy of IPM.  For my benefit as well as those who read this blog, I thought it might be a good idea to repost that IPM philosophy.  So here goes!

At Royal Oak Farm we use an entirely new approach to managing pests called Biointensive Integrated Pest management (Bio-IPM) and the use of Sustainable Agriculture practices to minimize the insect and disease damage to our fruit. Biointensive IPM utilizes a systems approach to pest management based on an understanding of pest ecology.  It begins with steps to accurately diagnose the nature and source of pest problems, and then relies on a range of preventive tactics and biological controls to keep pest populations within acceptable limits.  Our preventative tactics include a combination of ecological, biological, natural, and cultural controls to keep applications of chemical controls to a minimum.

Often there are enough beneficials to control the pest(s) in the orchard without spraying. On other occasions we can use traps to catch pest species as they enter the orchard, or determine from the traps that there are too few of the pest to cause serious damage to the trees or fruit. In 2007 we made use of a new product called Virosoft that is a 100% ecological solution. Virosoft is a biological, natural baculovirus which specifically and exclusively attacks the target pest. Virosoft is absolutely harmless to all other members of the ecosystem, including humans. Because of the success of this product we have not had to apply any sprays in the month of August when growers would normally apply at least one timed spray. As a last resort, reduced- risk pesticides are used if other tactics have not been adequately effective, and with care to minimize risks.

We have our own IPM specialist to monitor a number of species of insects and mites in our orchard, including beneficial species (predators and parasites of pest species). Each week of the growing season, we also consult with the Wisconsin Eco-Apple Project network of professional growers via weekly conference calls directed by a  professional entomologist.  A weather station in the orchard tracks temperature, rainfall, and humidity 24 hours a day, transmits this data to our weather computer and we then use this information to monitor pest biology and the progress and severity of various diseases that can attack our fruit.

The benefits of implementing biointensive IPM include reduced chemical input costs, reduced on-farm and off-farm environmental impacts, and more effective and sustainable pest management.  An ecology-based IPM has the potential of decreasing inputs of fuel, machinery, and synthetic chemicals - all of which are energy intensive and increasingly costly in terms of financial and environmental impact.  All these efforts make it possible for us to apply chemical controls only a few times each season when they are truly required. And we have made it a policy to always use the most environmentally friendly materials available. The good health of our bees located all around the orchard is a testament to our insect and disease management strategy.

At Royal Oak Farm we are proud of the quality of the fruit we grow, and equally proud that through our monitoring efforts and the use of Biointensive Integrated Pest Management procedures we need apply so few sprays to grow excellent products.

Resources:

If you would like to read further information on Biointensive Integrated Pest Management (IPM), I would recommend the publication  Biointensive Integrated Pest Management (IPM)  -Fundamentals of Sustainable Agriculture, published by The National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service - ATTRA – which was developed and is managed by the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT). The project is funded through a cooperative agreement with the United States Department of Agriculture's Rural Business-Cooperative Service. Visit the NCAT website for more information on other sustainable agriculture and energy projects.

Biointensive Integrated Pest Management (IPM)  - Fundamentals of Sustainable Agriculture provides the rationale for biointensive Integrated Pest Management (IPM), outlines the concepts and tools of biointensive IPM, and suggests steps and provides informational resources for implementing IPM. It is targeted to individuals interested in agriculture at all levels.

The electronic version of Biointensive Integrated Pest Management is located at:

HTML Version

https://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/viewhtml.php?id=146

PDF Download
https://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/download.php?id=146

Alive and Well….all things considered!!

Well......I'm still alive and doing pretty well, considering the alternative!! Here's what's been going on over the past several months and why I have not posted to the blog in a while.............a knee replacement…………..then a manipulation…….. then an infection.

  

On March 7 I had a full right knee replacement.  Then on June 20 I had the manipulation done as out patient surgery. I had not been able to get my knee to bend more than 90 degrees since the replacement, so the Dr. wanted to manipulate it to hopefully get it to at least 130 degrees.  But he was only able to get it to 110 and it was leveling out at around 100 to 95 degrees which gets me down stairs normally.

Then last June 30 in the evening I started having chills and running a temp of about 102. By the next morning I was in such horrible pain, my wife had to call an ambulance and rush me to the hospital. They admitted me and after draining fluid from my knee, determined I had developed a staph infection in the replacement knee. At first the Infectious Disease Specialist thought it was a strep strain, but after the cultures were all finished it turned out to be staph.  I left the hospital last July 7 for the Harvard Care Center in Harvard, IL(http://www.mercyhealthsystem.org/body.cfm?id=105)

I was in the highest rated rehab center in Illinois, on my own wing,  getting IV antibiotics 3 times a day and a regimen of other drugs every four hours..........physical therapy 2 times a day and specialized wound care 2 times a day. I finally starting to feel a bit better and was in the Care Center until July 29.  I had a PIC line installed for the IV antibiotics and had that removed the end of August!

If the antibiotics didn't work, I would have lost the knee replacement, have to have an antibiotic spacer inserted for 3 months, and get the knee replaced again.  If that doesn't work, then they take the leg off.  But that didn’t  happen, of course, and I finished my last round of antibiotics on Thanksgiving Day!!

I still have a slight limp and can only bend my knee about 65 degrees, but that is much better than the alternative.  By this coming spring I should be as close to normal as I can!!!

Pumpkin Production @ Royal Oak Farm Orchard

Back in January, my son, Paul and I were asked to speak at the 2011 Illinois Illinois Specialty Crops, Agritourism, and Organic Conference about pumpkin production at Royal Oak Farm.  Since that time we have received numerous requests for a copy of our presentation as well as information on the modification of our John Deere 7000 Seed Planter, as seen in the photos below.

 

  John Deere 7000 No-Till Seed Planter

 

 

For a good look at the modifications we made to our John Deere 7000 Planter, we prepared a video to give you an up close look at the necessary changes we made to get the planter to work for pumpkin seeds.  Feel free to download the video from YouTube.  As always, if you have any questions, feel free to contact us at any time!

Modification of John Deere 7000 Planter for Pumpkins