Alan,
We have had a pretty dry spring and for most of NY State it looks that the usual March to May “no burn/open fire” regimen will be extended. Some brushfires ( one being 2400 acres as of last night) have broken out in Orange County, NY
How do you figure this will effect our (SE NY) pest and disease profile this year and do you anticipate any major modification to your spray schedule?
Thanx
Mike
The warm weather is apparently pushing up the threat of fire blight and the little spit of a shower we got yesterday is supposed to be enough to activate inoculum, but I don’t have reason to go chasing around various orchards with antibiotics to maybe save a single tree at most, if history is any guide.
Otherwise it is mostly about what happens after petal fall- but I will probably be doing about the same regimen as always until I see something that will change that.
I do hope we get some real rain once the forest trees are in full leaf. Then things will dry out in a hurry. I am watering nursery trees where it is convenient- partially to get some urea to their roots but anything I moved this year could be in jeopardy if we don’t get rain in another 3 weeks without supplementary water. Jeopardy likely being stunted growth.
At least the warm clear weather may be compensating for the fact that all species are blooming right on top of each other and therefore competing for the attention of the native pollinators. I have never seen such a condensed flowering period- the heat knocks the blossoms off in a hurry too. But since the trees started blooming bees have had good conditions to forage.