It seems PC are back coinciding with the warm dry weather returning. Maybe it was a new brood or leftovers turning into adults. I see PC bites on Flavor Supreme and Spice Zee, even half dollar or larger fruits now. Sprayed Sevin.
Are they new (looking like cuts in the fruits only, all green no tan)? I am doing a ton of thinning now and the most recent bites I found are a week old or so. I could be warmer than you though, I am on a south facing hill.
After more thinning I think this is my best year in some time… most trees with very minor damage. My French Petite plum usually gets over thinned by the PC but this year is absolutely loaded with blemish-free fruits and will need serious thinning. Kidds Orange Red is another one that got nailed though; out of 150 or so trees only a couple got over-thinned.
On the downside I have a ton of lanternfly nymphs now.
According to Cornell calculator, my PC threat should be over. But I check my trees at least every other day and I’m sure the PC bites were new. My theory is the recent rainy and cool weather here delayed a pocket of the PC population.
I’m on a SW facing local hill but facing north within a much larger valley at 1600 ft elevation. It’s possible location is cooler. I think at very least my location has lower nighttime temps, as I’m in the woods and there’s no heat island effect to radiate stored warmth at night.
I heard of those lantern flies in the DC MSA. I haven’t seen much here though we do have tree of heaven. I hear lantern fly really mess with grapes. What other damage do you see?
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There are a few lanternflies on about everything, but there are hoards on the vines … grapes and kiwis in particular. They don’t like muscadines though. I think Surround also may repel them, I have not seen any on any trees sprayed with Surround. So far they are not making that much damage in terms of the vigor of the plants; I had a fair number last year as well and it didn’t seem to make a big dent in the crop.
Re: PC, it does sound like you are in a cooler microclimate. I am in the ‘burbs with lots of pavement around to heat things up.
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Is it to late to plant bare root strawberries or asparagus crowns?
Not too late on strawberries. I just ordered Earliglow from Stark’s sale. I will put a lightweight floating row cover over them for a week while they start growing in the heat we are having now.
Was swampy outside today
My lantern fly issues near Philly (knock on wood) seem to have crested quickly and then dropped off. I was able to use grape vines as a trap crop - with a little practice, you can get them to jump into a container of soapy water, although it is an acquired skill. Better than video games!
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Thanks I may try the soapy water. Right now I cup my hands around the base of a shoot and then slowly close the cup to crush them. Since the down side is blocked they don’t jump off for some reason. The soapy water sounds like it could be faster and get more of them.
I am relieved to hear they are lessening for you, what happened with the BMSB is just when things looked impossible here I started to hear people in PA getting some relief. We did then get some relief the next year. I hope it’s the same thing here.
Same for me in southern PA, there were two years that were really bad, and then it seems to have tapered off. I still see a lot of nymphs in the spring, but then not too many “adults” later on. They pretty much only care about my grape vines. It never seems to affect the grape vines too much. I usually just shake the nymphs off when I’m going by and don’t bother trying to kill them. For the adults, I just poke one, watch it fly down into the grass, then stomp immediately where it lands. If you stop just after they land, they don’t seem to be ready to fly again yet.
Do lanternflies damage your fruit or leaves, bark, twigs?
Not so far
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Hailstorm here yesterday. 5/22. Pea sized but a real torrent of them. Don’t see much damage but hard to tell. No limb damage.
LHS: FS with recent bites on half dollar sized fruit. One of them dropped, not sure why. Insides looked ok…for now. Egg doesn’t appear hatched.
RHS: Older bites from 2+weeks ago on Flavor Punch and Flavor Grenade on fruit that dropped. One of the grubs is visible in the pic.
Not a lot shows in terms of damage to be honest. But this year I have more than last year so I will probably see more damage. Unless I get going on the soap treatment. I am planning to start soaping tonight.
@sockworth I saw a PC last night that was still alive. But one thing I found in past years is they seem to be shooting blanks after some point, no worms. I’m not sure this old guy was even laying eggs any more, I still am not finding any new bites and am about done thinning. I pulled apart several of the most recent stings and no eggs. That one you have on the left looks 5-7 days old to me, it has browned and healed over but not spread out much from the growing fruit.
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Hopefully they’re shooting blanks into the FS too. Haven’t seen any new bites since Sevin spray. Next time I’ll have to peak under the bite flaps to try to see if I can spot any tiny eggs–I had assumed they were too small to see.
Probably time to pick the first round of Carmine Jewel sour cherries this weekend. I did pretty well keeping Surround on them this year and most look unscathed. The branches are bending under the big crop and one of the bushes is starting to lean, probably due to the wet soil and heavy crop load.
My Juliet is much taller and harder to get to so the Surround coverage wasn’t great and a lot of those look damaged.
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My apricots are ripening (some ripe enough to eat right off the tree already). I think almost all of them would ripen on the counter if I pick them now. Do most people here pick their whole tree at once?
It actually looks like I may have 100+ pieces of fruit on the tree (half Ilona and half Tomcot) and amazingly the squirrels aren’t stealing them yet, but I’m sure they will any second. Are counter ripened apricots much different than picked when ripe?
The Kroger apricots that ripen over the counter for me tasted pretty good. The hard ones taste very sour but waiting for a bit both softened them and sweetened them up.
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