Plum Curculio

Thanks @scottfsmith, good information!!

How are everyones curcs coming along? Here it was minor action during the cooler weather we had til recently, very slow and extremely localized. We had our first somewhat warm evening last night, it stayed above 60, and the curcs were very active. I had a pretty good coat of Surround down but still saw a fair amount of damage on a few apples and plums. As usual they are highly localized, some spots getting a lot of damage but most things with little or no damage. I hit all the weaker-covered spots today, and got the active areas extra thick.

In terms of damage usually they are chowing down on the plums but they are sized up beyond their primary interests so are in the apples more heavily than usual. There are still plum bites but not at the usual level. I found and crushed four of them, I hadnā€™t seen a single one in the fruit until yesterday but they are out now.

Anyway, as with every year just when I start to think I might have a light year they show up! Beware the curc.

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In anticipation of the warm weather, I sprayed my trees on Thu evening, and it seems to have paid off. Almost not seeing any crescents.

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This is my 100% organic Mirabelle plum here in Maryland! :joy: It had a few flowers, so I didnā€™t pay attention to it, to my surprise I found a few damaged fruitlets. Curculio hasnā€™t been that bad for me so far. Had some fruitlets eaten in half, maybe itā€™s some kind of caterpillar?
image

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I put down several sprays of Venerate in this warming weather, it is a new organic control for curculio. It didnā€™t do much though. I will keep using it since I have a big container of it, but it looks like Surround is still as good as it gets for organic curc control.

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I sprayed the trees last night.I saw a rice size plum had a little tiny black dot. It may or may not done by the PC but I donā€™t want to take chances. I might have less PC problem this year. Most of the fruit buds were frozen to death last year, and we didnā€™t have much fruits on the tree for PC to lay eggs and populate.

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Birds?

I noticed most of the damage was on the easily accessible fruit on top of the branch. Might thin next year to emphasize fruit towards the ground.

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Itā€™s the first time that the tree had flowers. I discovered three little fruitlets, two looked like the one in the picture and one looked like something ate half of it.

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I was looking good till last week then the bits started. I finaly managed to carve out some spary time and hit the tries with Sevin. I hope i got them all.

This prolonged, unusually cold spring has slowed everything in the garden down.

My plums are a size of a grain of rice. Peaches are about to enter a shuck split stage. Night temp is too cool for PC to emerge.

I checked the next two week forecast. Our night temp wonā€™t even reach 60. I hope my fruit will develop sooner than PC can do much damge. A girl can dream :grin:

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My plums are past the size that they prefer I think, as they are around golf ball sized. Surround, neem, and the occasional Triazide spray seems to have handled them. I had a little damage on my sole apricot and on my cherries, but nothing major. In another week I think my apples will be too big for PC as well.

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That definitely happened to my plums this spring, I am getting maybe 1/4th the usual damage. My cots would have totally missed the PC had they survived. I have about a dozen that made it past the freeze and none have PC bites.

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I use cayenne pepper powder to deter deer.

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I have a few peaches and nectarines that survived the frostā€¦ Yay! Cherries all look good. No bites so far. Itā€™s been too cold here for PC, but itā€™s warming up rapidly. At the same time itā€™s raining, no, itā€™s pouring. Thereā€™s no reason to even attempt to spray (Surround) until Thursday. Hopefully the PC will hold off until I can spray.

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A good article from UD:

https://sites.udel.edu/weeklycropupdate/?p=14895

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Well, my wish did not come true (again). Tonight low will be 61F. Then, next weekā€™s low will be in the 60ā€™s for 4 consecutive days, about the same time most of my fruitlets get going.

With this unusual cold spring, not only it delayed PC emerging but also fruit tree development. Nature seems to make sure these two events consistently coincide.

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I was surprised he mentioned freezer plastic bags instead of regular sandwich plastic bags which are a lot cheaper and as effective.

I will re-use Clemson paper bags on peaches. Lot of them are still in a good shape after a year of use.

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I have not seen a single bite on my 10 remaining peach fruitlets. I guese 5-10% of my plum fruitlets had crescents on them last Sunday before my first spray. I only ever saw 2 or 3 PC with my eyes and killed 2 of them. Rain is expected the next two days. I am going to give them a second spray Sunday if it dryā€™s out. I pulled a few fruitlets with crescents off the tree and ground but I did not find any developing larva so hope either weather did the eggs in or my spray got them.

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I have crushed half a dozen PC so far this year. When using Surround, crushing can be helpful as they are not going away otherwise. One way I find them is when I am thinning at night with my headlamp. They are on the fruits then and so are easy to spot. When I find a new hot spot at night I would say maybe a third of the time I find the culprit and give her a big squeeze.

Most of my fruits are now sizing out of PC range, except the Euro plums which the PC loves to leave late bites on.

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I noticed a few bites on euro plums on Wednesday, so I did a spray of imidan. I did apples on Thursday. Itā€™s raining today then supposed to hit mid 80ā€™s for several days in a row. My timing should be good as long as the imidan holds up in the rain. I added a sticker/spreader, hope it does itā€™s job. If so it should be a good year for some of my euro plums and apples. Tart cherries and american hybrid plums seem moderate but a little on the low side due to late freezes. Peaches and asian pears will be few and far between, but as of right now there are at least a handful or two. Sweet cherries and asian plums were wiped out.