They're here (SWD)

General Fruit Growing
#1

My raspberries are shot, already gave up on blackberries. Might tear it all out and put in black raspberries. I think they were early enough to avoid infestation. Better stay out of my figs…

#2

Where are you located?

#3

SE Pennsylvania

#4

…Braces for impact, although this warm weather deters them a bit. above 86 F, they are much less active

#5

Think most of us had them for years now, 5th year for me in Iowa.

#6

SWD is the kiss of death on small fruit and unfortunately if you wait until you see the insect on the plant or fruit or wait until the insect shows up in a monitoring trap its too late! In my part of NC is necessary to spray ahead of the SWD, rather than wait for it to appear. At least one organic control works well. Their preference in order is raspberry, blackberry and then blueberry. Part of the preference may have to do with the lateness of the fruit rather than the fruit itself. The research on predatory insects to control SWD looks promising, but I believe chemical controls are the only solution at this time.

#7

My aim is to grow early ripening berries to avoid their arrival.Right now,Tayberry,Obsidian Blackberry and Bristol Black Rasberry do that.
I took out Black Satin Blackberry,it wasn’t very flavorful anyway. Brady

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#8

I understand. I had a bunch of Black Satin at one time and they were terrible!

#9

This was in Good Fruit Grower for those who haven’t seen it yet.

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#10

What is the organic option for SWD?

#11

Here too…inland Maine. 2nd half of elderberry harvest is a loss.

#12

They have been here since at least last year.

#13

I had not seen them here in Omaha, Ne, but they are in Iowa, very close. That is scary.

#14

Not too scary if just growing fruit for oneself, if selling fruit, then more of a problem.

#15

red raspberries will produce berries for a while after too cool for SWD. In the meantime loss is high but not necessarily total. Japanese beetles destroy my black berries. I’ll probably tear them out, just not worth it.

#16

Jesse

Entrust and several other brands of Spinosad carry the ORMI label. Spinosad was rated as effective against SWD in a seminar I attended last year.

#17

Not in Alberta yet. Government monitoring traps have caught a few over the past 3 years but so few that the belief is that they are originating from roadside fruit stands that set up each summer and sell fruit brought in from warmer climates, like BC or Washington. I guess time will tell if our miserably long winters are enough to prevent them from establishing a breeding population here.

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#18

I should clarify, they’ve no doubt been in my area for a while now but this is the first year I’ve noticed them in my yard.

#19

IowaJer

Interesting that the chemical (BA) may repel SWD. About 20 years ago BA was being promoted as a bird repellent for blueberries. I tried it on my blueberries and it helped with the birds but it left the taste of grape Kool-Aid on the blueberries that was hard to remove.

#20

Yeah, I wish there was a better solution too. I don’t really want grape tasting raspberries either…

My raspberries are SWD magnets and I’m thinking about simply tearing them out. Frustrating that when a row of Heritage and a row of Caroline finally starting being consistent bearers that the bounty is no good.