Highland, NY - New York farmers produce nearly 25 million bushels of apples each year, making New York State the second largest apple-producing state in the nation. Producing the crunchy, perfectly-shaped apples found in grocery stores requires considerable expertise on the part of the growers.
Pest control in orchards is a critical component of apple growing because numerous fungi, bacteria, insects, and mites love apples almost as much as the consumers in grocery stores. Pests are controlled with a finely-tuned array of high technology, cultural management techniques, and well-timed pesticide sprays.
Two major disease problems on apples are fire blight, caused by a bacterium, and apple scab, caused by a fungus. Fire blight infects blossoms and growing shoots, turns them black, and sometimes kills entire trees within several weeks after infection. Apple scab causes dark spots on leaves and fruit, and severely affected fruit shrivel and drop from the trees prematurely.
In the Hudson Valley apple region, plant pathologist David Rosenberger monitors the development of these diseases each spring as apple trees begin to grow. Daily weather data collected at Cornell University's Hudson Valley Laboratory is fed into computer programs that predict the optimum timing for bacteriacidal sprays that control fire blight. Old apple scab leaves are collected weekly from beneath apple trees and are evaluated to determine critical times for applying the fungicide sprays needed to protect trees from apple scab.
The information generated by Dr. Rosenberger is disseminated to Cooperative Extension specialists (and to some growers) via e-mail. Warren Smith, Ulster County Cooperative Extension fruit specialist, broadcasts the information and disease control recommendations on a daily, early-morning radio broadcast that is heard by most fruit growers in the Hudson Valley.
The combination of modern technology and skilled Cooperative Extension personnel allows rapid dissemination of the critical pest control information that is essential for maintaining a healthy fruit industry in New York State.
For more information contact:
Dave Rosenberger
Hudson Valley Lab
PO Box 727
Highland, NY 12528
Telephone: 914-691-7231
e-mail: dar22@cornell.edu
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