What's HOT in Caneberry Production and Research

(Updated 30 January 2024)

Upcoming Meetings|Pesticides and Pests | Horticultural Topics |Miscellaneous Topics

2024 Revisions to Fruit Pest Management recommendations:

The guides are available free online in PDF, and will also be available for purchase.

2023 Small Fruit Meetings
The first small fruit meeting of the season will be held at Seaman Orchard at Roselend, in Nelson County. The meeting will run from 11:00 AM to 2:30 PM. Contact Grace Monger, 434-263-7183 for additional information.

Spotted lanternfly a new invasive concern: Update on range expansion


Spotted lanternfly training session: A Spotted Lanternfly Training Session for Christmas Trees, Tree Fruits, Grapes & Horticultural Products will be offered in Wytheville. There will be an in-person spotted lanternfly training course that will be held September 29, 2022 from 10:00 am – 12:30 pm at the Wytheville Meeting Center in Wytheville, VA. This training will be for producers of Christmas trees, tree fruits, grapes, and other horticultural products including vegetables. This training will introduce the Spotted Lanternfly, and will dive into its spread, resources for growers, control methods, regulatory updates, and will provide information on how to comply with the SLF quarantine and permitting requirements. The course is free, but registration is recommended to Kyle Peer, krpeer@vt.edu, or 276-694-4135. This event is sponsored by Virginia Cooperative Extension, Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, and Virginia Tech.

Spotted lanternfly egg first hatch for 2022 was reported on 21 April. First adult emergence for 2022 was noted on 11 July. This new invasive pest of vineyards and other small fruit crops moved into eastern Pennsylvania in 2014, and has been spreading.  During the 2018 season, the infestation zone in Virginia expanded from approximately 1 square mile block in Winchester, Frederick County, to about 18 square miles, and 40 square miles in fall of 2019. By the end of the 2020 season, the zone encompassed 140 square miles. On May 28, 2019, the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) announced the establishment of a quarantine to limit the spread of SLF; this zone was significantly expanded in July 2022. As of 2022, in addition to the original counties of Frederick, Clarke and Warren, SLF is established in Albemarle, Augusta, Carroll, Page, Prince William, Rockingham, Rockbridge, Shenandoah and Wythe Counties, plus the cities of Buena Vista, Charlottesville, Harrisonburg, Lexington, Lynchburg, Manassas, Manassas Park, Staunton and Waynesboroor a map of the current Virginia distribution. This includes the entire Shenandoah Valley, with spread further into the Virginia Piedmont.

Links to the quarantine map and quarantine protocol may be found here. One of the requirements of the protocol is one person at each operation becoming certified to insect produces and conveyances leaving the quaranine zone. The certification program may be found here. This pest poses an important risk for grape, orchard and tree crops.  Click here for a recorded talk on this species.  A fact sheet is available from Virginia Tech (a USDA fact sheet is available in Spanish).  In addition, there is a Virginia Tech Pest Alert, with additional information on recognition and reporting (this is also available in Spanish).  Specific fact sheets for vineyards and residential areas have been posted.  Now that spotted lanternfly has been found in Virginia, it will be important to follow its spread through the state.   For a current Virginia map, click here  To report a suspected find, please follow this linkhttps://ask2.extension.org/widget.html?team_id=1981?default_location=VA?default_county=All.

 
Upcoming meetings
Southeastern Fruit and Vegetable Conference will be held in Savannah GA, Jan 5-8, 2023.




Periodical cicada broods active in 2020 and 2021

There are 15 broods of periodical cicada.  Two of these will be affecting Virginia fruit growers this year (Brood 9) and next Brood 10).  Emergence of adults is expected in early-mid May. 
Adults first started appearing in Patrick County apple orchards on 17 May.  The egg-laying behavior of females will lead to death of pencil-diameter branches, and can be devastating to young orchard and vineyard blocks.  In addition to the web page linked in the title, check out this recorded 20-minute presentation.

VDACS establishes quarantine for spotted lanternfly

Late Tuesday afternoon (5/28), Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) announced the establishment of a quarantine for spotted lanternfly (SLF), an invasive pest insect that was found in Winchester in January 2018 (ext.vt.edu/spotted-lanternfly).  This insect threatens to be a major pest of fruit crops, forest trees, and other plants in Virginia.  Despite an eradication effort in 2018, SLF increased its distribution from about 1 square mile to 16 square miles.  This year, the overwintering eggs began their hatch on April 27, earlier than last spring..

The press release on the SLF quarantine linked here.  A direct link to the quarantine document is linked here as well.  The regulated area includes the City of Winchester and Frederick County.  Some of the key provisions of the quarantine are:

1) Regulated articles (plants, outdoor industrial materials, shipping containers, outdoor household articles, and others) may be moved from the quarantine area if they have been inspected, and are accompanied by a permit;

2) Regulated articles may be moved within the quarantine area following an inspection; a certificate is not required.

3) From April 1-Dec 31, regulated articles may be moved through the regulated are without stopping, or stopping only for fuel or traffic conditions.

4) To obtain a permit to move regulated articles, a person doing business must complete a VDACS-approved training (see below) and agree to train employees on identification of SLF.

The training needed to obtain a SLF permit is available online.  There is a $6.00 fee.
For questions on the quarantine and related issues:

For questions about the quarantine or movement of material or trucks, or the compliance agreement, call VDACS.  Call the Richmond number (804-786-5525) even if its a question about the Winchester area.

For questions about the training for the SLF Detection Credentials, go to:  ext.vt.edu/spotted-lanternfly
Look for a purple button the right side of the page to start the process.

For suspected finds of SLF, go to either the detection portal:

which is also linked through the SLF page:  ext.vt.edu/spotted-lanternfly
or contact their local extension office: https://ext.vt.edu/offices.html
For questions about the training modules, contact Eric Day or Tree Dellinger, 540-231-4899 or idlab@vt.edu
If a caller's web page will not load, direct them to VT 4Help: https://vt4help.service-now.com

I'll be posting more on this later.


Fruit Insect Blog
Visit https://virginiafruitinsectupdates.blogspot.com/.



Pesticides and Pests:

Spotted wing drosophila:  A new invasive pest of small fruit crops and vineyards moved through Virginia in late summer 2011.  Spotted wing drosophila, Drosophila suzukii, differs from other species of vinegar or pomace flies in that it lays eggs in ripening fruit on the vine or plant, rather than in overripe or rotting fruit material.  This has the potential to be a major problem for growers of soft-fruited crops.  More information is posted in a SWD page in the Virginia Fruit web site.  Hear an Adobe Presenter presentation on spotted wing drosophila in vineyard and berry crops.  In May 2013, 24(c) labels were approved for malathion 8F for blueberries and caneberries grown in Virginia.  Blueberry: Allowing up to 2.5 pts/acre for spotted wing drosophila.  Maximum number of applications is 2, with a minimum of 5 days between applications.  Do not exceed a total maximum from all sources of malathion of 5 lb ai/acre/year.  Do not apply within 1 day of harvest.  Caneberries Allowing an additional application for spotted wing drosophila.  The maximum application rate is 2.0 pts/acre; the maximum number of applications per year is 4, and the minimum retreatment interval is 7 days.  Do not exceed a total maximum use rate of all sources of malathion of 8 lb ai/acre/year.  Do not apply within 1 day of harvest.


Horticultural Topics:
Shift-trellises for Brambles:
The late Dr. Herb Stiles published two experiment station bulletins on trellising systems for brambles (Va. Agric. Exp. Stn Bull. 95-2 and 99-1). Abstracts are available here for publications on Shift trellis and Limited Arm Rotation Shift Trellis systems. For the entire publications, go the the Horticultural Topic sections.

Miscellaneous Topics:

New name for NABGA:  The North American Bramble Growers has changed its name!  It is now the North American Raspberry and Blackberry Association, NARBA.  There is new contact information as well.  The new e-mail is info@raspberryblackberry.com, and the new phone is 919-542-4037.

New!  The College of Agriculture and Life Science at Virginia Tech has established a new on-line Master's in Agriculture and Life Sciences.   This curriculum has been approved by the State Council of Higher Education and is now accepting applications for Fall semester 2007.  In this program, you can earn a master's degree in agriculture while working in your current job - emphasis is on education for place-bound learners, and all courses are taken on-line.  In addition to a core area, there are courses offered in five areas of concentration: (1) Biosecurity, Bioregulations and Public Health, (2) Education, (3) Environmental Science, (4) Food Safety, and (5) Plant Science and Pest Management.  In addition to course work, the student completes a project decided upon in consultation with your major advisor.  Lists of courses within each concentration may be found in the web site linked above.  This program was recently the subject of an interview by Jeff Ishee with Virginia Public Televsion's Virginia Farming.  For more information, contact Doug Pfeiffer (dgpfeiff at vt.edu) or Sharon Proffitt (sproffit at vt.edu) (see 2008-2009 Extended Campus tuition rates).


Virginia Berry Conference:  The 6th Annual Virginia Berry Production and Marketing Conference was held on the Virginia State University campus on March 14, 2013.  See the program linked archived here.


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