Dr. Tree Fruit and Don
This podcast focuses on providing timely commercial tree fruit production advice for beginning industry professionals and seasoned growers. Educators from Penn State Extension and faculty from Penn State University’s horticulture, entomology, and plant pathology departments drop in to give insights and observations about what is going on in the orchards.
Dr. Tree Fruit and Don
Season 7, Episode 10 - Codling Moth Timing
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
We sit down with our Penn State tree fruit team to lay out the decision points hitting orchards right now: codling moth, bitter pit, and tree management.
Host: Don Seifrit
Speakers: Kari Peter, Shan Kumar, Greg Krawczyk
Photo Credit: Kari Peter, PSU
Music Credit: “The Raven and the Swan” by Josh Woodward is licensed under a Attribution 3.0 United States License. Courtesy of FreeMusicArchive.org
Make sure you sign up to get notified of future Extension events for tree fruit growers!
Sign Up
Flight Seasonalities of Main Fruit Pests During the Growing Season
Welcome And What’s Ahead
Alright, welcome back once again, everybody. I'm Don Seafer. It's the Dr. Tree Fruit and Dawn Podcast. I'm here with Dr. Carrie Peter. Say hi, Carrie. Hi there. Dr. Sean Kumar, say hi, Sean. Hello everyone. And starting us off today, Dr. Greg Krawchak, say hi, Greg. Hello. So we will let you get right into it, Greg.
Codling Moth And Scale Timing
Okay, this is the first time. I will be the first one. It's okay. The entomological update today will be relatively straightforward. We are in full flight of Oglink mode. We are done with the flight of or first generation of Oriental Fruit Move. Right now. Oblik man the three-froller started last week. It was actually made money first. Should be over by now. We are almost six weeks. That's something that we should not really think about. One test that actually might require a little bit more attention is San Jose scale. Again, if you have seen San Jose scale injuries on fruit, those red tiny dots all over the fruit, or you have seen San Jose scale nymphs attached to the branches, and you did not try to control it during the dormant time period, it really will pay off to put the pheromone trap near your hot spot. Because this is not the trap relate that you will be counting how many you can catch, but you just put the trap, pheromone trap, they are available from the Great Lakes IPM. Again, this is not an advertisement of anybody, it's just that you can buy the trap allure at this source, and this is really the only source I am aware of. You can put the trap near your hotspot and start checking it for the flight of male San Jose scale. When you start seeing them, and they look like a tiny clearish, brownish, goldish dots on the trap, and they are very tiny, but you will know that they're flying because there will be a lot of them. Your application to control San Jose scale should happen within about plus minus 10 to 12 days. This is the best timing to do so because that's when that's when they will really start moving, they are actively feeding, and that's when those esteem momental are the most effective. So and this usually happens in the first two weeks of June, and we are almost there. So that's why I'm saying this is the one to really pay attention to. And again, I'm saying this assuming that people will control codling moth if they have fruit on dress. And I understand this might not be the case for everyone. But the point is we are at about 400 degree days plus minus at the moment. We're supposed to control hodling moth at least until 500-550, when about 60% of the eggs for this generation supposed to hatch. So sometime next week, Wednesday, I mean June 2nd, 3rd, 4th, will be the time to do the second application to control codling mode. Uh the products, uh there is nothing new. I mean, if you want to, you can use the Valgo, although this is not really the best product. We still think, I still believe in all our data shows that still any diamite or delegate or granulosis virus, codling moth granulosis virus as is in the SIDEX, MADEX, uh, Virosoft, those are the most effective products. If you want to control something else, in addition to Kodling Moth or leaf rollers, then Zivalgo might be a good option. But I really can't think about any other insect that might need to be controlled right now in the orchard, other than codling moth, maybe Taftet, uh aphids will start showing up, but that's a different story. Anyway, if you have fruit and you want those fruit not to be warmy very soon, you need to control coding moth. The time for controlling coding moth is depends when you did last spray, but according to the models, we should be at about 50-60% egg hatch mid-next week. And that's the time to spray. Application of diamite or delegate will give you at least two weeks residual. If you have traps and two weeks for after the spray, you still see adults flying, then you might need another application. In the last four or five years, we need we needed at least three applications of effective insecticide to control first generation coding moth. Oriental fruit moth will not be controlled right now. It doesn't matter what you do. The eggs, basically, all the eggs already hatch, the larvae, they are in the growing shoots fruit if you have fruit in the growing terminals, and it doesn't matter what you spray, they cannot be killed. So that's a big thing right now. Uh, soon we should start seeing spyrea aphids uh on the thrills. You might start seeing the woolly apple aphids. Uh that is a few weeks before Japanese beetle will show up. We can talk about those as the time comes for it. But right now, again, the most important is cobbling moth and get ready for Sancho Scale if you think you need to control it. So that's really all entomology update I have for this week. Uh, any question, Dan, that you can think about, or we are good with this. No, that was extremely straightforward. Thanks, Greg. Okay, thank you. Yeah, sure thing. All right. Uh
June Drop And Hand Thinning
Sean, you'll go next. So just wanted to give a short horticultural update. Uh, we are uh we had some really warm weather a couple weeks ago, then we cooled down a little bit, and then it's getting to the 70s this week, and next week we're gonna see some warmer weather as well. So, most likely the May, end of May, June drop that you're gonna see is most likely to happen uh quicker when you have these sorts of warm weather. So by the end of next week, I think you'll have a clear idea of you know what's fallen off, what hasn't fallen off. Uh, I think it's a safe deadline to assume, especially for the southern part of the state. For the central and northern part of the state, it could still take a week more to sort of see some of those uh see the effects of uh May June drop. I mean we call it June drop, but in Pennsylvania for the most part, I've seen June drop happen mostly towards the last week of May, and so uh end of next week, uh maybe the going into the first week of June, uh, you'll have a really good idea of what you have left on the tree and how much hand thinning you might need to be need to do to sort of get your trees uh get your fruits to size up to meet commercial standards. So uh I know that's in in it's a little bit tricky because in some blocks you have uh I know that a lot of growers, especially in blocks with low set, you haven't done much uh uh rightfully so uh to thin your blocks and just waited to see you know which ones are gonna stay on, which ones are gonna not. And I think by the end of next week, I think you'll get a good idea of that, and then immediately after, I think you would need to go in and sort of hand thin and remove uh what's not necessary because uh you want to make sure that the fruits get the right size.
Honeycrisp Bitter Pit Prevention
Now, uh moving on to honey crisp specifically, honey crisp has a lot of issues, especially with a low crop load, we know that, and multiple blocks around the state that do have honey crisp have uh a crop load on the lower side where they are generally more prone to uh getting bit of bit if not at harvest at storage. So, uh, based on research that was done by Chase and Todd, I uh Chase Griffith and Todd Einhahn at Michigan State, uh, they've shown that three applications of Naa uh or something like Pomaxa or Refine uh at two ounces to the acre at 30, 45, and 60 days after full bloom. So three successive applications of uh Naa has been shown to significantly reduce Pedipit in two years of the trials. So that's something I I would recommend, even though we don't need NAA for return bloom per se, because most likely we're gonna have a snowball bloom next year based off the fact that we had a very low crop load, and so many of you might have refrained from uh maybe specifically targeting return bloom sprays this year, but then for honey crisp with Naa, uh you might still need to do those applications at 30, 45, 60 days after full bloom in order to make sure that you have at least reduce the possibility of those fruit developing bitter pit, especially in honey crisp, when you have uh a low crop load, you have uh fruit that develop uh much larger sizes, and those larger size fruit are much more prone to developing piripit, and so you have to keep on your calcium sprays uh and make sure that uh especially once the fruits reach 30 millimeters, which uh the southern part of the state has is way past that or around that, and then in in the central part of the state, uh many of your fruitlets are reaching that stage, and so it's important to start your calcium applications at 30 millimeter fruit size if you haven't earlier, and calcium chloride can be used uh about one to one uh one application every 10 to 14 days, depending on the weather and things like that. And uh you can keep going until about two weeks before harvest. This is some standard practice, and calcium chloride has been shown to be the best product in terms of amount of calcium delivered as and as far as economics of uh uh what product to use for providing calcium to your fruit lip fruits. So that's uh my spiel regarding honey crisp. Excuse me. So, in general, for the other crops, uh sorry, for the other varieties that you might be having, uh vigor
Vigor Control Root Pruning Irrigation
control is still a big uh topic of discussion. And uh by now you would have seen clearly whether your prior previous apogee sprays or you'll be able to see if those worked or how good they were at controlling vigor. And if you think that a particular medium vigorous or very vigorous block requires control of the growth, then you could go in with another prohaxada and calcium application, you can go in with the 12 12 ounces rate, the high uh the high rate, and uh so apogee, kudos, uh those are the brand names, but any product of prohaxada and calcium you can use for controlling vigor. And I know a few folks asked about root pruning, and so if you have very vigorous blocks and you have already put in your apogee applications and you already might have done your uh first root pruning, which is usually done somewhere around petal fall or a few weeks after that, then uh three to four weeks after your first root pruning, you could potentially do a second root pruning, especially on your very vigorous blocks, and so uh that's something to consider as well. If root pruning is something that you have some experience with, if you've done uh the past few years, especially in blocks where you need to control that vigor for this year. So, that's uh some ways in which you can control the vigor of your blocks that you're not cropping. And the last point that I want to talk about was irrigation. So, so far, at least in my part of the state, uh in central Pennsylvania, we have been getting enough uh water for tree sustenance, and so I have basically switched off the irrigation on my blocks, because especially in the blocks where we don't have a crop or we have very low crop, because and this is especially so for honey crisp, then we don't need the irrigation uh uh uh unless there is need for there's really we have a drought type situation, we don't have water coming in for the whole week or things like that. Otherwise, with the rainfall that we've been getting once or twice a week, I think that uh the trees are able to get the sustenance irrigation that is required. The only caveat for this is to be careful about irrigation when you have the flower initiation that's happening for the next year. So uh for honey crisp, that's 30 days after full bloom. So, in most uh orchards in southern Adams County, the the flower initiation for Honey Crisp is most likely already started or already completed based on your location, and in central Pennsylvania that's happening right now. And so, in during this period, it is important to make sure that the trees don't face any additional stress. So during this time, it's okay to okay to irrigate and keep watering that too, not too much, but just to make sure that the trees are not stressed, and then after that, I think it's very prudent to reduce your irrigation, especially for uh honey crisp or stop it entirely, especially the last seven eight weeks of growth, because you don't want to take in more potassium through the irrigation water, and for your other varieties, uh, I think uh again it's uh for your high uh or for your high value varieties that you have irrigated. It's really important to think about uh stopping irrigation for the season if you don't have a crop, because as long as you have sustenance uh rainfall that's that we are getting, at least so far we have gotten, then there's no need to irrigate those blocks. And uh wait until you really see uh you know drought-like situation, maybe where you need to give the trees some sustenance uh irrigation, and then you can go in and irrigate, but otherwise, you can really cut back or cut down on the irrigation that you provide. Uh, for honey crisp, that flower initiation is between 30 to 45 days, and then for Fuji, it is around 45 to 60 days after full bloom, and then for gala, it is more sometime in August in our conditions, 100 days after full bloom. So, during these periods, it's important to make sure that when in the blocks that you have irrigation that you do provide irrigation, or at least you make sure that the trees are not stressed, but uh in other uh times I think that we can really cut back on the irrigation as well as nutrition for blocks that don't have a crop, you don't need to provide nutrition this year, unless, of course, your soil or leaf test indicated a severe deficiency of something, which you'd need to correct for this year. Excuse me. For stone fruit, I think that uh depending on the practices that you follow, most growers uh uh hand thin the crop and so uh uh in peaches, and so next year we're because of the low set to no set this year, we're gonna be experiencing a slow snowball bloom next year for peaches as well. And it's important that at that time they do have the nutrition that they need for uh proper growth, so it's still good to sort of fertilize your peaches, your stone fruit to about 30% of the levels that you would normally, even if you don't have a crop, to make sure that it is not uh the nutrition next year is not reduced uh for the growing uh flowers and fruitlets. And for but for apples, we can really cut back on nutrition. It is not required at this point, especially if you don't have a crop. Please uh you can remove the calcium sprays because calcium is mainly for deposition onto the fruit for the fruit to take in directly. So if you don't have fruit, uh then uh you can remove your calcium applications uh that you would normally put in for every cover spray or every other cover spray. Um so that's that for uh for uh irrigation and nutrition. So we covered uh ways to sort of control vigor, irrigation, nutrition, and of course for specific uh notes about honey crisp and how to manage honey crisp in uh in a low crop load year. Sounds good. Thanks. Yeah, awesome. Thanks, Sean. Thanks, Don. Uh Carrie. Uh
Disease Pressure And Fungicide Choices
okay, so it's been an interesting like last, I don't know when we had the we spoke, um, like last two weeks. Uh so last Monday, Tuesday, or actually like Sunday to Tuesday, it was in the upper 80s and mid-90s. And then we've done a drastic like 30 to 40 degree swing, uh, temperature swing. Uh, so it's been kind of again whiplashed, the whiplash of the season continues. Um, but I will say now that we're moderating in temperatures and kind of sticking to the upper 70s, low 80s, and with rain in the forecast, we are in ripe time for diseases. So good news is that apple scab and rust are over. So they pretty much they were over probably two weeks ago as far as the primary infection period. So that's good. But we're still kind of in the middle of Marcenina blotch that'll go probably about mid-June. Um, so you still have to be on high alert for Marcenina blotch. And for those with fruit, you need to be thinking about bitter rot. And so I believe we've had three pretty good infection periods for bitter rot already. So May 20th, May 25th, and May 27th all sort of met the criteria of temperatures up in the upper 70s, low 80s, and there was at least 12 hours of leaf wetness. Uh so uh as I I wrote this in an update that went out yesterday, and I've been telling people, and I'll say it again, check your spray records. Um, this was a kind of a I think the first initiation for bitter rot this year for those who still have fruit on their trees. So see how well your trees were covered. Were you in an alternate row middle spray where half the tree was not covered during that time? Uh how old was your fungicide that was applied that um was on the tree? You know, these are questions you want to ask, especially if disease pops up later on in these orchards. You can kind of go back to that time frame. Uh also with apples, another thing that we're in the midst of is city blotch and fly spec. So with fruit on the trees, you um for spraying captain, you should be fine. City blotch and fly spec is a relatively easy disease to control. Conventionally, so I'm not too concerned about that. As far as what to be spraying right now, aprovia would be good because this would be good for bitter rot. It's a frac 7, so also be controlling Marcenina blotch. If you don't have fruit on your trees right now and really you're worrying about Marcenina blotch on vulnerable varieties, you can also be spraying something like Luna Sensation or Marivon right now. They have Frac 7s in them. I don't advocate spraying those right now because they also have Frac 11s in them, and Frac 11s don't touch Marcenina. The Frac 11s are good for rots. So, and I typically want to see those later in the season. But, you know, it's your choice as far as how you want to spray it. But just be mindful that the frack, you could be spraying lunisensation or maravon right now also to kind of hit bitter rot, but also be thinking about saving that maravon spray or lunisensation for later in the season before harvest. So for the for folks who don't have fruit on their trees, I've had some conversations over the last month, especially during the spring meetings, about the efficacy of spraying broad spectrums only throughout the season if you have little to no crop and the efficacy of said broad spectrum. And so a couple of things I want to remind people when they're using a broad spectrum fungicide. Remember this is topical only. It's not going to be penetrating the leaf tissue like your frac, your single mode of action frac groups, like your three, sevens, nines, elevens. So if you're uh if you're kind of, you should be probably at the end of um maxing out your mankazeb right now. Um, and you can be switching to captain. You also have the use of micronized sulfur. Uh, and so for these products to be effective throughout the summer, uh there's a couple things you need to be thinking about. First, if you're using alternate row middle sprays, keep those intervals short. Um, especially if we have frequent rain events, just like we had over this last week, because I believe it started raining like on Wednesday and it really didn't stop until Tuesday. Um, so you need to keep those intervals short and just be mindful of the fact is the longer the spray interval, the longer that other side doesn't have fungicide and it's going to be naked and vulnerable to possibly getting infection. So keep that in mind when using alternate romal sprays in these broad spectrum fungicides. You might see the limits. Actually, you would probably see the limits with any fungicide that's used. Um, at the time of rainfall or the infection event, keep in mind how recent that application of the broad spectrum fungicide is. The more recent the application, the more effective it is. And also be mindful of how much new growth has been produced because the trees are growing. And if you aren't doing anything to slow down the growth, the trees are going to be growing fast and growing out of that fungicide spray. So that's something to be mindful of when you're doing alternate row middle sprays, especially on your apple trees. Um, just as a gentle reminder about your tart cherry trees, um, cherry leaf spot is still out there. And so make sure that you are regularly spraying your sour cherry trees. And then when we get to that post-harvest time time frame in July, make sure you put on a post-harvest spray. Because again, the goal is to keep the leaves on the trees as long as possible. And that's our goal overall for this year on tree fruit uh trees that have little to no crop is keeping the leaves on the trees. That's our main goal right now, so we aren't stressing them out, that they're able to be able to, you know, feed the tree to generate those uh flower buds for next year. And so something just be mindful of again fungicide sprays on your sour cherry trees as well. Um, so uh just to kind of circle back to bitter rot again for the folks who have fruit on their trees. Uh so you need to be on high alert from bitter rot, like you should be on high alert starting probably last week. Um, and so in continuing moving forward. So when we have uh really warm temperatures in the upper 70s with extended wetness hours, this is great for bitter rot, especially when it's a multi-day rain event. Looking at the week coming up, it looks like it's going to be dry, but we've said that before. So we can that can always change. So be vigilant, keep an eye on the weather, and it might be a day-to-day thing because I feel like that's what it is right now when it comes to the weather, is really you don't know what's going to happen until you're in the day itself. Moving forward, your rotation partners for managing bitter rot. Um, and again, you want this on prior to the wedding event because that's when the fungicide is going to be most effective. You aren't going to get effective kickback activity post the rain event because of how this fungus functions. So be thinking about your Frac 7s right now, like a Provia by itself. That's a 28-day PHI. Another product that has a long PHI is fluazinam, which is Orbis or Omega. Uh, this is this is a great product, especially if you're tank mixing with captan. And then your Frac 11s are going to be workhorses for you. So that's Cabrio and Flynn Extra, Luna Sensation and Marivon. But as I mentioned at the beginning, be mindful of having a Marivon spray or lunisensation later in the season to sort of help give that post-harvest protection. Other products you could think about using are topsin or thiophanate methyl, a generic that is like that, which is Frat Group 1, or Fontelis, which is also Frat Group 7. Uh, Fontelis used it 20 fluid ounces per acre. There was a supplemental label that went on a couple years ago, or that was uh um that was basically came out. And by themselves, eh, but when you tank mix it with captain, it gives a little more oomph. Uh, Fontelus has a longer PHI, so just be mindful of when you use that. But again, it's another Frac 7. So you got to be juggling your FRAC 7s. You by the label, you're allowed four applications of the Frac 7s per season per year. Um, so just be mindful of how many Frac 7s you're applying. Uh, as far as additional products, you could add a little more oomph. Uh, so there are your potassium phosphite products that have shown some promise, but you need to be careful about these products. So I'm talking about Rampart, Reveal, those of the likes of those similar products. But be mindful, these have potassium in them. So you, if you're worried about your potassium calcium balance, like in Honeycrisp, you may not want to use these products because it might mess up your calcium balance, which may increase bitter pits. So just be mindful of where you would use these products. In my research, I've noticed that even in a light to moderate bitter rot year, these products, when used, seems to limit the amount of bitter rot that shows up in storage. So that's where my research has shown the efficacy of this. Hasn't been so much during the season, or it has been not statistically significant, but I have known statistics, I have seen statistical significance for the post-harvest incidents.
Bitter Rot Rotation And Organic Tools
As far as organic options, this is really tough because by its by themselves, we've yet to find a good organic product or products that are good for suppressing bitter rot. Um, so if you are going to use something, you've got your biologicals like um Serenade ASO or Serenate Opti, double nickel. Uh, then you've got your uh Oso, which is um it I then it's that is uh a salt. Um I oh my gosh, it's completely lost, it completely uh has left my mind as far as the name of that salt. Uh but Oso um uh uh is or I'm sorry, it's another, there's another uh one I'm thinking about PhD, and then there's another product. Um, but 5% SC Oso is also another organic option. Uh again, but these easily wash off. They aren't very robust, so you're gonna have to use them very often, especially when it rains. Another product you may want to be thinking about is rotating them in is sulfur. Micronized sulfur is also good. It's not the best, but of the organic options, mycronized sulfur is your best. Um, it's not the favorite of many just because of the nature of sulfur. Um, another product to think about incorporating, and you could do this in the conventional aspect or the organic, is regalia. Uh so regalia, it's mode of action, it's a plant extract and it thickens plant cell walls. And so in thickening plant cell walls, this makes it a little the skin a little more durable as far as maybe possibly slowing down the colototricum fungus and causing bitter rot. Uh, so again, these are all some options to be thinking about as far as when you're thinking about protecting your fruit moving forward from bitter rot. Let's hope it's not, we need the rain, but I hope it's we don't have a crazy rainy year like we did last year, where it was raining one to two inches a week and it was like wet all the time. So hopefully this is a more moderate year when we have rain. We are getting enough rain, but it's not constantly wet because I think that's when things will be a bit more manageable. It gets a little overwhelming when it's raining all the time.
Peach Bacterial Spot And Southern Blight
Uh, so as far as for your peaches, for those, uh, even if you don't have peaches or nectarines, bacterial spot is still something you should be thinking about. This last week has been pretty good for back spot, especially the last few days. So you can do a rotational program of a low rate of copper, and you're aiming for the 0.5 to one ounce of metallic copper per acre. Uh, this was based on Rutger's recommendation, and you can rotate this with stuff like Serenade ASO, Serenate Alpha, double nickel, even regalia, and also oxy tetracycline, the antibiotic as well. Be mindful of using copper during slow-drying conditions because it can increase the phytotoxic nature of copper. And then the last thing I just want to mention is southern blight. So we have yet to have a fungicide labeled for southern blight. But for those who may be struggling and who may see trees declining due to southern blight, and you will notice it, usually when we see it when it's really warm and it's wet for many days, you'll see the leaves on the trees turning yellow and drooping. Look at the base of the tree right at the soil line. And if you see white feathery material, that's the fungus, um, that's right at the crown or on the crown of the tree at the soil line, and you may see little looks like little tan to dark tan or brown sesame seeds, that's a scorosia, that's southern blade. If you see that, reach out to me, k-a-p22 at psu.edu. So let's chat about this as far as your options. They are limited, but there are some options depending on what the orchard is, bearing or not, bearing or not bearing. Um, but uh if you need advice for that, just reach out to me. Um, this is definitely in Adams County. So for Adams County listeners, um, you will definitely want to keep an eye out, especially for those who may have a history of Southern Blight at their location. It is seems to be very sporadic. It's here at Freck. Uh, we struggle with it at Freck. So I would say you might be seeing issues, especially with this stretch of rain that we had over the last week in the last few days. Um, probably in two weeks, I would say. Usually it doesn't take long for it to pop up. Uh so just be on alert. Bud 9 and Bud 10 and M9 are very, very vulnerable rootstocks. So, as far as scouting, this is what you want to be thinking about. Um, and then finally, very finally, the last thing I want to talk about is fire blight.
Fire Blight Triage Pruning And TAP
Last but certainly not least. So, fire blight, uh, there are some people struggling with fire blight. Uh, so just a few things I want to mention about fire blight. Be careful of over-pruning the trees. The more you prune, the more you're going to encourage new growth to initiate. Said new growth is going to be vulnerable to fire blight. So, the triage method you want to be thinking about is young orchards, three to eight years old, three to eight years old with just a few strikes. Those are your highest priority. Try to maintain the tree structure. Then young orchards, three to eight years old with a lot of strikes, older orchards with a few strikes, and then the walk away is when there's so many strikes you're going to be spending a lot of time pruning out, and there's just a stick there of a tree. That's too much pruning. Uh, so be mindful of how much you're pruning because you might do more harm than good when you're over pruning. So you may just have to have a conversation with yourself and just walk away from that from that orchard. Um, you might be seeing a lot of fire blight strikes showing up in an otherwise healthy orchard. These would be in older blocks that may have leftover cankers. This is canker blight where it looks like a cluster of shoot blight that's on an old branch. You typically see canker blight in big, big, older, older, very older trees. This is where you typically see where the trees seem to come back every year. If you are pruning out, um, don't prune out, don't prune in wet weather. You want to make sure it's dry, cut infections out early. Um, pruning is most effective when incidence is low. Uh, you want to practice salvaging the tree, and just remember you want to be doing like about six to twelve inches beyond the site of infection. The bacteria does move well far ahead of where you see the line of demarcation. And with that said, sanitizing your pruning uh equipment, uh, does it work? Doesn't it work? I don't believe it works, but if it makes you feel better, go ahead and do it. I'm I'm not gonna discourage you to each their own. But I'm just saying the research shows that that it really doesn't do much. Um, if you're struggling with a lot, uh there the rule of thumb is to remove it from your orchard, but you may not be able to do that. So if it's small cuttings, just put it in the row middle, let it dry, and then mow right over it to make it into a bunch of little pieces. There is a method that you can use is called acteguard paint. Paint using a verb, not actually using like white latex paint, but you're making a concentrated solution of actigard, and where you cut it, you're spraying it on the trunk, and then I've also sprayed it on the cut itself. And this seems to limit canker production by the bacteria by a recent infection in the tree. This is all on the actigard label, so refer to the actigard label for that. The other option that we haven't tested, but I've heard anecdotally, is the use of the citric acid-based product called fungiut. So this is uh a citric acid, so it's acidic, and our winny amylavra does not like an acidic environment. So where people have struggled, they've sprayed this on active infections where shoot blight is and it seems to stop it in its tracks. Does it work? I don't know. Um, I was gonna do it this year, but my trees got pretty much frozen out by the freeze. So I don't have much to work with other than maybe like four trees that are infected because of um of my untreated trees. Um, definitely still still got fire blight despite the freeze. Uh, but if it spreads, I might try this. But I'm just saying for people to use it at their own discretion because I have not used it. I'm not sure what the influence of this product would be on fruit finish. So again, use at you at your own discretion if you choose to use this fung out, F-U-N-G-O-U-T. And the very, very, very last thing I want to mention is for those people who are struggling with Fireblight and it's really well beyond their control, and they're overwhelmed and they feel that their whole at least 15% of their orchard is being or more is being wiped out, you do have the an option with the USDA FSA called the Tree Assistance Program or TAP for short. So these this program is for folks who lose perennial fruit crops to disasters. And so a disaster would be Fireblight. And so, in the latest um disease update, I put out two updates this week. I rehash an article Jay Harper and I put out a couple years ago about the tree assistance program. Not much has changed because the farm bill hasn't officially been passed, but there is talks of modernizing this tree assistant program, but it's still available to you. And so if you're really struggling and you find yourself really whacking hard at these trees for pruning them out of fire blight, this may be something to think about as far as just starting over. So it it does will, it does, you know, reimburse you up to a point, but there is a period of time that you can make a claim, and it's like 90 days from the time of the event. So the sooner you get your paperwork in and let FSA know, the better off you are. So if you are one of these individuals that this resonates with with Fireblade, now is a time to contact FSA. And if you need help with like having someone um uh advocate for you as far if it's a letter or an expert testimony, which sometimes um FSA needs, I'm more than welcome to help whoever. I've done this several times. I know the drill um with FSA, so I'll be happy to work with anyone. So you're welcome to share my name with your FSA contact if they're not sure of what to do or if they need additional material to validate this event. So that is it for me. Okay, very good. Say goodbye, everybody. See you later. Bye everyone. Bye, everyone.