Fruit Bites for April 5-7 Welcome Back

BL: Welcome back to another “Fruit Bites” brought to you by Valent U.S.A. Back with us again this year is Valent’s Allison Walston. And this week Allison, we are back for the beginning of season 6 and jumping right into things!

AW: Can you believe it? warm, sunny weather and trees are pushing a little earlier than usual.

BL: so what are the trees looking like so far? How did they fair through winter?

AW: This April period is the most stressful with potential frosts up until about Mother’s Day.

If you are in cooler areas, you might still be in delayed dormant, so be sure to get out your pear psylla and San Jose scale applications. In moderate areas, we are quickly moving into tight cluster and pink timings. This is another great timing to make sure you target insects like pear psylla eggs and early instar stages, and San Jose scale while they are still immatures. Products like Esteem, an insect growth regulator, target the younger stages and prevent them from molting to the next stage. Also, there isn’t much foliage yet, so you can get into all those nooks & crannies.

BL: Well, thanks Allison. Join us again next time for Fruit Bites, brought to you by Valent. Until then, I’m Bob Larson.