Controlling Listeria in Apple Packinghouses
Posted 8/14/2025 by Mike Basedow, CCE-ENYCHP, Northern NY

Workshop: Controlling Listeria in Apple Packinghouses

Thursday, August 14

8:30 – 4:30 pm

Chazy Orchards, Chazy, NY

Join Cornell University Food Science experts, along with CCE ENYCHP specialists Mike Basedow and Elisabeth Hodgdon for a day-long intensive workshop on managing Listeria in apple packinghouse environments. We will review key aspects of Listeria biology, cleaning and sanitizing principles and techniques, and monitoring programs.

This program is funded in part by the Northeast Center to Advance Food Safety.

Full details and registration available at the following link: https://enych.cce.cornell.edu/event.php?id=2111

Please contact Elisabeth Hodgdon (eh528@cornell.edu or 518-650-5323) with any questions, requests for accommodations, and dietary restrictions.

Cornell Hard Cider Resources
Posted 8/7/2025 by Mike Basedow

Thursday, August 7th in the Mid-Hudson Valley

Designed for commercial cider producers and apple growers, but all are welcome.

Participants are responsible for their own transportation to and among the stops. Carpooling is highly encouraged.

Registration is just $5 and includes lunch and educational cider tastings.

https://hardcider.cals.cornell.edu/2025/06/11/registration

Northern NY IPM August 5 2025
Posted 8/6/2025 by Mike Basedow and Jennifer Stanton, CCE-ENYCHP, Northern NY

Northern NY IPM

Mike Basedow and Jennifer Stanton, CCE-ENYCHP, Northern NY

We continued to catch apple maggot on our baited traps last week. Our trap captures on Monday averaged 15.7 per baited trap in Peru, still above the 5 per trap treatment threshold for this particular block. Captures were down from the previous week in most other sites across the Champlain Valley and Capital Region. For those using unbaited lures, the threshold is one adult per trap. Continue to monitor your traps closely, and make follow-up applications as needed where residues may be waning.

Woolly apple aphid colonies continue to be found in some blocks, with sever outbreaks in a few hotspots. Dr. Andres Antolinez notes there are a few compounds specifically labeled for WAA. Options include Admire Pro and Assail (group 4A), Movento (Group 23), Diazinon (Group 1B), Sefina (Group 9D), Sivanto (Group 4D), Beleaf (Group 29), or Esteem (Group 7C). Always read and follow product labels carefully to ensure proper use, application timing, and resistance management, and be mindful of PHIs.

We continued to capture many apple leaf curling midge adults in our traps in Peru on Monday, suggesting adults are still very active. Live larvae continue to be found in the curled leaves in some locations. Suggestions from our colleagues out of Ontario have found good control of this generation with either Delegate or Exirel. Exirel has a 2(ee) for leaf curling midge in NY. Delegate and Assail might also help against this pest if you are using these materials for other pests this time of year.

Codling moth counts were above threshold in a few blocks this past week. Much like the first generation, insecticides should be applied about 250 degree days from the beginning of the 2^nd generation flight, and continue as trap captures remain above 5 per week. In addition to the pyrethroids and the pyrethroid premix products, other options rated “high” in the guidelines to consider for CM and OBLR at this point include the group 28 products like Exirel, Altacor, and Verdepryn, group 5 products like Delegate, and Assail, a group 4A.

We continued to catch very low numbers of oriental fruit moth in our traps last week. The NEWA model suggests the 2^nd generation flight is wrapping up. Just in case, continue to keep an eye on your weekly captures as the third-generation flight begins, and manage accordingly.

Obliquebanded leafroller counts were low across the northern NY region last week. NEWA predicts the flight of the second summer generation should be beginning in Saratoga county. Keep an eye on your trap counts, and for active larvae.

Japanese beetles were still fairly active in a few blocks last week. If you’re applying Assail for apple maggot, it will likely do double duty on this pest as well. Additional materials for their management on apple can be found on page 150 of the 2025 tree fruit guidelines.

The August threshold for mites is 7.5 mites per leaf. A sampling chart can be found on page 77 of the 2025 guidelines. A list of miticides can be found on page 149 for European red mite and 157 for twospotted spider mites.

Green apple aphids can still be found in a few blocks. A number of aphid products can be found on page 145 of the 2025 guidelines for apples.

Summer diseases such as sooty blotch and flyspeck, black rot, white rot and bitter rot should continue to be managed as we get into August. The sooty blotch and flyspeck risk summary model on NEWA can give you a good sense of when to recover against sb/fs. Products that are effective for SBFS, and black, white, and bitter rots include Flint Extra (14 day PHI), Inspire Super (14 day PHI), Luna Sensation (14 day PHI), Merivon (0 day PHI), and Pristine (0 day PHI). In general, fungicide covers for the rots go on every 14 days, but remember that 1.5” of rainfall would trigger a re-cover (rule of thumb, varies some by product). Where conditions have been very dry, your next cover could be captan with a phosphorous acid, or one of the biopesticides like Stargus, EcoSwing, Double Nickel, OSO, or Howler.

Continue to keep an eye out for new fire blight strikes. Prune out on dry days, cutting at least 12 inches into last season’s growth. In young trees, remove trees if blight has reached the leader. Strikes that are dry on the trees can be treated with prohexadione calcium and copper, and then leave them on the trees. If shoots are oozing, make the prohex and copper applications, wait five days, prune out the strikes, reapply prohex, and then prune every two weeks. If you don’t have fire blight, but have hedged or pruned, apply a copper or a liquid biopesticide. For trauma blight caused by hail or heavy winds, this would be the scenario where a strep application would be warranted. Keep an eye on your PHI’s though. If you have a trauma event in a strep resistant block and the crop is still salvageable, then consider applying one of the liquid biopesticides.

Eastern NY Late Summer Orchard Meeting
Posted 8/6/2025 by Mike Basedow, CCE-ENYCHP, Northern NY

Eastern New York Late Summer Orchard Meeting

Wednesday August 13 5-7pm

Mourningkill Farm and Bake Shop, 310 Charlton Rd Ballston Spa NY 12020

Join us for our last get together of the summer before we're in the thick of apple harvest. At this meeting, we will tour Mourningkill Farm with manager Zac Boekeloo and hear about his grafting program. We will then discuss late season pest management of apples, peaches, and berries, and business topics with our experts from the Cornell HVRL, Cornell AgriTech, and CCE-ENYCHP.

1.25 DEC Credits are available for this meeting in categories 22, 1A, and 10.

Free to attend, pre-register at:

httpps://lenych.cce.cornell.edu/event_preregistrations_new.phd?id=2098

Fresh baked pie is included with your registration.

Questions? Reach out to Mike at mrb254@cornell.edu or 518 410 6823.

Funding for August/September Fruit programs
Posted 8/6/2025 by Mike Basedow, CCE-ENYCHP, Northern NY

Funding Available for August Fruit Programs!

Interested in attending the above summer tree fruit workshops? We have funding available to provide sponsorships for programs in August and September.

Funds can be used to cover registration costs. If travel expenses are a barrier for you to participate, funds can also be used for hotel or mileage.

If you are interested in a sponsorship ***DO NOT REGISTER***. Please reach out to Anna Wallis aew232@cornell.edu or 443-421-7970 if you are interested and we will register you.

If you already registered, we can reimburse you for your registration cost. Please reach out to Anna to request a reimbursement.

Quick Links to Tree Fruit Resources on the Web
Posted 8/6/2025 by Mike Basedow, CCE-ENYCHP, Northern NY

Quick Links to Tree Fruit Resources on the Web:

ENYCHP - Cornell Cooperative Extension Eastern New York Commercial Horticulture Program

ENYCHP YouTube Page for all of our team's videos

ENYCHP Tree Fruit News Blog for in-depth articles on a wide range of topics

Cornell NEWA Website for Weather Info, Computer Models, Pest Management

PERC Training Resources Pesticide Education Resources Collaborative, WPS Training resources

NYSPAD Portal, DEC website with up-to-date information on pesticide materials (replaced PIMS)

Cornell Crop and Pest Management Guidelines

Cornell Fruit Resources Website

Northern NY IPM
Posted 7/1/2025 by Mike Basedow, CCE-ENYCHP, Northern NY

Woolly apple aphid colonies can be found in many blocks. Monique recommends Sefina at this point in the season to help get them under control. Also see the article from Andres in this alert.

We continued catching high numbers of apple leaf curling midge adults in our traps in Peru. This suggests the second generation adult flight has begun. Suggestions from our colleagues out of Ontario have found good control of this generation with either Delegate or Exirel. Exirel has a 2(ee) for leaf curling midge in NY. Delegate does not have ALCM on the label, but if you are using Delegate as your OBLR material, you will likely also pick up some ALCM in the process. Assail could be another option, but you might want to hold onto this material until we need it for apple maggot in a few more weeks.

We continued to catch obliquebanded leafrollers in the Saratoga region and the Champlain Valley last week, with numbers rising in a few blocks. Using June 10^th as our example biofix date, the model suggests larvae will begin to hatch around 350 DD. NEWA predicted that we hit 350DD around June 24^th in Ballston Spa and Peru. In blocks with a history of bad OBLR damage, consider an insecticide application asap if you haven’t gotten one on yet, with a second application 10 to 14 days later. If this has been a more marginal pest for your orchard, and your trap counts are low, you should be able to begin monitoring for terminal damage over the upcoming weekend, and then treat according to your monitoring results. Terminal monitoring instructions can be found on page 73 of the 2025 Tree Fruit Guidelines.

We continue to catch codling moth in Saratoga and the Champlain Valley, with relatively high numbers being caught around the Champlain last week. NEWA predicts we are right around peak egg hatch at this point, so a second insecticide application should be made 10 to 14 days after your first. In addition to the pyrethroids and the pyrethroid premix products, other options rated “high” in the guidelines to consider for CM and OBLR at this point include the group 28 products like Exirel, Altacor, and Verdepryn, group 5 products like Delegate, and Assail, a group 4A.

We continued to catch low numbers of oriental fruit moth in our traps last week. The NEWA model suggests the second generation adult flight should be starting shortly. If you’re still catching adults, your OBLR or CM materials should also pick up any of these larvae that are still kicking around.

The July threshold for mites is 5 mites per leaf. A sampling chart can be found on page 76 of the 2025 guidelines. A list of miticides can be found on page 149 for European red mite and 157 for twospotted spider mites.

Green apple aphids and green peach aphids are being found in each crop, respectively. A number of aphid products can be found on page 145 of the 2025 guidelines for apples, and page 264 for peaches.

Apple scab lesions continue to be found in blocks around the region. Check lesions closely to see if they are still active, or you’ve burnt them out with your last fungicide. Where active scab leaf lesions are present, Kerik recommends applying a combo fungicide with groups 7+11, like Merivon or Luna Sensation. If you don’t have scab lesions, but have had 5 days or 1.5 inches of rain, he recommends including one of the group 7, 11, or 3s with your next cover to keep scab controlled. In areas where there have been fewer than 5 days or less than 1.5 inches of rain, your next cover could be captan with one of the phosphoric acid products. Another option where there hasn’t been much rain would be to use a biopesticide like Stargus, EcoSwing, Double Nickel, Oso, or Howler.

Where foliar diseases like apple blotch and frogeye leaf spot have been noticed in the orchard, we recommend a final push with a group 11, 3, or 7 with your next cover. We’ve noticed these foliar issues in a few susceptible blocks around the Capital Region and Champlain Valley over the past few weeks.

For powdery mildew, Kerik suggests Luna Sensation or Merivon, carbonate biopesticides, or sulfur for burning out blighted shoots. He recommends not using sulfur when it’s going to be above 80 degrees. In general, the SDHIs and the DMIs do fairly well against powdery mildew in low pressure years. The QoIs are also generally a good choice. He’s had very good responses from Luna Sensation, Merivon, Tesaris, Miravis, Axios (group 52), and Gatten 5 EC (group 13) in his recent trials.

Fire blight remains a concern as we continue to get some heat and active oozing strikes have been found in a few blocks. If you see shoot blight showing up in your plantings, and infections are dry, consider applying prohex calcium at 6-12oz /100 gallons and a liquid low MCE copper. For wet, oozing infections, Kerik recommends applying the prohex and copper, wait five days, and prune infections every two weeks on cool, dry days until terminal bud set. When pruning out, cut back at least 12 inches into last year’s healthy tissue. Even better to cut back to three year old wood, leaving a short 5 inch stub. In young trees, remove the entire tree if fire blight reaches the leader. If you have still have new plantings in bloom, consider a protective antibiotic application ahead of wetting events. This can be from rain, heavy dew, or from a spray application.

Wooly Invaders on the Move
Posted 7/1/2025 by C. Andres Antolinex, Hudson Valley Research Lab, Cornell Agri Tech

Hot and dry conditions this week have led to a noticeable increase in green apple aphid (GAA) and woolly apple aphid (WAA) populations in both the Hudson Valley and Champlain Valley. For WAA, small but numerous colonies have been observed on varieties such as Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Gala, and RubyFrost. These colonies are beginning to migrate from old pruning wounds on the main stem to leaf axils in the upper canopy (see Figure 1).

Given these observations, scouting is strongly recommended, especially in orchards with a history of WAA infestations to determine whether treatment is needed

WAA Scouting Guidelines:

· Sample 20 trees per acre.

· Inspect trees from below by crouching and looking into the interior of the canopy. Because WAA colonies are unevenly distributed, be sure to include both interior and border trees in your sample.

· Pay close attention to old pruning cuts near the trunk, where colonies typically establish first.

· Check root suckers, which can act as reservoirs for WAA.

· Flag infested trees and monitor these flagged trees every three days to track colony development and spread.

Currently, no formal economic threshold has been established for WAA treatment. However, if colonies are detected in blocks that experienced infestations in previous years, a treatment is recommended as soon as possible. Most control products are most effective when applied early, while populations are still low.

There are a few compounds specifically labeled for WAA, but options include Admire Pro and Assail (group 4A), Movento (Group 23), Diazinon (Group 1B), Sefina (Group 9D), Sivanto (Group 4D), Beleaf (Group 29), or Esteem (Group 7C). Always read and follow product labels carefully to ensure proper use, application timing, and resistance management.

Champlain Valley Apple Pest Management Refresher
Posted 3/27/2025

March 27, 2025 9am - 11:30am

American Legion Post 769 9509 Rt 9 Chazy, NY 12921

Join us some pest management updates, and to receive some additional pesticide recertification credits for your farm's certified applicators! We will be offering 2.25 DEC recertification credits in categories 22, 10, and 1A. Light refreshments will be provided.

Learn more and register here!

Hudson Valley Textile Project
Posted 3/27/2025

This is a reminder that we have two buying dates at NEFX next week- March 27th and 28th - at our facility in Mechanicville NY. We welcome you all to bring your fleeces for sale! To do so, you must sign up for an appointment by clicking here.

All sellers must be certified through our NEFX farmer training program. If you attended a session in person and completed the provided paperwork, you are eligible to sell. If not there is still time to complete the certification online and book a time to sell at our March dates. Click here to access the training.

In this buying round, grades will be based on a traditional system of Fine, Medium and Course wools. Pay rates will be on a sliding scale to allow us to factor in cleanliness and quality. Fleeces that will require additional processing for use will be paid a lower rate than top quality fleeces. Grades and prices will be determined by our grader.

As a reminder, wool accepted by NEFX must meet our quality standards. Quality standards are essential to meeting the demands of our buyers. If you want a refresher on those requirements, the training videos are available on our website.

I have also attached the grading and pricing information for your reference. Breeds listed on this reference sheet are meant to serve as an example, but official grades will be determined in person.

If anyone has any questions regarding the buying dates, please feel free to reach out!

All the best,

Abby Henderson

Farm to Market Business Development Specialist

Hudson Valley Textile Project

518-450-3156

hvtextileproject.org