Mummy Berry Forecast Post #3– April 25th, 2022 oh my look at that weather forecast

 

With the forecasted rain (late week) and high temperatures tomorrow, I think it is really important for growers to be monitoring bud development in the highbush blueberries in order to correctly time their Monilinia blight spray application.

Out of concern I ran around this morning to my usual areas.   The same apothecia that I took pictures of Friday were still present and active although looking a little more advanced.   At another location I was able to find a newly emerged apothecium. 

 

 

I was very surprised by the amount of development in the buds over the weekend. Many buds were well swollen at an advanced F1 stage but perhaps not at an F2 stage. With warm temperatures forecast tomorrow, buds may advance quite quickly.

This morning on early varieties 42% of the buds were at the F2 stage, Duke/Bluegold/Draper were at the 21-28% while Burlington 15% at the F2 stage. As a reminder, these observations are based on plantings in the Berwick, Aylesford area on the valley floor.

It is important to look at your own varieties in your planting to judge your timing.    This can be done by selecting a cane and counting the total floral buds and then going back over the same cane and counting the floral buds that are in the F2 stage.  Divide the number of buds in the F2 stage by the total number of floral buds multiply by 100 and that gives you %.     You can differentiate the floral buds from the vegetative buds by size, floral being larger.

Applications for Mummy berry/Monilinia control should be timed when blueberry buds are at least at 40% F2 stage and before the next forecasted wet period.

For product selection please refer to this table: Clickhere

Rain interval for most of of these products is one hour or when dry.