I've been intensively
looking for emerged apothecia (apothecia are small cup-shaped spore-bearing structures)
and have not been about to find any from Aylesford to Gibson's
Woods.
There are three factors that
need to be in place to trigger an infection period:
-Apothecia at the correct stage
of releasing spores
-Free moisture for a period of
time on the plant tissue (at low temperature spore germination and
infection take longer much longer.......warm rains much much more quickly)
-The blueberry bushes at the
correct stage
I'm seeing quite a difference in bud development from various locations across the western end of the province as we are very boarder line in accumulating GDD as you can see below the difference in GDD base 5 and 10 degrees. As a result it is very important that you look at your own plantings and varieties.
From Waterville to Aylesford Duke is at 35% F2 stage, Liberty and Bluegold 22 % F2 stage Draper 5% later varieties are still pretty tight in their bud.
Spray timings should target 40% of buds at F2 stage with active apothecia to give fungicide coverage through periods of free moisture.
With the lack of apothecia and
stage of crop up until this point risk of infection has been very
low.
