Lynn E. Long Horticulture Extension Agent Oregon State University Wasco County Extension

Sweet Cherry Pickings

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May 2001 Newsletter

		Cherry Fruit Fly Spray. Good communication was identified as the key component to a successful cherry fruit fly spray season at last Friday's Orchard Managers breakfast with Johnny Shearer. Problems have arisen in the past when one or two individuals were working in a block and were inadvertently sprayed. If you see Johnny spraying a block where you have pickers or other individuals working, telephone him immediately and he will call off the application. Likewise, it would be helpful if Johnny had your cell phone number so that he could contact you more easily during harvest. Call him with that number as soon as possible.
		OBLR. Large populations of obliquebanded leafroller have been found in numerous orchards around The Dalles. Many larvae are pupating and should be emerging as adult moths sometime this week. Traps should be placed in orchard blocks by weeks end. Be sure to scout your orchard block if you catch more than 20 moths during the flight. In most locations around The Dalles it is too late to apply a control measure to the overwintering generation. Plan to apply a Bt or spinosad (Success®) spray prior to harvest to control the summer generation. Keep in mind that spinosad has a seven day pre-harvest interval.
		Royal Ann Removals. The Oregon Sweet Cherry Commission asked me to obtain an estimate of the number of acres of Royal Ann cherries removed in Oregon over the last year. To date there has been approximately 580 acres of Royal Ann cherries removed in Wasco County alone with more than 300 more acres planned for removal after harvest. For the state of Oregon, including Wasco County, a total of approximately 860 acres of Royal Ann orchards have been removed.

                                

CANADIAN TOUR PLANNED

I am tentatively planning a tour to British Columbia the third or fourth week of July to visit orchards and the Summerland Research Station. I am hoping that we can evaluate Skeena and other late cherry varieties during our tour. If you are interested in participating in this tour please contact the Wasco County Extension office at 296-5494. We will begin a list of potential participants and apprise you of progress as more information becomes available.

BORON. Boron increases ovule longevity, improves pollen tube growth and increases winter hardiness. The element is mobile in the soil but is immobile in the plant. In other words, it does not move in the phloem. In order for it to reach the buds and fruit it must be in the phloem. It is easy to get it to the leaves, but more difficult to get it to the phloem. A fall application of boron, before the leaves fall, does the best job of getting the element into the phloem and buds. A dormant boron application is only a fraction as efficient as a fall application.

Boron applied to the soil will not move to the buds. Almost all excess boron problems occur when there is too much boron applied to the soil. It is very difficult to get into a toxicity problem by applying boron to the leaves. Leaf analyses for boron levels will only tell you if leaves are deficient, not what is happening in the buds. If a leaf analysis shows excess boron, growers should not apply boron to the ground, but, in most cases, continue to apply to the leaves.

All formulations of boron are equally effective, but not all formulations are equally compatible with other products. Compatibility, not effectiveness should be your guide in selecting the product.

ZINC. Zinc is very immobile in the plant so symptoms will appear on new leaves. For this reason, several zinc applications need to be applied each spring so that new growth is covered. Dormant applications of zinc are not an efficient way to get zinc into the buds or new leaves.

Zinc deficiency symptoms include shortened internodes, small leaves and chlorotic leaves.

NITROGEN. To date, most nitrogen work has been done on apples and pears. Most of these comments are based on that work. Spring applications of nitrogen will put nitrogen into the leaves and fruit. Nitrogen applied post-harvest will move into the roots and storage structures. If a tree is overly vigorous avoid spring nitrogen and fall urea applications. The place for the fall urea application is when you are trying to back off on your nitrogen program. With apples and pears you would like to have a high nitrogen bud on a low vigor tree. For cherries, it is perhaps best to have a high nitrogen bud with a moderate vigor tree.

The Wasco County Fruit & Produce League and the Wasco County Spray Drift Task Force would like to remind all Wasco County Growers of the need to continue efforts to reduce the risk of agricultural spray drift. Grower efforts over the last five years have shown a reduction of reported spray drift incidents. However, there is more work to do.

There have been several instances this spring of orchard spray drifting onto vehicles on public roads and into back yards of neighbors. When spraying near public roads and neighbors, growers should pick times and weather conditions that are the most favorable to prevent accidental spray drift. When there is traffic on a public road applicators should stop their sprayers and allow traffic to pass or have flaggers stop the traffic.

We also need to avoid spraying workers in the orchards. This has become a major issue with the ULV Malathion sprays by air. It is difficult for the pilots to see irrigators on four wheelers and single tractors with mowers. All growers and employees need to be aware of the spray planes and immediately leave any orchard the plane is attempting to spray.

We need to continue to work together to reduce the risk for everyone and to keep all of our pest management tools available to us in the future. If you have any questions or concerns about spray drift issues please contact one of the cherry representatives on the Spray Drift Task Force, Ken Bailey (298-4496), Steve Rempel (206-8122) or Greg Johnson (296-3024).

Region 9 Education Service District has completed preparations for the 3-week Summer Migrant Education Program, which will operate June 18th through July 9th, Monday through Saturday, excluding July 4th.

Parents may register all children on June 13th -15th at The Early Childhood Building, 1721 West 10th St. in The Dalles. (Note: This is a different location than announced earlier at the Orchard Managers meeting.) Once the program begins, parents may register their children at Chenowith Elementary School.

Busses will leave Chenowith at 5:00 a.m. each morning and pick up all children through 12 years of age. A bus will run to Mosier and make one stop at Mosier School. It will be up to families to get their children to Mosier School. The bus will return to Mosier at approximately 1:20 p.m., and get back to Chenowith Elementary to pick up all other children for their return trip home at 2:30 p.m.

This year an evening program for middle and high school students will operate from 4:30 - 8:30 p.m., Monday though Friday. Busses will also pick-up and return these students. Students will not be allowed to participate if they drive their own vehicles to Wahtonka High School. The focus of this program will be credit recovery for academic classes, ESL instruction, technology instruction and recreation. A light meal will be provided each evening.

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