In This Issue  

• Project Update 
• What’s New on the Web? 
• What’s Buggin’ Me Now?? 
• Satellite Research Station  
• Growers’ Breakfast Meetings 

• This week's topic is PEST MANAGEMENT. Also listed is a lower mainland B.C. WEATHER site which should be very useful to Northern Whatcom County growers. Have a look.  
• • BC Weather, Environment Canada www.tor.ec.gc.ca/text/fpcn11.w v r.htm  
  
• • Northwest Berry and Grape Infonet  
  www.orst.edu/dept/infonet (follow "Crop Recommendations" link)  
• • WSU Treefruit Research and Extension Center tfrec.ncw.net/tfrec.html  
• • WSU Agricultural and Environmental News www.tricity.wsu.edu/~ebechtel/ nwsltr.htm  
• • EXTOXNET... Pesticide Information Profiles ace.ace.orst.edu/info/extoxnet/ p ips/ghindex.html  
• • CICP Home Page ipmwww.ncsu.edu/cicp/cicp.ht ml  
• • University of California at Davis IPM Home Page www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/  
• • The Tree Fruit Directory www.treefruit.com  
• • American Crop Protection Association Home Page acpa.org/public/interest/interest . html  
• • WSU Links to Pest Management Sites www.wsu.edu:8080/~ramsay/links.html 

Project Update  

Funding   

We have just been notified that EPA has funded the Nooksack IPM Project for the third and final year. The goal of this project is to improve your understanding of Integrated Pest Management and to explore and further develop practical tools and strategies for managing key pests in raspberries and apples. If you have not taken advantage of this project then act now by coming to monthly breakfast meetings and calling in to the weekly pest report described below.  

Weekly Phone Recording   

Start your week off by being informed about pest activity and scouting tips. DIAL 715-8241 on Monday mornings for a brief report which highlights insect and disease development based on current observations in the field. This recording is updated every Monday morning to bring you the latest practical pest information, so you can use your time in the field most efficiently.  

Pacific Northwest Raspberry IPM Project   

Craig MacConnell, WSU Cooperative Extension in Whatcom County has recently taken the lead in applying for a Western Region Federal IPM grant assisting raspberry growers in the continued adoption of IPM. This proposal has received wide support from industry as well as extension and research personnel in the raspberry growing areas of Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. This project would continue the investigation and adoption of multiple pest management tactics in order to supplement and conserve the relatively few pesticide options which are now available for use in raspberries. Continued field scale research and on-farm demonstrations of promising IPM strategies will form the backbone of this project. Contact Craig at 676-6736 for more information. Thanks to all who have contributed their time and support in bringing the pieces of this proposal together. We'll keep you posted.  

Raspberry 

Growers 

What's Buggin' 

Me Now??

Raspberry Breakfast Meetings/IPM Forum   

Our next IPM breakfast meeting is coming up fast. It is scheduled for Wednesday, May 7 at Dutch Mothers in Lynden from 6:30 am to 8:00 a.m. Come meet the folks working at the WSU Satellite Research Station and learn more about practical scouting tips for rust, clay weevils, and raspberry fruitworm. Breakfast meetings will be held at Dutch Mothers at this same time on the first Wednesday of every month from now through September. AND you can earn up to 6 PESTICIDE RECERTIFICATION CREDITS by regularly attending these meetings.  

Clay-Colored Weevil/Climbing Cutworms   

This weevil, also known as the bud weevil, is present at damaging levels again this year in a few fields. It is not widespread but populations are quite high in some fields and spot treatments appear necessary to protect flower buds and prevent possible yield loss. Examine new growth in several areas in a field for signs of feeding damage from these pests. Damaged shoots have a tattered appearance with flagging leaves and flower buds; the result of weevils feeding on stem and petiole tissue. Damaged leaves have angular notching of leaf margins which is characteristic of weevil feeding. If you see this type of damage, you should carefully search between canes around the base of the hill where most adult weevils congregate during the day or use a beating tray to knock them from the canopy. The beating tray will not give as precise a count, but is a practical way to extract this and other insects from the foliage so that they can be identified. Beating tray counts of weevils will be higher at night, but a percentage of the population remains in the canopy during the day, particularly if it is cool and cloudy. The early season adult clay-colored weevil is medium-sized(3/8" long) with a reddish-brown color and a mottled light color on its back.  

Winter Moth   

The larval(worm) stage of this insect is the most common leaf feeding caterpillar on raspberries at this time of the year. This insect has only one generation per year, and the damaging stage is present only during the spring, usually in March and April. Damage from this insect is rarely if ever economic and therefore does not usually require chemical treatment. The small worms are light green in color and can be found in new growth where they feed and web in a manner that is similar to leafrollers. The Nooksack IPM Project is working with several growers this season to evaluate a quick and easy obliquebanded leafroller sampling method based on work done by Sheila Fitzpatrick with Agriculture Canada. This method allows you to easily determine the percentage of hills that are infested and the need for leafroller treatment. Most of the rolled or webbed foliage found and examined in fields to date is the work of winter moth caterpillars. We should start to see more obliquebanded leafrollers in the coming weeks. This caterpillar which has two generations per year can contaminate fruit during the tail end of harvest. Sampling results during the next few weeks should help determine whether sprays for the first generation caterpillars are necessary. COME TO THE BREAKFAST MEETING ON WEDNESDAY TO LEARN MORE.  

Yellow Rust  

The first sign of this foliar disease is the presence of small yellow/orange pustules which form on older leaves near the top wire. These pustules, also called aecia, release spores which allow the disease to spread to healthy leaves, causing secondary infection. The chemical strategy to control yellow rust is to apply an effective fungicide to the canopy as a protectant once this initial stage is observed in order to suppress secondary infection of other healthy leaves. The initial pustule stage of infection was first observed during the third week in April in some raspberry fields. Initial observations indicate that yellow rust infections are heavier in fields which had rust infections last year and still have old leaves trapped in cane bundles at the wire compared to fields that were tied later in the winter after leaves had dropped. These leaves harbor the overwintering teliospore stage of this disease. These initial field observations support the recommended cultural practice to delay cane tying until after leaves have dropped as a tactic to reduce the survival of overwintering yellow rust inoculum. As mentioned in the last newsletter, Pete Bristow, WSU plant pathologist, has two experiments underway in local fields to evaluate this yellow rust control tactic. 

Research Topics 

Satellite Research Station (Supplied by Todd Murray)   

Washington State University-Satellite Station in Lynden is already up and running to get an early start on research projects this year. We have a new station manager, Pat Hertzog. Pat is currently a student at Western Washington University and worked for the station last year. His time will be quite full due to the plethora of research projects and researchers scheduled for this season. Pat will be coordinating both entomological and horticultural programs for Drs. Lynell Tanigoshi and Scott Cameron. The station's technical support is being headed by WWU graduate, Katie Lauby. She has experience in working with root weevils in cranberries and was previously employed by our friends in Long Beach. Also, we have the rare opportunity to work with the station's newest arrival, Natasha Bassangova. She is currently an assistant professor with Kalmyk State University in Elista, Russia. Her specialty is the taxonomy, systematics, and biology of root weevils. Malika Bounfour will be joining us shortly to start this year's study of spider mites. I, Todd Murray, am personally glad and excited to be back in the Lynden area. I will still have my nose in raspberry research but the majority of my time will be devoted to research on cherry and other fruit trees. Last month's issue gave a brief run-down of research at the station. Current projects include the study of the clay-colored weevil, which is occurring in high numbers right now in some fields. We are looking at four chemicals to control this root weevil using the basal spray technique. Additionally, Katie and Natasha are studying the egg production and development of the clay-colored weevil for the purpose of timing the sprays prior to egg deposition. We are currently looking for weevil and spider mite fields; if you have had problems with these critters in the past and would like to partake in WSU research, pleae contact the station@ (360) 354-5944. Feel free to bring by any samples or questions.  

Apple Growers

Apple Breakfast Meetings/IPM Forum   

The next breakfast meeting for apple growers is coming up fast as well. It is scheduled for 7:00 am on Tuesday, May 6 at Dutch Mothers Restaurant. Growers can earn up to 6 PESTICIDE RECERTIFICATION CREDITS by attending these monthly meetings throughout the season. Subsequent meetings will be held on the first Tuesday of every month at the same time and location.  

Codling Moth Program  

Gretchen Ondeck, a recent WWU graduate, has been hired part-time to support on-farm research activities associated with the Nooksack IPM Project. She is making the weekly rounds to download temperature data and record codling moth trap catch in the Sewell, Gavette, and Copeland orchards. A big welcome to Gretchen!

Anthracnose Canker  

I have worked closely with Merrie Copeland this spring in a project to map this disease in a portion of her orchard. This is a very time consuming process which will hopefully reap some benefit by providing a better understanding of the distribution and spread of the disease. We will return next spring and repeat this excercise. Results at that time will shed some light on the effectiveness of a rigorous and timely canker removal program which is underway in that orchard. Recommendations at this time of the year are to flag trees with new developing canker, search for and remove last year's canker which you should be able to find higher up on the tree, and cut out current developing cankers before August, when they become infectious. Painting the surface of either new or old cankers does not provide control. DON'T LET THIS ONE GET AWAY FROM YOU!  

Geoff Menzies, Project Coordinator 
Phone: (360) 384-9135 
e-mail: gmenz@coopext.cahe.wsu.edu