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Strawberry Plasticulture April 15, 2003 (8:00 am)
Vol. 4, No. 27
-1. Weather update: High pressure will bring plenty of sunshine and
warm weather today (April 15) and again tomorrow (Wed April 16); clouds
and maybe afternoon t-storm on Thur; mostly cloudy with possible shower
on Fri. The SkyBit update this morning for CLAYTON, NC shows that we
will have strawberry canopy temperatures in the mid-80s today and possibly
90 tomorrow (Wed). The hottest part of the day today will be around
noon until 3 pm.
-1(a). Daily evapotranspiration amounts of 0.20 inch yesterday and
.19 on Sun and 0.20 on Sat were recorded at Clayton. We still have
excellent ground moisture from last week, but must monitor closely
now with jump in temperatures and sunny conditions today and for rest
of week.
-1(b). Evaporative cooling is usually not practiced until we get into
upper 80s and 90s in the canopy -- last year we experienced a disaster
in mid-April where daytime temperatures in the mid-90s and 100s destroyed
a substantial amount of the crop for late season. Hopefully, temperatures
will stay in the mid-80 range today.
-2. Rockingham Co. Visit (April 14): In farm visits yesterday with
Agent Kathryn Holmes, Rockingham County (upper central piedmont county),
we observed lots of fresh blooms on Chandlers, and counted up to 6
or more new blossoms/plant. The blossoms appeared to be in very good
condition and I would expect picking on these in about 27 days, if
temperatures remain fairly seasonable.
Figure
1. Healthy Chandler plant – Tuttle
Farm, Rockingham Co.
Figure 2. As many as 6 new Chandler blossoms/plant on April 14 visit – this
will be ripe around Mother’s Day Weekend (May 10-11).
-2 (a). Light crop and late: It has been a particularly “hard” winter
in Rockingham County and this region in general, and plant growth and
crown numbers are well below normal (see Fig. 2). So, in addition to
a delayed crop this year (not expecting the season to get started until
around Mother’s Day weekend in Rockingham County), the crop load
will be lighter than usual. The “wild card” in this season
may relate to some additional floral development that has occurred
during the unusual cool spells we’ve been experiencing like last
week. We’ll just have to see!
-2 (b).Good bee activity: It was good to see how active honey bees
were in fields yesterday. Be extremely cautious in your chemical usage
at this time of year with honey bees in the field.
-3. Mites: We did not see any evidence of mites in fields visited yesterday.
No doubt, the spider mites have also been affected by recent cold-rainy
conditions.
-4. Late crop: In speaking with a grower in the Faison area (coastal
plain) yesterday, I learned that the crop is definitely behind schedule
in this area as well (normally, he is picking in this area by now).
In looking at the crop at Clayton on Saturday, I was able to see some “green
fruit” stage, but we are still at least 10-12 days from seeing
any ripe fruit at this location.
-5. Sweet Charlie getting ripe: On the Robeson-Columbus County tour
(7 days ago) with Agent Milton Parker, we did enjoy some early season
Sweet Charlie berries that had just started to ripen. I am hearing
reports (NC and SC ) of very rough early berries on Camarosa (a common
problem with this variety).
Fig. 3. Sweet Charlie berries on April 8th (near Lumberton) – first
of the season!
Fig. 4. Sweet Charlie plants (Lumberton), April 8, 2003.
-6. Preharvest spray program: As field conditions improve today and
tomorrow it will be very important for growers to get back on schedule
with their botrytis and anthracnose management spray schedules. It
is very important for these producers to keep up with the Cabrio
and/or Quadris spray program during bloom (both Cabrio and Quadris
should be tank mixed with Captan
Figure 5. Camarosa plant collapsing (center right) with anthracnose.
Figure
6. Close up of Camarosa plant (from Fig. 5)
Fig. 7. Chandler plant with
anthracnose symptoms.
Fig. 8. Camarosa plant with anthracnose symptoms.
Barclay
Poling
Extension Specialist (Small Fruits)
Campus Box 7609
Kilgore Hall - Office 252
NC State University
Raleigh, North Carolina 27695-7609
919.515.1195
919.515.2505 (fax)
919.418.9687 (mobile)
barclay_poling@ncsu.edu
http://intra.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/berrydoc/
click HERE
to return to strawberry advisories page
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