VIRGINIA TREE FRUIT DISEASE UPDATES

On 26 July we visited a classic training system orchard in south part of Winchester, VA, with trees of apple cv. 'Ginger Gold' and detected symptoms of  Apple Blotch Disease (ABD), also known as Marssonina Leaf Blotch (MLB). The symptoms were found on the lower scaffolds in the canopy and are visible in Figure 1 . This disease primarily expresses on apple leaves and is  caused by a pathogenic fungus  Diplocarpon coronariae . Even though we  recently  experienced dry weather periods in the Shenandoah Valley, e xcessive rains we received in May and June 2021 favored the development of ABD.  Leaf symptoms express as grey to brown large round spots (blotches) that can merge. This leads to  leaf yellowing.   Figure 1. Apple Blotch Disease (aka Marssonina Leaf Blotch) on apple cultivar 'Ginger Gold' in Winchester, VA.  If effective fungicides are not applied timely, continued infections by  D. coronariae  can occur during summer and until the leaves are present on the trees.

On 22 July we detected the first signs of  sooty blotch  and  flyspeck   (SB&FS) on an unknown apple cultivar fruit in Appomattox VA ( Fig. 1 ). This is visible, of course, on fruit that were not treated with any fungicides during spring or summer and likely the advanced development stage indicates that fruit exhibited these symptoms for 5 to 10 days before we detected them. Depending on your spray schedule and used fungicides, we hope you do not see this disease on your fruit. However, s tart scouting your orchard to check for absence or presence of SB&FS symptoms now to see how well was your fungicide coverage during the cover sprays. FIGURE 1. FIRST SIGNS OF FLYSPECK AND SOOTY BLOTCH ON FRUIT OF UNKNOWN APPLE CULTIVAR IN APPOMATTOX VA (PHOTO BY ACIMOVIC 2021). CLICK ON THE PHOTO TO ZOOM IN. In 2021, the weather conditions during spring and through the beginning of summer 2021 were highly favorable for Apple Blotch Disease (ABD), also known as Marssonina Leaf Blotch (MLB), to

We kindly invite you to fill out a short survey linked below which is designed to target commercial growers of tree fruit and specialty crops in Virginia. Our goal is to learn form you by asking you to provide us with your opinion and feedback on the economic significance and thus research importance of tree fruit/specialty crop diseases in your individual operation(s). The survey has been compiled by Dr. Srdjan Acimovic and is intended to help direct and guide the tree fruit and specialty crop pathology research and extension program at the Virginia Tech's Alson H. Smith Jr. Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Winchester VA. This survey is anonymous and no personal or specific farm data will be collected. Please send this blog's link or the direct link to the survey below to any of your neighbor growers as your and their opinion matters. Please access the short survey by clicking on the following link: Virginia Tree Fruit & Specialty Crop Disease Significan