9th Monilina Update for Nova Scotia - May 19, 2017

For much of mainland Nova Scotia the risk of Monilinia infection is rapidly decreasing.  The weather forecast, is calling for warm and generally drying conditions for much of mainland Nova Scotia, through until the middle of next week.  There could be some isolated showers tonight and early next week. For fields that have been treated for Monilina, there should be little concern for new infections.

There are some fields in Cape Breton and a few very late fields in mainland NS that are just approaching the 40% F2 stage.  If they are treated within the next few days, this should protect those fields to the end of the Monilinia season.

I expect to start seeing infection symptoms this weekend if there was any infection from the first major infection period during the first weekend in May.

This is obviously an early patch in an early field (near Debert), but I took this picture this morning. With the weather forecast I expect bloom will move ahead rapidly.  Botrytis protection and pollination are the next two things to think about.

I will give a final Monilinia update for 2017 the middle of next week, with a focus on protecting for botrytis infections.