Hi,
It is November! Temperatures are cooling off and a cool
environment offers great opportunities for some fall wild blueberry management,
including Kerb application for hair fescue control.
Kerb Application- Hair fescue management
Some of you might be thinking of applying Kerb in the whole
field or just spot spray. We are in a good timing for the Kerb application across
the NS. The optimum timing to apply Kerb is when the soil temperature is between
0-10 °C and a forecasted rain event in a few days after the application.
Moisture is helpful to move Kerb into the soil. This fall’s weather conditions
offer a great opportunity to control hair fescue with Kerb, because of a cool
fall and enough moisture under the ground to move Kerb into soil. Please refer
to Table 1 for the closest weather station near the fields of interest.
Mosses Control
This year’s wet conditions have created many challenges and
one of them is more wet grounds in wild blueberry fields. Wet grounds are ideal
for moss to spread.
Large water-sitting
areas in a wild blueberry field
After mowing crop fields, growers can apply Chateau to
manage mosses. Chateau WDG is used as a dormant post-harvest application.
Unacceptable crop injury and yield loss may occur if the product
comes into contact with non-dormant structures. Make sure the spray tank is
cleaned according to label recommendations before applying a foliar pesticide.
Do not make more than two applications in a growing season. Use a low rate in
coarse-textured soils, and a high rate in medium-textured soils.
When growers are able to get into fields and start spring spraying
activities, it is in April. Wild blueberry plant emergence could start early
and a spring application of Cheatuae could damage newly emerged plants. Springtime
is a more risky time to apply Chetaue also due to a higher chance of more water
sitting in the blueberry ground when snow starts melting. Herbicides could end
up sitting in the water.
Sprout fields’ yield potential
A visit to your sprout fields is recommended this time of
the year. You should assess if this spring and summer’s weed management is successful.
Weed species observed at this time of the year should be your next spring’s
crop fields' weed management priority. You can also assess if this summer’s
fungicide program is good. Because of a wet summer, most growers applied at
least one fungicide but commonly two applications were observed. Fields treated
with two applications are generally healthy and fields maintain leaves.
Please pick a few stems and check their fruit buds (those
large buds). Generally speaking, an average of 5-6 buds per stem would be considered
good. In some well-managed fields, 10 fruit buds per stem are common to see. This
information is useful to determine next year’s input, such as pollination needs.
Crop fields weed management
The only weed species I want to mention is sheep/red sorrel.
It appears in every field I visited, sprout and crop fields. Due to the excessive
moisture, they have a great year to grow. The management of sheep sorrel will
become an important activity on your weed management list. Here are a few
points to help you.
·
According to some new research data, it is suggested
that fall is not an ideal time of the year to control sheep sorrel with Spartan.
Plants recovered from seed in the following year. We suggest grower apply
Spartan in the spring before plant emergence
starts.
·
If you observe large sheep sorrel plants,
Spartan is the only effective herbicide that controls mature and established
plants.
·
In the spring, before you apply Spartan, check
if there are many small seedlings next to mature sheep sorrel, if that’s the
case, you can consider a tank mix of Spartan and Authority which controls both
seedlings (newly emerged sheep sorrel) and mature plants.
·
We recommend growers apply Spartan according to spring
sprout fields’ plant emergence situation- apply before plant emergence or up to
10% emergence. The GDD tool suggests to apply it in between 150-200 GDD.
Table 1. Soil temperatures across the 44 wild blueberry
weather stations, as of November 1, 2023
|
Weather
Stations |
Soil
Temperatures as of November 1, 2023, °C. |
|
Colchester |
|
|
Glenholme
(NSW001) |
5.6 |
|
Murray Siding
(NSW002) |
6.8 |
|
Keble (NSW020) |
6.4 |
|
Upper Kemptown
(NSW022) |
6.1 |
|
Kavanaugh Mills
(NSW023) |
6.2 |
|
Debert (NSW036) |
4.8 |
|
Belmont
(NSW037) |
6.3 |
|
Staples Brook
(NSW038) |
7.2 |
|
Eastville
(NSW067) |
6.6 |
|
Benvie Hill
(NSW068) |
8.9 |
|
Belmont
(NSW087) |
5.7 |
|
Earltown
(NSW089) |
5.9 |
|
Camden (NSW090) |
3.2 |
|
|
|
|
Cumberland |
|
|
Halfway River
(NSW039) |
5.4 |
|
Wentwoth (NSW076) |
7.1 |
|
Salt Springs
(NSW077) |
4.3 |
|
East Mapleton
(NSW078) |
4.9 |
|
Gilbert
Mountain (NSW79) |
5.7 |
|
Yorke Settlement
(NSW080) |
6.0 |
|
North
Greville (NSW081) |
5.7 |
|
Kirkhill (NSW082) |
5.9 |
|
West Advocate
(NSW091) |
8.4 |
|
Westchester
Station (NSW094) |
6.9 |
|
|
|
|
Pictou |
|
|
Blue Mountain
(NSW017) |
7.0 |
|
Sunny Brae
(NSW018) |
5.0 |
|
New Gairloch
(NSW019) |
6.3 |
|
Four Mile
Brook (NSW021) |
6.6 |
|
Glencoe
(NSW057) |
6.3 |
|
Sunny Brae
(NSW058) |
6.4 |
|
Blanchard
Road (Nsw059) |
6.5 |
|
Blue Mountain
(NSW060) |
6.2 |
|
Moose River
(NSW061) |
7.4 |
|
Hazel Glen (NSW086) |
7.3 |
|
|
|
|
Antigonish |
|
|
New France
(NSW075) |
5.4 |
|
|
|
|
South Shore Counties |
|
|
New Tusket
(NSW024) |
7.0 |
|
East
Kemptville (NSW025) |
6.6 |
|
West Caledonia
(NSW026) |
7.5 |
|
Milford
(NSW027) |
7.8 |
|
|
|
|
Cape Breton |
|
|
Skye Mountain
(NSW028) |
4.3 |
|
Keppoch (NSW029) |
5.9 |
|
|
|
|
Hants and HRM |
|
|
Dean (NSW069) |
6.8 |
|
Woodside (NSW070) |
7.8 |
|
Chaplin
(NSW071) |
6.2 |
|
Upper Rawdon |
7.0 |