Cooperative Extension: Maine Wild Blueberries

5.04.16 Mummy Berry Infection period, May 4 to May 5

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I have reports of cups still present in Appleton and Liberty and all through Downeast.  I suspect there are still mummy berry cups through out the area. I suspect the cups will last through to next week with the cool wet weather were are forecast to have this weekend.   We had another infection event in most monitored fields last night through today. Some of our weather stations did not send the weather (due probably weather interference with the cellular signal) for an hour or so near the end of the leaf wetness period.  These sites were very close to being long enough for an infection period.  I have marked these stations with a probably.

If you have applied fungicides after April 25 to April 28 (ten to seven days before this infection period), your plants were probably protected through last night’s infection period.  If you have not applied fungicides, you have up to 72 hours after the infection period start, which is the evening of Saturday, May 7, to apply fungicides with kickback activity (fenbuconazole or propiconazole) to protect your plants.  If you are applying a second (or third) application of fungicide, it would be good to rotate to a fungicide with a different mode of action or at least a different chemical to avoid fungicide resistance developing in your field.

Please let me know what your mummy berry plot is doing since we are coming close to the end of the season.

Contact info: sannis@maine.edu or the Blueberry Hotline 800.897.0757 (in Maine)

Thank you, Seanna Annis