Author: sannis

Mummy berry season is starting

I have reports of mummy berry cups in West Rockport, Hope, near Deblois and around the barrens. The plants were mostly in F1 but some were at F2. Please check your own field for the flower development. If you use fungicides to manage mummy berry disease, I recommend waiting until there is approximately 30 to […]

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Looking for Red Leaf disease in wild blueberries

I am looking for crop fields with red leaf disease this summer, since one of my graduate students, Nahida Kabir, will be studying red leaf disease starting this summer and continuing in the summers of 2026 and 2027.  We are looking for fields affected by red leaf disease ( see pictures below) with patches of […]

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Blueberry season is starting

We have just started to see bud swelling in the Midcoast region. The warm weather forecast for this weekend and early next week will probably get the plant buds starting to open. We are starting to get our blueberry weather stations out and hope to have them all out over the next week or so. […]

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Powdery Mildew in wild blueberries in Maine is NOT a new disease

“New” powdery mildew reports There are reports in the news of a “new” powdery mildew fungus (Erysiphe vaccinii) that is attacking blueberries around the world.  The major interest in this fungus is because it has spread to countries that have recently started planting cultivated blueberries, such as China, Morocco, Peru, and Mexico. This disease is […]

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Mummy berry season is finishing

Mummy berry cups have dried up and will be gone in the Midcoast areas. In most Downeast areas the cups have dried up and are almost gone.  Cups that were seen in Blueberry Hill Farm in Jonesboro, May 10th, are dried up and new pinheads have not been seen.  With this past warm weather, the […]

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Mummy berry and cold temperature report for May 6th to May 10th

Mummy berry season Mummy berry season is starting to end in some areas.   If the cups are finished in your area, there is no advantage for spraying fungicides for mummy berry control at this time.  The secondary Monilinia spores on the dead tissues (mummy berry symptoms) are carried by pollinators to the healthy flowers to […]

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Mummy berry report for May 7th

All fields with weather stations had conditions for a Monilinia infection period overnight from May 6th to May 7th.  The fog started in the evening from about 6:30 to 8:30pm and continued until morning.  I do have reports of cups still present in the Midcoast and Downeast so there is a good chance this weather […]

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Mummy berry report for May 2nd to May 6th 2024

The rain caused conditions for Monilinia infection in most fields with weather stations from May 2 to the morning of May 6th.  Depending upon the field, there were one to four infection periods in this stretch of days.  If you applied fungicides on or after  7 to 10 days before these infection periods (April 22 […]

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Mummy berry-Monilinia infection April 30th to May 2nd

There were Monilinia infection periods at most weather station locations overnight from April 30th to May 1st and May 1st to May 2nd (please see table below).  The raining weather is continuing in most areas.  Pinheads and cups are still being found so there is still chance of infection.  Unless you have a late field, […]

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Mummy berry Report April 29, 2024

There were weather conditions for Monilinia infection in most of our weather station locations.  In most fields, the rain started about 7 to 8pm on April 28 evening and carried over to the morning of April 29th.   One area, around Appleton and Liberty, did not have Monilinia infection conditions.   Most plants would have been open […]

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