Now is the time to collect mummy berries to put out your own plot.  It is easy to set out plots and it will provide you valuable information next spring on when the fungus is active in your field.  You will need to look at the plot in the spring about 2 times a week.

4. VERY IMPORTANT: Stake or flag the plots on either side so you can locate them in the spring.  Two stakes or flags makes it much easier to figure out where to look in the spring.

We are looking for growers who are willing to check their mummy berry plots twice a week and report to me on the development of the mummy berry cups. We want to place our weather stations in fields with monitored mummy berry plots next year. Please let me know if you would be willing to put out a mummy berry plot and have a weather station in your field.

If you want to put out a plot and want some help setting it up, we can give you a hand.  Please contact Seanna Annis at 207-581-2621 , sannis@maine.edu  or Rachael Martin at 207-581-2629,  Rachael.Martin@maine.edu if you need any help or have any questions. 

Mummy berry

Mummy berry symptoms are still appearing in many fields.  IF you have both dead leaves and flowers and see the grey masses of spores at the base of the flowers and leaves you have mummy berry.

Botrytis

I have not heard of any Botrytis reported yet this year. Symptoms include dead flowers with black hairs sticking out from them. If Botrytis was already present in a field, there was some risk of it spreading and infecting new tissue with the rain overnight from Wed. May 31 to Thurs. June 1.    If you are near the end of bloom, I do not think it is cost-effective to apply fungicides.  If you still have a lot of bloom to come AND  you have seen Botrytis in your field, you may want to consider fungicide protection.   The materials are not curative but act as protectants.  If you apply fungicides, do so when the bees will not be in the field to protection your pollination.

Please see the 2017 Fungicide recommendations  and the 2017 Fungicide chart .

Seanna Annis

Mummy berry

Mummy berry symptoms have appeared in many growers fields.  You may be finding both dead flowers and leaves on your plants.  If it looks like the flowers did not open before they died, the flowers were probably killed by mummy berry. You can see grey masses of spores at the base of the flowers or dead leaves.

Botrytis

Botrytis is another disease that may kill your flowers.  It is more likely to attack almost open and open flowers.  The flowers will die and have black hairs sticking out from them.  Botrytis typically spreads from dead flowers to other flowers and sometimes leaves.  The presence of Botrytis in a field has been highly variable over the years.  You need to scout to see if you have the disease before applying fungicides to control this disease. There has been enough wetness to cause Botrytis infection at some of our weather stations, but ONLY if the fungus was already present in the field.   If you are in early bloom and have confirmed you have flowers infected with Botrytis, you may want to consider protecting your plants from further Botrytis infection if it looks like we will have substantial amount of rain in your area.  If you are already in late bloom, fungicide sprays are not going to be cost effective. 

Botrytis kills almost open (pink stage)  and open flowers. There may be only a few flowers in a cluster or a few clusters of flowers on a stem that are infected.  The characteristic sign of the fungus is black hairs (often with gray spore masses at their tips) sticking out from the dead flowers.   You many need to use a magnifying glass to the see the hairs on the flowers.  

Please see the 2017 Fungicide recommendations  and the 2017 Fungicide chart .

Seanna Annis

We had below freezing (32F) temperatures in some fields in the early morning of Sunday May 21st.  Depending upon the stage of bloom, your plants may have experienced some frost damage.  Below are the temperatures reported at our weather stations.  These are a single point in a field and can only suggest what the conditions may be in the surrounding area.  Lower areas in a field may experience colder temperatures.

Everyone I have heard from reports no viable cups in their fields in the barrens.  In most areas, mummy berry season is over for this year.  If you have symptoms appearing on your plants, some of the spores from those infected tissues will infect healthy flowers and cause mummified fruit (mummy berries) at harvest.  These spores will not kill any more leaf and flowers.   Applying fungicides at this point is not cost effective, since the infection of the plants has already occurred at least 8 to 9 days before, and may  affect pollinator visits.

If you have a later, wetter field, you may still have some cups present.  Please let me know if you are in one of these areas.  We can discuss how I can better serve  you for disease forecasts in the future.

Seanna Annis

Botrytis

I have not heard any reports of Botrytis blossom blight this year so far.   Where Botrytis infection is found in a given year is highly variable and dependent upon local inoculum in the field.  In most fields, this varies every year.  Fields with very heavy damage in a crop field one crop cycle may have none or very little infection 2 years later. Whether this fungus is a problem can be detected by looking for infection of early blooming clones from which the fungus can then be spread with wet weather to other clones.    I do not recommend protective fungicide sprays for Botrytis unless you are absolutely sure you have symptoms in your field and a lot of wet weather is forecast for your field during bloom.   Spraying fungicides during bloom should be avoided if at all possible.

Botrytis kills almost open (pink stage)  and open flowers. There may be only a few flowers in a cluster or a few clusters of flowers on a stem that are infected.  The characteristic sign of the fungus is black hairs (often with gray spore masses at their tips) sticking out from the dead flowers. Please see pictures below.  You many need to use a magnifying glass to the see the hairs on the flowers.   Flowers will also die from mummy berry disease, but those dead flowers do not have any hairs and often die before they open.

Seanna Annis

Botrytis infected flowers showing black “hairs” with spores

Botrytis infection of flowers showing short “hairs”

Midcoast

The cups should be done in all of the midcoast areas.  It is time to look for Botrytis infections in your blossoms in your earlier blooming clones.

Downeast

Many locations reported a few cups still present on Friday.  By Monday some of those locations reported only dried up cups.  There was weather to cause an infection period from Saturday May 13th or  Sunday May 14th to today.    Whether you had an infection event will depend upon your field and whether it is still had cups.  If in most years your field is typically wet and a later field, you likely had an infection period over this last rain event. I suspect with this dry, warm weather predicted the rest of the week that we are close to the end of the mummy berry season for this year. 

If you can, please check your mummy berry plots at let me know if they are finished.  I would also like to know if your field is close to or in bloom.  Thank you, Seanna

Applying fungicides

 If you have applied fungicides within the last  7 to 10 days (May 3rd to May 6th and on) before the Saturday May 13/Sunday May 14th start of this infection period, your plants were protected during this last infection period.   If your plants were not protected during this last infection period, I would suggest considering if it is worth applying fungicides at this time for mummy berry control.   We are unlikely to have any more infection periods, and the cups in your field will likely die off in the warm, dry weather predicted for this week.  You are not likely to have had a lot of infection in this last infection period if your plants were close to blooming since that often coincides with the end of the period with mummy berry cups.  

Midcoast

We  had another infection period overnight from Thursday May 11 to Friday May 12th.  I think this may have caused some infection in some fields in the midcoast region. I suspect the cups will be done this weekend with the warmer weather.

Downeast

These fields also had an infection period.  I do think there will be cups in most fields.  The wet weather coming on Sunday will also probably cause another infection period.

If you can, please check your mummy berry plots at the end of this week and let me know how they are progressing. I am hoping the season is starting to wind down.

Applying fungicides

 If you have applied fungicides within the last  7 to 10 days (May 1st to May 4th and on) before the Thursday May 11 afternoon, your plants were protected during this last infection period from May 11th to 12th.   If you did not have protection during this time period and want to apply fungicides, you have approximately 72 hours from the start of the infection period, so approximately  Sunday May 14th evening, to apply fungicides with some kickback (propiconazole or fenbuconazole) to protect your plants. Please be aware of bees in your field and minimize contact of the bees to fungicides if possible. Other fungicides should be applied as protectants and before infection periods occur.

Seanna Annis

Midcoast and Downeast

We  have had a mummy berry infection period overnight from Wednesday May 10th to Thursday May 11th in many fields. This event was a bit borderline in some areas.  The wetness on the leaves was just long enough to likely cause infection.   Mature cups producing spores were seen in Appleton and Liberty on Tuesday May 9th.  I suspect with this cool wet weather there are still cups producing spores in the midcoast area.

Downeast, there will still be cups producing spores and if there was enough leaf wetness, there is a good chance there was infection. 

If you can, please check your mummy berry plots at the end of this week and let me know how they are progressing.

Applying fungicides

 If you have applied fungicides within the last  7 to 10 days (April 30th to May 3rd and on) before the Wed. May 10th evening, your plants were protected during this last infection period from May 10th to 11th.   If you did not have protection during this time period and want to apply fungicides, you have approximately 72 hours from the start of the infection period, so approximately  Saturday May 13th evening, to apply fungicides with some kickback (propiconazole or fenbuconazole) to protect your plants. Please be aware of bees in your field and minimize contact of the bees to fungicides if possible. Other fungicides should be applied as protectants and before infection periods occur.

Seanna Annis

Midcoast and Downeast

We  had another infection event overnight from Tuesday May 9th to Wednesday May 10th in most areas.  There are still mature cups in some fields in the midcoast area.  I hope they will be done by the end of this week, but it would help if you can check your plots.

Downeast area still has mature cups producing spores.  Most fields probably had an infection period. 

Applying fungicides

 If you have applied fungicides within the last  7 to 10 days (April 29th to May 2nd and on) before the Tuesday May 9th evening, your plants were protected during this last infection period from May 9th to 10th.   If you did not have protection during this time period and want to apply fungicides, you have approximately 72 hours from the start of the infection period, so approximately  Friday May 12th evening, to apply fungicides with some kickback (propiconazole or fenbuconazole) to protect your plants. Please be aware of bees in your field and minimize contact of the bees to fungicides if possible. Other fungicides should be applied as protectants and before infection periods occur.

Seanna Annis