By Clint Thompson
An extended dry period in North Georgia has led to minimal disease buildup this summer for the state’s apple producers.
Whether that continues depends on how much additional rain the region records over the next month.
Phil Brannen, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension fruit disease specialist, said disease infections in apple orchards were almost nonexistent through mid-July.
“Up until now, it’s been dry enough up here that we haven’t seen a whole lot of diseases. I think commercially where they’re spraying fungicides well, I doubt think we’re going to see much disease,” Brannen said. “I think it could blow up here at the end of the season. We certainly have time. If it starts raining every single day it could, but I think they’ll be a lot better off than they would have been because the inoculum buildup is going to be slower.
“In our case where we have research trials where we don’t spray fungicides, up until (late July) we had virtually no disease on apples. But with all of these rains (recently), we’re seeing a lot of bitter rot, probably a lot of these other fungal type diseases. But those are untreated apples. They don’t have any fungicide applied at all. Commercially, I doubt we’re going to have much disease this year. I hope it will be a lot less than it has been the last few years.”
Apple harvests will start at the end of August and continue through late October.