Start Early, Stay Persistent on Apple Scab Management

 

Apple growers know the headache of managing scab each season. Prevention is key to staying ahead of these diseases, and now is the time to prepare your plan for next season.

Apple scab overwinters in the orchard and becomes more severe based on in-season weather. Growers should not rely on previous pressure to predict the severity of the upcoming season. Instead, growers must assume these diseases will be present and should manage them proactively to prevent primary and secondary infections.

Apple scab is a perennial problem in cool, wet, temperate production regions like the Northeast and Upper Midwest. Through cultural practices and chemical protection options, such as Excalia^® Fungicide, growers can effectively manage apple scab. Excalia is a tool that helps growers start clean by controlling early-season primary infections to minimize secondary spread of scab.

Best Management Practices:

Apple Scab:

• Remove all fallen leaves and fruit in the fall to reduce infection potential next spring.
• Apply a preventive fungicide from green tip through petal fall, during the primary infection period.
• Continue to manage secondary spread with an appropriate fungicide program.

Reducing Diseases

Careful scouting and removal of infested leaves and fruit can help growers proactively manage scab. Additionally, chemical solutions can protect orchards from the start of the season. Excalia is an SDHI (Group 7) fungicide that provides local systemic movement into plant tissue, forming a complete zone of protection on the leaves for powerful early-season disease protection.

Proactive Resistance Management

Being proactive with fungicide applications will help prevent resistance from developing. This is critical to ensure that tools remain effective against these hard-to-manage pathogens in future seasons. Fungicide Resistance Action Committee (FRAC) guidelines for managing SDHI resistance include:

• Use a product preventively or early in the outbreak.
• Limit the number of SDHI applications per season; use no more than 2 consecutive applications.
• SDHIs should be premixed or tank-mixed with other effective modes of action.
• Practice rotating SDHIs with other modes of action.

Excalia is most effective for early-season use, then rotate to other modes of action (FRAC numbers) after petal fall. To learn more about Excalia, visit Valent.com/Excalia or talk to your retailer.

Always read and follow label instructions.