This year I have moderate scab on some varieties that I don't spray for scab--Akane, Hudson's Golden Gem, and Burgundy. I think Tydeman's Early has some too. These have never gotten it before--wonder what's up? I also have some scab in the normally susceptible varieites, but it seems manageable, knock on wood! I did spray some lime sulfur to try to burn out some lesions in the midst of the extra-rainy weather we've been having. Brian Caldwell, central NY

I thought I was scab free - but as you know the rains didn't stop . . . I finally sprayed lime sulfur, too. I'm hoping what's left will be burned out by the sun. And I'm going to put some nettle tea in with my next nutrient spray to help the leaves after the shock of the LS.

My bad scab year was '08, I really focussed on it this year and think that I got in on the right windows this spring just using sulfur ( 3 sprays). At this point I have very little scab compared to the same time last year, mostly on my Macintosh, which I am slowly grafting out of the orchard anyway. I feel lucky considering the non-stop rain this summer.

Here in northern New Hampshire it all came down to the wetting period of May 26: Trees were mostly beyond petal fall; ten days had passed since the previous marginal rain; ascospore maturity was hopping at 728 DD. Having a delayed infection event like this is ideal for making effective use of a mineral fungicide. I sprayed sulfur at an 8# per acre rate on my north block... and DID NOT USE sulfur at all in my south block. The holistic notion of liquid fish/ pure neem oil/ effective microbes – the whole idea of supporting immune function in the tree – was being put to a big test by this comparison trial. So far I have seen very minor scab – just on fruitlets, maybe several dozen at most – on Duchess, Gravenstein, Wealthy, and our wassail apple in the north block. These were in apple clusters not yet thinned, and if solo, on the underside of the branch in dense leaf cover. The only scab in the south block is in the shady corner on one young Brock tree, and this on leaf. Wild trees in this area are "scab abundant" ... which is to be expected given the build-up of ascospores in those ten days before the big release ... the spore factor had not been dissipated gradually to be "taken care of by nature" with respect to quick drying release events ... and thus wild leaves and fruitlets are infected to the max as one would expect. I want to stress that the very first leaf lesions I found were around June 6, thus I “know” that scab infection didn’t occur prior to the May 26 release. Both blocks have been getting the full holistic treatment since green tip. The only other sulfur application I made in the north block was on May 14 prior to a predicted wetting event at king bloom, which I decided after the fact was unnecessary as the trees dried out fairly quickly and the rain amounted to a quarter inch at most (and thus ground wetting – and therefore spore release – was so-so). Powerful teachings are in this comparison, I think, making 2009 look like a very good scab year indeed.

Michael, Can you update us on how the season when and what kind of program you used (including rates)? On a tangential matter, I have eight rown of cox's organge pipin which are very sulphur shy. This year I applied one lime sulphur at green tip and then a couple of low rate coppers (50g/100l) and then shifted over to a mix of potassium soap (0.5%) and potassium bicarbonate (400g/100l @2000l/ha) - I want to do away with copper use. I sprayed prior to main rain events up a month before the end of the principle Mills period and then shifted over to 4l/ha Stylet oil (to deal with powdery that was coming in) until the end of the period. After that I applied 2 applications of granulosis virus to combat codlin. I add 2-3l seaweed mix to all spray tanks. The apples (which I am harvesting now) are excellent with v.little black spot and minimal codlin damage. There was some evidence of phito on the tree during the spraying season. My instinct is that the potassium soap is very effective with regards to black spot control. Having said that the above represents far to much spraying for me and is a blunderbuss approach. I would much rather take an "ecological" approach. PS other apple varities subjected to a sulphur regime did not do ass well and it was a bad bs year.