What's up?

Strawberry season in  full swing.  great berries,
great weather.
Watch out and trap for spotted wing drosophila with
vinegar placed in a plastic drink containers with 3/8
holes in the top and lid.

Warm season plant really took off this week.

Raspberries - seem to e affected by the winter freeze. 
Blueberries - look like a big crop with some winter
freeze on some plants.

Blackberries - look loaded so far.

Thin the apples ASAP.  Almost too late for Gravenstein
apples; still time for delicious, Fugi and late apples.
thin off apples with damage, with scab or cedar
apple rust damage.

Fruit trees have a huge amount of summer growth
on the inside of the trees.  Remove the inside growth
 by cutting or pulling - just pulling the green suckers.

Some plums, some pears, some apples on some vareities.

Local research on mummyberry

Mummyberry Research

Today was a review of mummyberry research
 being done in Lane County.  Mummyberry is a
devastating disease that is affecting a lot of the
blueberry farms in the Willamette Valley of Oregon.

The research is being done thru (NCAP), Northwest
Center for Alternative to Pesticides;  OSU Plant
 Path - J. Pscheidt and J. Florence;  local NRCS office -
 Natural Resource Conservation Services- Linn and
 Lane Counties;  USDA Farm Service Agency -
Linn and Lane;   on Ken Bergs farm in Alvadore. 
He is using black plastic and saw dust to bury the
 mummified berries so they don't or can't sporulate
and move the spores to the flowers.  He went from
87% loss to 10% loss.

Weeks weather from Rufus

Monday June 2

 This next week will continue to define the perfection of weather 

in the beautiful PNW. Scattered morning clouds, maybe; lots of 

sun in the afternoons; temperatures in the 70s; cool nights.

 High pressure, centered to our west, will hold the region mild. 

Strawberry harvest will continue with perfection. That said, there 

may be a few thunderstorms pop-up in the SE OR area, on into

 portions of ID, MT, WY early this week.

 A few days ago, models toyed with a downturn in the pattern

 (think showers, cooler) by the coming weekend. The low pressure 

trough modeled the week of Jun 9-13 will bring June showers to 

most west side locations esp Wed / Thu, and set-off some powerful 

thunderstorms over the eastern basins. Heavy downpours possible

in ID, MT, WY late-week.

 Week of June 16 looks to be a repeat of our current wx perfection.

  

Rufus at the WxCafe®

Great weekend

Grapes - looking very good.

Apples and pears - need thinning ASAP. 
Thin fruit down to 2 or 1 apple/pear per cluster.
If skeptical, do one branch and watch the results.

Grass and weeds -  still on over drive.

Soil is drying out, so dig into the soil, grab
the soil and see if you need to irrigate.

Seeing rust on garlic.  More aeration.

Red currants - huge crop and they are ripening.
Haskap berries - nice crop this year per
several sources.

Carrots - very slow to emerge and grow.
Table beets - slow to grow also.

Crop Report

Crops are very varied around the county at this
point but on average -
Apple crop - looks down a bit.
Pear crop - medium.
Plum - medium.

Strawberry and blueberry crops - look good.
Garlic - mostly not affected by the December and
February weather.

Expecting codling moth to emerge anytime now
on apples and pears.

Be aware and trap for spotted wing drosophila
around strawberry fields.

Control cherry fruit fly before the cherries turn pink.

Big earwing population this year.

Cole crops doing OK, but warm season plants still not
 growing well due to the cool AM temps.

Spring in review

The 2014 spring has been a whoosie, tectinical
term for really harsh and strange.
Butterfly bush - frozen to the ground, not
 root regrowth.
Fig - frozen except for one foot that is still green,
 so there is hope, kind of.
Rosemary - took heavy damage this December/
February - one plant had 25% recovery.
Bay laurel - heavy damage to some limb damage.
Kiwi - 60% of plant died.
Any plants in pots - had 50% of the plants die
from the freeze.
Many ornamental shrubs - badly burned and still
many shrubs burned bad from the leaf burn.
Strawberries - looks like a good crop.  did see some
 photos of strawberry effaciation - where the strawberry
grows long, or it was poor pollination.
Cool season crops - doing OK.
Warm season crops - most tomato, eggplant cucumbers -
 have stalled and ot grown much.\
My pomegranate in the greenhouse has the best fruit
 set EVER this yer.
Apple and plum crop - medicore so far.
Pear crop - actually looking OK.
Grass - growing wild.
Weeds - super wild growth.

Weather by Rufus

Memorial Day 2014

 Now, for a brief peek at the extended outlook. Very fine, indeed,

 although on the dry side. Model solutions hold the high pressure

 ridge offshore in just a position as to result in two key favorable

factors: 1) basic 'blocking' of surface systems moving into the PNW; 2) 

daily breezes from the NW, keeping temps mild both day and night. 

True, we may experience a run of clouds here and there, spotty 

appearances of the sun at times, but really no organized frontal

 system or notable precip. The earlier solutions hinting at 

thunderstorm development along the mountain.  

Generally, though, for the next 2-3 weeks conditions will be 

excellent for strawberry harvest, farm work, and messing around

 in the garden. For water management programs: irrigation will 

be needed.

 -Rufus