Control of Codling Moth in Apple, 2014 *

The purpose of this test was to evaluate season-long apple programs against a broad spectrum of apple pests; with an emphasis on CM. Two-tree plots were established in a 27-yr-old planting of “Delicious” (tree and row spacing of 10 by 20 ft) located at the Trevor Nichols Research Center in Fennville, MI (Indigo Block). Treatment plots were replicated four times in an RCB design. All treatments were applied using an FMC 1029 tractor-mounted airblast sprayer calibrated to deliver 100 gpa at 2.5 mph. All treatments were based on CM application timings beginning at petal fall on 30 May and were applied every 14 d. Regular maintenance foliar applications applied across the block included Inspire Super, Captan, Manzate, Fontelis, and Fireline. Gramoxone was banded below the trees for weed control. CM fruit evaluations were done on 7 July by inspecting 50 fruit for tunneling. PLH densities were evaluated on 15 August by inspecting 20 terminal shoots. Fruit damage at harvest for internal feeding Lepidopteara was made on 3 October by inspecting 50 fruit/plot. All data are expressed as percent damage. Although actual counts are presented, analysis of variance (ANOVA) was run on transformed data. Transformed treatment means were analyzed using ANOVA and means separation by Tukey’s HSD at P  = 0.05.

All treatments provided significant fruit protection against first generation CM compared with the untreated check, whereas only the Assail-Imidan-Altacor treatment programs significantly reduced the incidence of PLH ( Table 1 ). In the harvest fruit evaluation, all treatments provided significant fruit protection from CM/OFM tunnels, and all except Intrepid 2F reduced the incidence of surface stings ( Table 2 ).

Author notes