Scientists Tackle Climate-Related Challenges of Northeast Apple Growers

The Northeast’s erratic spring weather patterns are presenting new challenges for apple growers trying to manage diseases that can damage or destroy their crops.

To help growers, scientists with the NH Agricultural Experiment Station at the UNH College of Life Sciences and Agriculture have been using sophisticated weather models that have allowed them to successfully predict when an orchard is at risk for infection.

By using these predictive models, experiment station scientists have more accurately determined when fungicides and preventative measures should be undertaken. This has resulted in the successful management of disease and the cutting of orchard management costs.

Scientists under the tutelage of Kirk Broders, assistant professor of plant pathology, have been investigating two diseases that can infect apple orchards: apple scab, which is one of the most pervasive diseases of apples in the Northeast, and bitter rot, which has become more prevalent in the Northeast.

“As climate patterns veer from historic averages everywhere in the United States, we may see historical diseases become less common, the epidemiology of those diseases change, or new diseases appear,” Broders said. “Most plant diseases are dependent on the pathogen being present, the host (apple trees) being present, and the proper climatic conditions being ripe. Climatic conditions mostly are related to temperature and moisture, usually relative humidity and rainfall. If those climatic conditions start to change, it can significantly change the epidemiology of the disease.”

Understanding how climate variability may affect diseases that infect apples is particularly important considering apples are one of the most valuable fruit crops in the country. In 2012, the nation’s apple crop was valued at $3.1 billion, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service.

To address the erratic spring rainfall, Broders and his team have been working with RIMpro Cloud Service, an interactive decision support system for pest and disease management in fruit and wine production. Located in the Netherlands, RIMpro allows the Experiment Station scientists to use real-time weather data to predict when weather conditions will be ideal for a disease outbreak.

This approach differs from the conventional apple orchard management that usually involves spraying orchards once every seven days throughout the growing season with a mixture that protects the trees from apple scab as well as a post-infection fungicide.

“Consumers are becoming much more concerned about purchasing food that is grown in a more sustainable or organic way,” Broders said. “What we’re trying to do is apply fungicides only when we know an infection event is going to take place.”

Read the original story here.

Photo courtesy of Kirk Broders/NHAES