Small Fruit Field Day reminder!

The NC State Small Fruits Field Day will be held June 22nd at the Sandhills Research Station, Jackson Springs, NC.  This field day will include presentations on blueberry and caneberry variety selection & culture; muscadine culture; disease, insect, and weed management; and much more.  We will also have blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries on hand to taste along with dinner, topped off with homemade blueberry ice cream.  This is always a well attended field day and will have topics of interest for homeowners, master gardeners, and growers alike.  No preregistration is required, and pesticide re certification credits will be available.

We will begin at 4pm with registration and hands on displays, and the formal program will begin at 4:30pm.

For more information
Contact Hannah Burrack or Julia Korengay  
Small Field Day post card (to print or share)

Muscadine Field Day a Success!

The Muscadine Field Day at Castle Hayne had a great turn out Wednesday! Even though advertising budgets are tight and the field day was only publicized electronically, about 70 growers, agents, NCDA & NCSU attendees heard talks from Jim Ballington, Barclay Poling, Connie Fisk, me, and Bill Cline.

Poling discussed pruning technics in muscadines (also in the NC muscadine production guide--which will be getting a much needed update this winter).

Bill Cline discussed late season diseases (mainly ripe rots) and some problems that are NOT disease related like the injury on these Carlos, which appears to be due to a broad mite. There's always something new to learn about!

Muscadine grapes have the fewest severe insect threats of all the crops I work on. The most common questions I get in reference to muscadines this time of year are about bees and wasps on ripe fruit. Most growers and homeowners want to know if they can treat these bees and wasps, which I highly discourage. I did manage to find some other interesting insects in the variety block (while conducting a very scientific flavor comparison).

The upper photo show a leaf roller larva (these are caterpillars which feed on leaf tissue), and the bottom photo is likely a grape berry moth larvae found inside a grape. Although grape berry moth (GBM) can be serious pests of grapes, they are generally rare in NC, and Bill says this is first he's seen in this block. I suggest that growers concerned about GBM use pheromone traps to monitor whether they are present before deciding whether to treat.

No field day would be complete without dessert! Connie provided ice cream with muscadine dessert sauce from Duplin Winery.

I'm also looking for a good grape for my yard, and Southern Home (an "ornamental" muscadine) is at the top of my list. They have interesting foliage--fig leaf in horticultural parlance--and sweet aromatic black fruit. Now to find a spot to plant one.

Tis the season for muscadines: upcoming events

A late fall shot from 2007, the last muscadines of the season hanging in there!

It's less than a week until the muscadine field day, and other muscadine events are also on deck this month. The Castle Hayne Research Station will host NCSU's annual Muscadine Field Day on Sept. 16. Morning sessions will be devoted to cultural, disease, and insect management presentations (expect lots of hands on information from me!). Following this talks, we will tour the station's muscadine trials and have the opportunity to taste test selections in the variety trial (always my favorite part).

For those of you that can't wait until next week (or can't make the trek to Castle Hayne), the State Farmer's Market in Raleigh is celebrating Grape Day on Friday, Sept. 11th. Rounding out the month, the NC Muscadine Festival will take place Sept. 26th in Kenansville, NC.

Connie Fisk, NC Extension Associate for muscadine grapes, maintain a great website with this information and more.