After a long, tough winter, the temperatures are finally creeping up and the snow is starting to melt.  Most of us still have a lot of pruning to catch up on and more than a few of us will be trying to figure out how to keep the pruning crews out of the way of the sprayer in the coming weeks.  Spring is always very busy, so we need to remind ourselves to put some thought into the chemical thinning programs which are so integral to the profitability of our operations.

The annual review of Crop Protection Guide for Tree Fruits in Washington is completed and at the University printers.  For those of you who prefer the electronic copy, you can find the guide on-line at tfrec.wsu.edu

Dr. Stefano Musacchi, professor of horticulture at Washington State University and Bob Gix, horticulturist at Blue Star Orchard shared pear pruning tips at this winter's pruning demonstration in Tonasket, WA. The goal of these demonstrations is to cover pear pruning for higher density orchards, of which many techniques can be used in larger trees as well. Here are a few of the concepts for pruning young pear orchards Musacchi shared.

The date of full bloom at the WSU Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center is used as a relative comparison of one year to another. The 91 year average date of Red Delicious apple full bloom at WSU TFREC is April 27. The earliest Full Bloom date of all time at this site of April 9 was recorded in 2015 and tied for earliest again in 2016.  April 9, is 18 days ahead of normal.  This resulted in most tree fruit harvest dates that season to occur about 10-14 days earlier than normal. Daily high temperatures are used to predict bloom based on degree days (DD) above 43℉. As of March 1, 2017 Bloom DD in Wenatchee (TFREC) were 32 DD and 47 DD in Mattawa which predict full dormancy. 331 DD predict silvertip, 600 DD predict tight cluster and 920 DD predict full bloom. This is significantly later than 2016 where Mattawa was already at silvertip by March 1 (current 288 DD behind 2016) and Wenatchee was at reduced dormancy (current 188 DD behind 2016).