the no spray treatment had more brown rot and 

 more severe brown rot than any of the spray 

 treatments. Again, brown rot was lowest in the 

 full spray trees. However, in this cultivar, 

 brown rot was just as low in the low spray 

 treatment, and significantly higher in the 

 reduced spray treatment. 



Unfortunately, this test did little to resolve 

 the usefulness of fungicides during the period 

 between pit hardening and harvest. None of 

 the reduced-spray options consistently did as 

 well as the five-spray program. It is difficult to 

 explain the failure of two fungicide applica- 

 tions vs. no applications in Redhaven, and of 

 three applications vs. two applications in 

 Glohaven. It is possible that there was 

 contamination caused by fungicide drift. 

 Beyond that, there may have been differences 

 in inoculum or other factors which were not 

 adequately controlled. 



This test did not conform to the recommen- 

 dations made by Biggs and Northover. Rather 

 than eliminating or reducing sprays after pit 

 hardening, and then making one or two 

 applications very near harvest as fruit ripened, 

 this test looked at different numbers of 

 fungicide applications made after pit harden- 

 ing but stopping all fungicides at least two 

 weeks before harvest. This may account for the 

 results, as Captan and Benlate would not 

 generally persist for more than a week against 

 heavy brown rot pressure. Any small, random 

 outbreak of brown rot would have been able to 

 spread in all treatments during the 2 to 3 

 unprotected weeks before harvest. Only the 

 heaviest fungicide treatment consistently 

 reduced this problem. 



A similar experiment, focusing on bloom 

 and harvest fungicide applications, will need to 

 be done to resolve these problems. 



•sL* vj> vL* vl>» vL* 

 #Y* *T* "T* *T* *Y* 



Fruit Notes, Volume 62 (Number 4), Fall, 1997 



