What's happening in the field?

At the Missouri State Fruit Experiment Station

Raspberries keep on going and going . . .

by

If I have a nickle for every time Jeremy Emery (one of our two Field Supervisors) asked me when we are going to quit harvesting the high tunnel raspberries . . .

Crimson King is the latest bearing cultivar in our raspberries in grow bags trial with the majority of the crop ripening in November. The good news is that we sprayed pesticides for spotted wing drosophila control until the end of September, but have not seen any larvae in sound fruit using salt water tests since then. We did not apply any pesticides in October and do not see any signs of the pest in this late season harvest period.

Shelia Long (left) is still harvesting raspberries in the high tunnel with Tom Barker. Shelia has managed the data collection for this research trial.
Shelia Long (left) is still harvesting raspberries in the high tunnel with Tom Barker. Shelia has managed the data collection for this research trial.
Crimson Giant is the latest bearing cultivar of the five cultivars in the experiment.
Crimson Giant is the latest bearing cultivar of the five cultivars in the experiment.
We have not seen any larvae floating on the surface of the salt solution so we have not applied pesticides since the end of September for spotted wing drosophila.
We have not seen any larvae floating on the surface of the salt solution so we have not applied pesticides for spotted wing drosophila since the end of September.