—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, September22,l979
122
Spray program developed for Scotch Pine disease
UNIVERSITY PARK -
Until recently, growers of
Scotch pine Christmas trees
may have wished their
products were “liquid
scotch’' instead of timber.
Their trees were being
damaged by a fungus
causing an average loss of
|l.OO to $1.25 per tree.
But now a fungicidal spray
program has been developed
which reduces infection
from 60 per cent in un
sprayed trees to two per cent
in sprayed plantations. The
treatment came from
research by Dr- William
Merrill and associates in the
College of Agriculture at
Penn State.
Farmer-owned reserve
WASHINGTON, - Grain
sorghum has again reached
the price at which owners
may withdraw the com
modity without penalty from
the farmer-owned grain
reserve.
Producers may im
mediately remove their
sorghum from the reserve
by repaying their Com
modity Credit Corporation
price support loans,
John Goodwin, CCC acting
executive vice president,
pointed out that release of
the reserve does not require
farmers to redeem or sell
their grain at this time.
Goodwin said that the five
day moving average market
price for sorghum was $4.33
per hundredweight .on
September 5. The reserve
release level for a feed grain
is reached when the market
price is 125 per cent of the
commodity’s loan rate. That
level is $4.24 per hun
dredweight for sorghum.
Sorghum was first
released June 22 when the
price was $4.25 per hun
dredweight. The release■
authorization was with
drawn August 1 when the
price dropped to $4.21 per
hundredweight.
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The fungus causes a
yellowing and shedding of
needles one-year-old or older
during late summer and fall.
This condition has made
some Christmas , trees un
salable and has caused up to
25 per cent losses in other
plantations, Dr. Merrill said.
The disease also occurs in
tree nursery seedbeds.
The disease is named
Naemacyclus needlecast,
since it is caused by the
fungus Nremacydus minor.
Discovered in Pennsylvania
in 1372, the fungus has af
fected Christmas tree
production in the Lake
States and the Pacific
Northwest The needlecast is
sorghum released
Approximately 29 million
hundredweight of sorghum
are in tbs reserve. Farmers
receive storage payments
annually in advance on this
grain from the U.S.
Department of Agriculture.
Upon repayment <5 the loan,
fanners may keep the
storage payments earned
through the date of
repayment If the loan is not
repaid, storage credit will
continue through the end of
October.
On Oct. 31, USDA will
review the average prices
for sorghum to determine if
the release authorization
should remain in effect. If
release continues, storage
payments will stop in those
states where the price
remains above the release
level.,
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found statewide in Penn
sylvania.
The spray is now being
field-tested by growers in
various parts of the Com
monwealth. The present
spray program has one
drawback. Three ap
plications are needed during
the spring and early summer
to be effective.
This year a single ap
plication of a more per
sistent experimental
-fungicide reduced infection
from about 50 per cent in
unsprayed trees to around 4
per cent in sprayed trees.
This newest spray program
will be field-tested by
growers in 1980. Being ei-
Data used by CCC In
determining the release
level include a daily report
by Agricultural Marketing
Service which shows prices
bid by buyers at selected
markets, and a month-end
Economics, Statistics, and
Cooperatives Service
(ESCS) report of prices
received by farmers,
showing the previous
month’s average prices' and
the current mid-month
prices.
The daily markets
reviewed for sorghum are
Kansas City and Texas. The
fiye-day average of these
market prices, adjusted to
reflect prices revealed by
farmers, were the basis for
today’s action.
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• Automatic Draft
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• Boiler Plate Steel
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Home
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Failure, Fuel Shortages
and High Heating Qosts
perimental, the fungicide is
not yet registered for use.
“Thus it appears 'that
Naemacyclus needlecast,
currently the most serious
disease affecting Scotch
pines in Pennsylvania, will
be brought under control in
the near future,” Dr. Merrill
predicted.
He said the disease has
three infection periods-mid-
July to mid-August, mid-
October to early December,
and the spring and summer
of the following year. The
single fungicide, the least
costly per growing season, is
believed to be most effective
when applied in late April
and early May.
Dr. Merrill outlined the
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717-945-3933
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717-397-5179
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Rt. 309 4 100
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215-767-7611
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717-867-2211
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301-374-2672
symptoms of this needlecast.
First, infected needles turn
' yellow with prominent
brown bars appearing
across the needles. Then
fruiting bodies of the fungus
develop within these brown
areas from late October
through early December.
Infected needles are being
shed during the fall and
winter. Spores produced on
the shed needles infect other
needles, including those
newly elongated.
“The third infection period
is the most, damaging one,”
Dr. Merrill stated. “Up to
100 per cent of the needles
may become infected.
Although the infection period
extends from April to
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believing l
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717-786-7318
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August, most infection oc
curs during short periods in
April or May when the
weather favors growth of
fungal spores,” he added.
For some years,
Naemacydus needlecast has
been confused with aphid
damage. Both result in
yellowing and shedding of
one-year-old or older needles
in late summer and fall, it
was noted. However, the
prominent brown bars
caused byNaemacydus are
not produced by aphids.
Dr. Merrill and associates
are on the faculty of the
research division of the
College of Agriculture, the
Pennsylvania Agricultural
Experiment Station. '
225 York Road
Carlisle, PA
717-249-5338
Shartlesville, PA
215-488-1025
H. Daniel Wenger, Prop.
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Hwy. 74, AirviHe, PA
717-862-3358
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RD2, Oley, PA
215-987-6257