In my research plots in middle GA, I am starting to see an uptick in San Jose scale crawler activity. In these plots San Jose scale have been especially bad this year, and as such, I expect the third large peak of crawler activity to occur within 7-10 days in middle Georgia. Thus, the ridge has about two weeks and upstate SC has about three weeks from now until we would expect to see a peak in crawler activity. As a reminder, scale crawler activity can me monitored with electrical tape and double-sided tape (or vaseline).
In orchard blocks with a history of bad scale outbreaks or in blocks that have not yet been managed for scale, then we still have some options for scale management. Esteem (6 oz; PHI=14 days) or Centaur (34.5 oz; PHI=14 days) are likely our best (albeit expensive) options. When targeting peak of the scale crawlers, Venerate XC (2 qt/acre applied twice over 7 day period; 4 qt total; PHI=0 days) or diatomaceous earth (i.e. Celite 610 @ 10 lb/acre) have both showed efficacy at suppressing San Jose scale.
Alternatively, in post-harvest blocks, consider applying 2% summer oil, aiming for 200 gallons of water/acre in order to get the best coverage possible.
I hope everyone is doing as well as they can during these crazy times!
