I had not been paying a lot of attention to the raspberry bushes since I have been dealing with other gardening projects. However, I noticed that berries were starting to ripen and I knew I had better get started putting on my homemade netted bags to keep out spotted-winged Drosophila. Much to my dismay, I found a fair number of "bad" berries and ones that had already dropped to the ground. I cleaned out the bad fruit and started putting on my protective bags. The patch has rebounded from previous years in which it was cut back/thinned out so it will be a challenge to keep up. I need to get my blueberries covered as well. Anyone else encountered SWD already this year?
redberry
Our only cherry tree to produce this year (others topworked) is just beginning to ripen its few dozen fruits. They are gorgeous, sweet and juicy, but ruined by SWD 🙁 Even the ones that look good, if you squeeze them juice runs or squirts out.
The ones that are light red and still firm are very sweet and still worth eating, but only as good as the ones from the store 🙁
The ripe ones are mush.
I was excited about our mild winter and early spring this year until now. If this means the SWD are going to hit everything harder and earlier I'd rather have harsher winter.
I did end up having many dark spots in my pie cherries and 2 or 3 that were inedible. THe other cherries weren't affected in flavor. Perhaps they have more protein.
They didn't attack the raspberries, which is nice.
FOr the rest of the fruit, we'll have to see.
John S
PDX OR
Hi:
I made the bags out of mosquito netting fabric (not window-screen fiberglass material) which I purchased at fabric stores. I also made some out of Reemay material when I desperately needed more bags. These are not as nice as the mosquito netting bags but they work. I'll give a brief description on the design but if anyone needs more specifics, I can get the information. I basically sewed a tube which can slip over the berries on the branches. On one end, I have a pull string so I can close the bag after slipping it over the branch. At the other end, I close it with a clothes pin so I can easily access the berries. I have tried different material for the pull strings...everything from regular cotton string (cheap but not very good if they get wet) to a thicker nylon "rope". I first made them in 2011 and I now have some bags with tears. It looks like my old photo is too large so I will take a new picture tomorrow.
redberry
I was away last week so I have fewer bags on the bushes since I had to remove them to make it easier for my bush caretaker. Today I did a thorough picking of the bushes and got about 1 32oz yogurt container full and another tub about 25% full that was bad berries. At least with the heat spell, the male SWD become sterile (>85F, I think) so that should slow them down. I happened to see one fly on a leaf today and I tried to squash it. I had to resize these photos - hope it works this time.
Pardon my ignorance, but I had to look up SWD to confirm that we were talking about a fruitfly. My wife and I are both interested in our local insect diversity, but I wasn't aware that there was yet another new potential pest to watch for. Apparently it's now as far north on the west coast as British Columbia, so I was pleased that I hadn't yet seen it or its damage.
In recent days I've been sampling the first of our boysenberries and marionberries (and also black currants and blueberries) but have observed no fruitfly damage. About a week-and-a-half ago I also collected summer budwood from a roadside tart cherry just south of Chehalis WA with large, beautiful, healthy fruits and no signs of disease or insect damage. (Birds were enjoying them also, given that there were quite a few pits still attached to the tree by their pedicels). I wonder if our area is not yet invaded?
Either way, at least it's yet one more pest I can watch for.
-- Tim
I lost pretty much my entire Haskap crop (ripe in early to mid-May) to SWD. Lost 25% of my first batch of raspberries. I had a little damage in strawberries and currants. This is the first year I have ever sprayed my fruit with Spinosad, I think that without spraying I would have no edible fruit, the flies were so early and so thick.
In addition to spraying, I'm picking often, freezing all suspect fruit before putting it out for yard debris collection, removing groundcover plants and pruning for good air circulation. I also refrigerate all picked berries ASAP.
-Sarah
jafar said
Welcome to the forum Sarah.Your post makes me sad 🙁
Those damned flies are going to make me crazy. I'm glad you were able to salvage some fruit. How frustrating.
I did cry a little bit, and then panicked, I've come to depend on my home grown fruit and veggies, plus they are my babies! I grew the haskap from seed, and this year they were LOADED with fruit.
My mini-orchard is in my front yard, I think my neighbor think I'm nuts, I'm always out there fiddling with, talking to, and photographing the plants, and occasional taking a video of the bugs. Now I have fruit fly traps hanging in the bushes, I'm worried the neighbors think the apple cider vinegar is pee 🙂
Thanks for the welcome, the members of the HOS have been a big help to me over the years.
-Sarah
Idyllwild
simplepress
jafar
Marsha H
Viron
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