They say a picture is worth 1000 words, but maybe sometimes it's just better to keep words unsaid....At the time of this post, it has rained nearly 6 inches since July 29th. To add insult to injury, while the temperatures have been unseasonably cool since the weekend, the Colletotrichum fungus causing bitter rot and Glomerella leaf spot can still cause infection given the constant leaf wetting we are experiencing. At times like this, I prefer to encourage you to prioritize your fungicide sprays to specific blocks when you can get an opportunity to get out there. A few thoughts as short windows of opportunity might open up to make an application:

• If you have historically bad GLS and bitter rot blocks, and these blocks still do not have much GLS and bitter rot, spray those when you have a window of opportunity. I would suggest increasing your captan rate to 5 lb/A if you are not over seasonal limits.
• Captan may redistribute in light rain/mist and even I applied it during a light rain today (which unfortunately quickly turned heavy). Merivon (or another strobilurin/FRAC 11) should be given a few hours to dry and is locally systemic. Same deal with Aprovia, Omega, etc.
• Consider harvest timing and where the apples are going. If you haven't sprayed since mid-week last week, assume you're apples are not protected. If apples will be harvested soon, and the apples are going to sit out at room temp for any period of time AND you don't have strobilurin resistance, apply Merivon or Pristine in tank mixture with Captan.
• For later harvest cultivars (at least 30 days out from harvest) consider adding Aprovia to the tank with captan to give you some extended protection (relatively speaking). However, make sure there's adequate drying time.
• Lastly I would consider making this a dilute fungicide application rather than spraying concentrate. In some of our experiments this summer, captan was not getting redistributed as much as we’d anticipated it would on our fruit-particularly on the back side facing away from the row middles….

Next week I'll be making my usual immediate pre-harvest fungicide post. Stay tuned, but reach out if any questions in the meantime!