Wet weather is ideal for most fungal diseases. If summer rains are a frequent event in your area of the state expect an increase in sooty blotch and flyspeck, black rot, bot rot, bitter rot and any other rots that might have made their way into your orchard. As always, good orchard sanitation is a must for control of summer rot disease problems. Plant nutritional status is important for all phases of plant growth and has a direct effect on vigor, fruitfulness, cold hardiness, and other factors. Tissue analysis is the most reliable means of determining plant nutritional status.
Soil analysis is useful when used in conjunction with tissue analysis.
However, soil analysis alone is not considered a reliable indicator of plant nutritional status. Soil samples can be taken at any time of the year but tissue analysis samples should be collected at the appropriate time to give the most meaningful results. For strawberry, sample the first fully expanded leaves after renovation, usually in mid to late July. For blueberries sample leaves during the first week of harvest. For grapes, samples should be taken about 70 days after full bloom, usually early to mid August.