Early June

We shift our gardening tasks to:

• filling in all of the holes in our garden beds (do not overcrowd your plants, they need room to grow)

• watering & weeding

• watching for pest and disease

Apples, one of the Bitterroot's most iconic crops, are susceptible to codling moth. Treating for this pest is tricky, the time to treat the pest is directly connected to environmental conditions and is different every year. There can be multiple generations of codling moth and short windows of time to treat each generation.

Ravalli County Extension office offers a great service. You can register to receive a 'robocall' announcement of codling moth treatment time. I talked with Extension Agent Patrick Mangan today and he shared with me that the projected first spray date is June 9-10.

So, get your spinosad and spraying gear ready.

Call Ravalli County Extension office and register for the alerts. 406 375 6611

And remember, even the least toxic treatments for codling moths are fatal for our native pollinators and honeybees. Time your spraying when these creatures are not active.