jan-feb-2021
While on the subject of allergens, special attention must be given to peanuts. Peanuts are grown in California on small scale plots in the Central Valley and care must be given if your orchard is adjacent to any planting of the legume. With that said, the greatest hazard for contamination comes from incidental introduction into the orchards carried in by employees, typically in their meals. Simply stated, peanuts must never be allowed to enter an orchard at any time. Rejects When considering crop quality, growers tend to focus most on reject levels, either from insects in the form of navel orangeworm (NOW) and peach twig borer (PTB) or ants. Many years of research serve as the foundation to assist growers in making pest management decisions for insect control and the counsel of a good Pest Control Advisor (PCA) is virtually priceless when making pest management decisions. While the cost of controlling insect infestations can be substantial, the rewards for producing low reject deliveries are equally substantial when compared to the potential losses. Much work has been done since the 201 7 crop, when NOW caused significant losses for growers throughout the Central Valley. • Orchard sanitation continues to be the cornerstone of a strong NOW management program. Growers should target a maximum of no more than one mummy per tree remaining through the winter. • After shaking or poling, mummies must be destroyed using a flail mower at a slow enough speed to guarantee their destruction before NOW moths emerge. • New methods of mitigating NOW involving mating disruption have shown promise and have been adopted by many growers. • Hull split treatments in the final effort to control NOW prior to the harvest must be conducted in a timely manner. Growers with orchards planted to Butte and Padre tend to focus less on damage caused by NOW, given the typically better shell seal these varieties provide. Many have discovered that while the Padre is virtually impervious to NOW, the shell of the Butte can allow NOW to penetrate and cause damage. More importantly, both the Butte and Padre can and will harbor NOW between the hull and shell. Butte and Padre growers believe that winter sanitation is not required. However, Butte and Padre plantings can be a source of NOW for neighboring orchards and failing to sanitize these plantings can support infestations in adjacent orchards. Losses from ants tends to be less of a problem for most growers. However, more than a few have been unpleasantly surprised by unobserved ant infestations within or even adjacent to their orchards. There are several bait formulations that can effectively reduce ant populations when properly employed. Contact your PCA for the best applications for your situation and remember to also look down when walking through your orchards. Many ant problems are simply unobserved. A special consideration for growers who rely on others to complete their harvests. The increasing acreage, particularly of the Independence variety, which harvests at the same time as Nonpareil has created a degree of strain on equipment availability. Growers who rely on custom harvesters to shake, sweep and pickup their crops may have their harvests delayed either in the trees, leaving them susceptible to NOW or on the ground and susceptible to ants. This fact highlights the importance of proper insect pest management. “Plant Bugs, such as leaf-footed plant bug, boxelder bugs, stink bugs or most recently, brown marmorated stick bugs can cause significant losses through their feeding on the nuts, relatively early in the season before shell hardening. Brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) is a particularly serious plant bug that has recently moved into California and established populations have been verified from Butte County in the north, to as far south as Fresno County. BMSB has a wide host range, including nut, fruit and vegetable crop and has caused severe nut to drop in infested almond orchards. When infestation occurs, onset of damage is rapid and often devastating. Consult your PCA immediately if you see gumming on nuts in the spring, which is a sign of BMSB stings. Information on BMSB can be found at www.stopbmsb.org . 3 3 J A N U A R Y – F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 1
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