top priority for growers in the next few weeks. Next, communicate with your PCA on a budget for 2024 and start planning applications and materials that may be used. Some of you may be reading this and saying, “I’ve been doing all this, and I sprayed multiple times, but nothing worked.” You’re right — this may have been a year when the damage was out of your control. However, I should offer this advice: once you have learned something, it is always good to go back and pay closer attention. This means checking the calibration and quality of your sprayer, confirming that the correct amounts of material were used, and ensuring that winter shaking met the standard you set. After all that, it may be time to try something new. Never done a May/Mummy Spray application ? That could be a possibility this year. Mating Disruption ? Talk to your PCA about the options available. There is a website, NOW Neighborhood Management (agneighbors.com, password: nowmd), developed by the Almond Board of California, Blue Diamond , and other stakeholders where you can select your field on a map and indicate that you are interested in mating disruption. Once enough growers in your area have shown an interest in mating disruption, you will receive an email instructing you to proceed with disruption. There are many methods that we can use, but we may simply have to look at the problem from a new angle. 2023 harvest has certainly been one for the record books. It is not the record the industry was hoping for, but it is the reality of the year. The
Figure 2 Abandoned Orchard. Photo credit: Mel Machado
Figure 4 Winter Shaking. Photo credit: Mel Machado
high rate of rejects that the industry is experiencing has a significant impact on you, the grower. It causes a reduction in payment because of the missed premiums, in addition to the weight lost to the rejects. In a time when every cent and pound matters, quality is an issue growers cannot afford to ignore. If you have any questions on what may be causing your rejects, please contact your Regional Manager to see if there is a Reject Breakdown on your delivery. If you don’t see one, you can request a retest for this information so that you can know exactly what was causing the damage and how to make changes for the future.
Figure 3 Carpophilus beetle. Photo credit: Lauren Fann
In California, growers are familiar with many pests, but a new one is showing up in the Blue Diamond test rooms. The Carpophilus beetle is a sap feeding beetle that appears to be causing damage in almonds. The juvenile beetle, which is a grub, feeds on the almond kernel. While the damage looks different from NOW, the Carpophilus grub is often mistaken for a NOW. There is not much information on this new pest yet, but there is work being done to study its life cycle and management techniques. Reducing pest problems always starts with winter sanitation. This is true for new pests as well as old ones. At the moment, winter sanitation is the only mitigating factor we can use against the Carpophilus beetle. Removing the mummy nuts early, especially before heavy rain events set in, should be the
Trent Voss, Regional Manager, Blue Diamond Member Relations
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NOVEMBER–DECEMBER 2023
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