IN YOUR ORCHARD
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. Pistachio orchards can also be a troublesome source of NOW. Orchard sanitation is more difficult to accomplish in pistachios and the nut is an excellent food source for NOW. Controlling NOW in almond orchards can be much more problematic when there are pistachio plantings nearby. Growers in this situation should be much more diligent in their NOW management efforts. Mating Disruption – A Proven Technology Mating disruption incorporates the use of devices that release pheromones within the orchard designed to interrupt the mating of the adult NOW moths. Whether using “puffers” or “strips”, the intent is the same. Each device releases a synthetic pheromone mimicking the pheromone that female moths use to “call” the males for mating. With enough of the synthetic pheromone wafting through the orchard canopy, the males are unable to find the females and mating is reduced or disrupted. The technology has been proven to work in larger orchards, greater than 40 acres. Results in smaller planting have been more variable. That said, growers with smaller orchards may be able to achieve successful results by cooperating with neighboring growers, in effect increasing the size of the orchard under mating disruption. Mating disruption is not a replacement for hull split treatments. However, growers who have employed mating disruption have been able to reduce the number of hull split treatments in some locations. Losses from ants tend to be less of a problem for most growers. Unfortunately, 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 Pest Control Advisor for the best applications for your situation… and remember to also look down when walking through your orchards. Many ant problems are simply unobserved. For growers who rely on others to complete their harvests, consider that 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. Other Considerations Plant Bugs, such as Leaf-Footed Plant Bug, Boxelder Bugs, Stink Bugs or most recently, Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs (BMSB) can cause significant losses through their feeding on the nuts, relatively early in the season before shell hardening. Brown Marmorated Stink Bug 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 crops and has caused significant losses in infested almond orchards. When infestation occurs, onset of damage is rapid and often devastating. Plant bugs cause crop losses in two ways. When infestations occur early in the season, prior to shell hardening, nuts are literally killed and drop from the trees. After shell hardening, the nuts may remain on the tree and included in the harvested crop. Damage at harvest is observed as a “brown spot” on the kernel. A recent USDA ruling now defines damage from insects with piercing- sucking mouthparts, plant bugs, as a sunken area or depression on the kernel of at least ¹ / ₈ inch in diameter, with or without discoloration, OR a discolored area of the kernel of at least ¹ / ₈ inch in diameter, with or without a sunken area.
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ALMOND FACTS
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