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OVERVIEW
Leaffooted bug sprays were reportedly being made in the south SJV. Mites remain on the radar in that area, too.
Lower limb dieback may be turning up earlier than normally expected in parts of the SJV.
CROP REPORTS
Vern Crawford, PCA, Wilbur-Ellis Co., Shafter: "Everybody put out a miticide, but in many cases we’re finding that things aren’t performing quite up to par. Two or three different materials were used, but mites are still coming in. It’s hard to say exactly why. But we had what I consider unseasonably warm weather early. Knowing the nature of spider mites, all you’ve got to do is put them under a little stress – either with heat or pyrethroids – and they increase their egg laying. Fortunately, I have a lot of beneficial mites and will hold off (retreating) as long as I can, hopefully so we can get a free ride with the hull split spray. We’re at the tail end of PTB strikes, at least in the trees I check. The deposit seems to be in synch with NOW, so people who sprayed should have caught overlapping flights.
"I’ve found a trace of leaffooted plant bug damage in the orchards I check but not enough to warrant a treatment. However, an aerial applicator said today (6/5) that he was lined up to spray 2,000 acres for it. I followed up by checking some ‘benchmark’ orchards for leaffooted that carried a lot of them 3 years ago when they were so bad. These aren’t trees I work, but they’ve been an indicator because of their history. I did find damage, although light. The nuts I cut open already were starting to break down.
"It’s interesting to see the variability of the crop this year. I have growers who are extremely satisfied with their crop, while others are largely disappointed. In some cases, these two extremes are separated by a dirt road, maybe the spacing of a couple of trees, and they essentially have the same varieties. I’m becoming convinced that we took more freeze damage than initially thought. In one instance, a grower with a good crop right now was irrigating when the frost hit, while the crop adjoining his was bone dry, plus it had been mowed, and those trees are the ones with the weak crop now."
Franz Niederholzer, UC Farm Advisor, Sutter/Yuba Counties: "We’ve had a goofy stretch of weather, with thunderstorms last night (6/3) and rumors of hail around the valley. So far, though, no one has actually told me about hail damage associated with any tree crops. I’ve heard reports of up to a half-inch of rain in places, enough to wet things up. If conditions get wet and cooler, then everybody’s attention shifts from insects and mites to disease. It’s the kind of thing we need to pay attention to, especially in blocks with poor air movement, but you really can’t say if disease will be an issue because of all the factors involved. How wet did the trees get, how quickly did they dry? Growers with a history of summer diseases may already have sprayed ahead of time, which is the way to go. The weather forecast predicted a 30% to 50% chance of thunderstorms, so you could have made a good argument for protective sprays in those cases."
David A. Doll, Pomology Farm Advisor, Merced County: "We need to be conscious of lower limb dieback (LLD). A lot of growers are seeing symptoms – yellowing leaves on branches on the underside of the canopy. The leaves are soft, too. They’re not crispy, so this is not due to chemical injury. We’re not sure what causes LLD, but it’s likely some combination of things. Those lower limbs are shaded out, so photosynthesis declines. We also can isolate some fungal pathogens. The other factor is tree stress for whatever reason – over-watering, under-watering, salt stress or other causes.
"Several growers report seeing this right now. It’s kind of early in the year for LLD to turn up. Usually, it’s late June or early July before we start finding or hearing about it. But it actually began popping up 2 weeks ago, and we’re getting more questions about it now. It tends to be more of a problem on Padre, with some on Butte, and tends to be in denser plantings, but not always. The older the tree, the more frequently it happens. I’ve talked to a couple of PCAs about this, and the thinking is that the trees came into this year a little drier, maybe with a little more salt buildup. Combine that with some other stresses, and we’re now seeing this somewhat earlier onset. But there are so many things that might contribute to the problem that it’s hard to jump to any general conclusions about why it’s showing up early.
"The major concern is how bad is it and do you want to cut off affected limbs before fungal movement spreads? You want to cut away some of the healthy tissue to completely remove it from the tree but, at the same time, avoid drastic cuts. Find that last yellow leaf, for example, and move back 4 to 6 inches to get beyond the pathogen. You don’t want to cut away a major scaffolding branch if that can be avoided.
"We’ve had a few sprinkles, but nothing noteworthy, not enough to wash the dust off vehicles. We’re kind of at that period when we could get hit-and-miss thunderstorms."
Mark W.F. Carter, PCA, Agri-Consultants, Los Banos: "We’re finished with all our fertilizer and are putting out ant bait. At this point we’re just trying to keep moisture at the correct level until we start hull split, which will probably be in the first 2 weeks of July. So, we’ll probably start backing off on water in about the second week of June."
Robert Rumble, PCA, Salida Ag Chem, Salida: "We finished up May sprays and are mainly monitoring and taking care of a few weeds here and there. I haven’t had to deal with any issues lately. Miticides went out in May, and one application usually does it for us. We had rain yesterday (6/4) and, in fact, we got a little shower this morning, which is kind of unusual for us. Growers who used a fungicide earlier in the season probably cleaned things up, got rid of some spores and reduced the inoculum, overall."
MEETING REMINDER
Merced County will host a summer almond meeting on June 17 at the Merced County Extension Building at 2145 Wardrobe Avenue. Registration starts at 8 a.m. Topics include: summer insect management; ID and preventing hull rot; managing summer water stress in a drought year; using leaf nutrient values to plan next year’s N budget; orchard replanting – fumigate?; design and development of a successful orchard.
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