Preseason Strategies for QFF, CM and OFM
On Monday evening, 14 September at Tatura, Fruit Growers Victoria Ltd., along with the Horticulture Centre of Excellence presented to growers two key presentations for implementing orchard strategies for Queensland Fruit Fly (QFF) and also Codling (CM) and Oriental Fruit Moth (OFM).
Delivering the QFF presentation was David Williams from DEDJTR and supported by myself which focused on the message of better understanding the biology/behaviour of the pest at critical stages during the whole year, the timing of the activity to apply in relation to host crops, some of the best available practice monitoring and treatments to implement and to assist growers some principle examples of how individual growers can develop their own in orchard management strategy.
Following the first presentation Scott Brady from Organic Crop Protectants provided an excellent overview of CM and OFM and provided an update on how the granulovirus in Grandex® would work best against the fruit damaging moths. The update included vision of the behaviour of the emerging grubs when leaving the egg casing and entering the fruit and how the virus is ingested, as well as explaining what to look for to ensure the controls applied are killing the larvae.
One factor important to QFF management is orchard hygiene and removing fruit that can harbour maggots, the use of mechanical under tree sweepers was shown with some keen interest from growers present. If any growers are interested just contact FGVL as we are able to arrange the company in the vision to come to the GV and provide an in orchard demonstration.
For more detailed information the copies of the PowerPoint presentations have been made available for download below.
by Tony Filippi, FGVL Industry Dev. Manager,
