INDUSTRY NEWS
LEFT: The Agriculture Victoria Integrated Pest Management team, from left, Dan Anderson, Samatha Edley, Cathy Taylor and David Madge.
INSET: David presenting at the Australian Almond Conference in 2022. the year and when it disappears over winter is important to know. That type of information has been collected with the trapping that’ s been going on and we need to see how that looks in different districts with local weather patterns, orchard types, soil types and so on,” he said.
Carob Moth control Mr Madge said he’ s also proud of the work that’ s been done with Carob Moth, although there is still a way to go with this pest. A product used to control the pest in dates in America and pomegranates in the Middle East, by disrupting its mating, appears to be able to work in Australian almonds, but how it is applied needs to be fine-tuned.“ When it has been applied commercially in almonds on a large scale, mechanically placing it in the trees wasn’ t giving us the results we were looking for,” Mr Madge said. Time has been spent understanding how the product breaks down in the field, what quantities need to be applied and where it should be placed in the orchard.“ We used a lab culture of carob moth to produce unmated female moths and used those moths as lures in traps high up in the trees where most carob moth activity occurs. We showed that if the product was applied high it effectively prevented the males from finding the females, which is what mating disruption is all about,” Mr Madge said. The IPM team also showed that the product appears to have a shorter field life than expected.“ Filling in those details helped us understand why eight large field trials between us, the product manufacturer and almond industry never got the results we all wanted, so those fine details of where you need to put the product and how it needs to be applied make a big difference.”
Working with California Now that the Californian almond industry is also grappling with carpophilus beetle, Mr Madge said collaboration on this pest is underway and he’ d like to see it go further to speed up the research progress.“ Officially carpophilus beetle is acknowledged as a pest of almonds only in about four Californian counties but unofficially they’ ve found it numerous others, so they are really trying to sus that out and get some seasonal data from the few traps that we’ ve sent them,” he said.“ That’ s adding to the information we have from our trap rollout through industry and that’ s going to be really useful to look at impacts of orchard type, climate and that sort of thing.” Californian researchers will also be repeating one of the trials that has been conducted in Australian almonds to see how long the components of the carpophilus beetle trap last in northern hemisphere conditions. As part of the collaboration, carob moth traps will also be deployed to see if that pest is present in Californian almond orchards.
A final message for almond growers and the industry Mr Madge said minimising crop residue in orchards is critical as this supports the buildup and overwintering of carob moth and carpophilus beetle populations.“ Also, every nut that’ s left in the orchard after harvest is wasted money and then you have to spend more money getting rid of it,” he said. In the longer-term Mr Madge said the industry could reduce or avoid carob moth and carpophilus beetle damage by moving away from Nonpareil and other varieties that have shells that are soft or split easily.“ In 10 or 20 or 50 years’ time we could still be having the same issues because these two beasts particularly love those nuts, so moving into some of the new varieties that have slightly harder and sealed shells should reduce a lot of those issues,” he said.
Looking to the future Dr Samantha Edley is now leading the Hort Innovation funded Integrated Pest Management Program for the Australian Almond Industry. Mr Madge said she’ s already taken over the leadership of the project and she’ s filling the role really well.“ We’ re constantly talking, and she’ s been getting up to date with all the aspects of the project and the industry,” he said. Despite retiring, Mr Madge says he doesn’ t have plans to sit on the veranda in a rocking chair.“ I have a huge list of things to do, and I’ ll just keep chipping away at it,” he said. Travel in Australia and overseas is on the agenda, along with gardening and renovating the house. " I’ m also planning to upskill in areas where I can have some input into education and training, whether it’ s to do with horticulture or computers( another passion of mine), and with my wife, directing some effort towards people who are less fortunate and need a bit more help or assistance whether it’ s refugees, low socio economic groups or remote communities.” Mr Madge said.
industry. australianalmonds. com. au
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