Orchardist: Terry Martella, Martella & Sons

Situation:

The main issues focussed on are mites, apple dimpling bug (ADB), weevils, mealybug and powdery mildew. They have a resistance management program based on activity groups, and a monitoring program for mites and mealybugs. Vertimec appeared to fail this year.

The business has been using pest scouting for years, dating back to the original IPM course conducted by the Western Australia Department of Agriculture. There are 35 ha of intensive orchard, all trellised, some fully netted. About 30% of the orchard is apples. The remainder consists of plums, cherries, and some pears. They grow, pick, and store but packing is contracted out.

Mission:

To achieve acceptable control of pests and diseases without negative effects on beneficials.

Execution:

• Consider replacing Klartan against ADB.
• Investigate use of cumulative leaf infested days (CLIDs) instead of mites/leaf or percentage leaves infested to determine the need to spray mites

Administration:

• David Williams to supply information on CLIDs
• Terry and Yoon to convert mite monitoring data to CLIDs and use results to develop preliminary thresholds for their context.
• Terry and Alison to develop a pre-plan for responding to issues that may develop
• Ask an expert facility in IPDM website is available for additional support and expertise
• David and Alison are available for feedback

Safety:

• Experiments can be stressful, but no useful results will occur unless the participants maintain their nerve
• Stress can be reduced by setting realistic targets that stretch comfort zones without creating major financial risks
• Stress can be reduced by taking the time to seek expert advice on the problem, either in the planning phase or before the problem gets out of control, rather than making knee-jerk decisions
• Regular assessments of pest and disease populations and damage levels will allow timely changes to approach before significant damage occurs