We’re headed into the time of year when almond growers start to turn their focus to navel orangeworm (NOW) control. Sabrina Hill has more.
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Almond Board Associate Director of Agricultural Affairs, Bob Curtis says orchard sanitation is the key. He says it is the foundation of everything else that occurs during the year for navel orangeworm control.
Curtis says the Almond Board and the University of California have done several research studies and put together guidelines on orchard sanitation, that go into how clean an orchard needs to be to prevent navel orangeworm populations.
Click here for the UC IMP guidelines.
He says growers can start mummy shaking before then, which he recommends. He says doing initial shakes to remove mummies on or even before January 15th is a good idea. And he says while two mummies per tree is the goal for growers in the northern growing areas of the state, there’s a different recommendation for those in the southern areas.
After the mummies are shaken from the tree, they need to be destroyed or removed from the orchard floor. And nuts on the ground need to be destroyed before March 15.
The ultimate goal is to have less than 2 percent damage from navel orangeworm at harvest time.
Click here for the Almond Board’s NOW damage predictor.