California nuts growers looking for other avenues for disease management have a new tool available to them. As bacterial and fungal issues continue exhibiting more resistance to certain products it is even more important to rotate materials. Previously approved for other California crops, tree nut products now have the ability to use ManKocide in their orchards.
“We’ve had university researchers do the work as well as some private contractors. In a university study, we went from about 27 percent fruit incidence with walnut blight, and we used a ManKocide product and we got down to close to seven percent. That was similar in all the rates we used,” said Scott Ockey, Field Development Representative Manager for the Western U.S. for Certis. “It will be very helpful to the growers, especially those that have lost control because of copper tolerance.”
The material was approved by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation back in March when the season was winding down. While not entirely new, the product is available for all tree nut growers looking for better disease management this season. The fungicide/bactericide can help growers address issues of Alternaria, powdery mildew, and blight.
“They did a lot of research and came up with a 2-to-1 ratio of copper to mancozeb and that’s what ManKocide is. It’s sort of a premix of those two products,” said Greg Rogers, Field Development Manager for the Midwest and Northeast for Certis. “One bag does all the job. Not only does it control bacterial diseases but because it has the mancozeb component it can help with other diseases as well, such as fungal diseases.”
The product offers another option for growers to rotate into their integrated pest management (IPM) plan. Adding an additional tool to an IPM strategy can help get better efficacy and help address resistance issues that may be occurring. “Where we start to see the copper tolerant bacteria showing up – which in walnut blight we have quite a bit of that – growers will be able to integrate ManKocide to regain that control that they used to have with Kocide before the tolerance came aboard,” Ockey noted.
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