Good management of Psa-V through autumn helps minimise disease levels seen in the following spring.

• Maintain a protective spray programme throughout autumn.
• Ensure cover is in place prior to high-risk weather or as soon as possible following weather events.
• Immediately postharvest, apply copper and Actigard™ to protect fruit stalks. Consider using adjuvants to improve spray coverage at this time. If canopy condition allows, reapply Actigard™ three weeks later to extend protection into the leaf-fall period. A maximum of four Actigard™ applications (including soil applied sprays) are allowed per season.
• Avoid spray drift of postharvest sprays onto unharvested fruit.  Spray residues limit market access for fruit and can impact customer confidence. Report any problems to your exporter.  Thoroughly clean spray tanks to prevent risk of residues.

KVH has made some improvements to the R&D section of the website to make it much more user-friendly. Growers still need to be logged in to view the full R&D section.

The main changes:

• The latest R&D news and reports will appear as blogs on the R&D landing page.
• When logged in to the website, four main sections will become visible:
  • Recent R&D (this is the landing page outlined above)
  • Research Projects and Reports
  • Product Testing Results
  • About R&D
    
• The Research Projects and Reports page is now organised into categories more relevant to growers. You’ll note some projects/reports fall under more than one category.
• The search engine for ‘research projects and reports’ has been improved as each document is linked to key search words.
• The ‘Product Testing Results’ are all loaded on one page in alphabetical order.

Let us know your feedback on the new site – email KVH

The 2015 Psa-V Seasonal Management Guide is now available on the KVH website – click here.

This new guide provides a basis for growers to build their individual Psa-V Orchard Management Plans for the coming season.

The 2015 guide incorporates year-round advice for managing Psa-V. Previous Seasonal Management Guides have been split into Autumn/Winter and Spring/Summer seasons.

The response to the Queensland Fruit Fly outbreak in Auckland has now been operating for more than a month and is likely to continue for many more.

Field work, including intensive trapping, baiting and fruit collection and sampling also continue.

To date, 14 adult fruit flies had been found within the controlled area; and fruit fly larvae had been found in five separate properties within very close proximity of each other.

The infected properties continue to receive intensive ground treatment for fruit fly, including targeted foliage spraying and the use of insecticide granules. The ground surrounding the trees where larvae were found has been thoroughly sprayed and sealed with a polythene plastic cover (pictured above).

Any future developments will be communicated through the KVH website.

Ceratocystis fimbriata is a fungal pathogen that is causing significant damage to kiwifruit orchards in Brazil, with some growers reporting 50% vine loss over the past five years.

The sudden appearance of this pathogen in kiwifruit in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil is considered particularly alarming as kiwifruit is highly susceptible and the production impacts of the pathogen threaten the viability of this industry in Brazil. There have been no reports of impacts to kiwifruit from this pathogen outside of Brazil to date.

Planned research
New Zealand does have a strain of the C. fimbriata complex, causing black rot on kumara. Research is planned to determine if this strain is pathogenic to kiwifruit.

Control options against C. fimbriata have limited effectiveness and developing resistant or more tolerant cultivars is considered the best course of action to prepare for this pathogen.

A two year research project is being undertaken that will screen a number of C. fimbriata isolates, including the NZ and Brazilian isolates, for pathogenicity against a number of kiwifruit cultivars. This will allow the identification of:

1. Isolates of C. fimbriata that are pathogenic to kiwifruit
2. Identification of tolerant / resistant cultivars or rootstocks.

Components of the research will be done offshore, however cultivar testing will require the Brazilian isolates to be imported into a New Zealand containment facility. Details on how the pathogen will be contained are provided in the document: Physical containment of plant pathogens.

Please see the KVH website for:

• A summary of the proposed research and deliverables to the industry
• A paper explaining the physical containment measures that will be used to contain the pathogen for research purposes