KVH will present a Psa-V spring update at next week’s R&D grower meeting in Te Puke. This will include a national Psa-V update and infection management advice.

When:     3pm, Tuesday 30 September
Where:     The Orchard Church, Te Puke
Agenda:    

• Introduction—Dave Tanner, Zespri
• KVH  Psa-V spring update—Barry O’Neil, KVH
• Leaf spotting/update on risk model/track plants year 1—Greg Clark, Zespri
• Management of flower and fruit drop in Green varieties—Greg Clark, Zespri
• Research areas underway expected to deliver meaningful results in the next 12 months—Dave Tanner, Zespri
• Q&A session

Last week, Grosafe Chemicals Ltd confirmed their copper Hydroxide product Hortcare® Copper Hydroxide 300 received BioGro certification, providing organic growers with another tool in the fight against Psa-V.

Zespri will include this change when they update the Crop Protection Standard.

As always, organic growers are reminded to confirm the BioGro status of all products prior to use, and ensure their ‘BioGro Organic Management Plan Inputs’ list remains updated.

As advised in the KVH Bulletin (24 April), the Plant Market Access Council (PMAC) including Zespri and KVH have been working on a project which aims to pre-emptively agree market access conditions with key markets in the event of future incursions of significant fruit fly species in New Zealand.

The project includes developing protocols which demonstrate how New Zealand will manage a fruit fly incursion and how exporters will therefore be able to reliably export fruit fly free product minimising any trade disruptions.

For trading partners to agree to these protocols, which if a breeding population of fruit fly is found would be based on cold disinfestation of fruit, the industry must be able to demonstrate their own procedures for implementing any agreed protocols.

Therefore, ISG has recently agreed to establish a small industry working group to identify and address associated operational issues.

The objectives for this working group will be to:

• Identify the key issues and the range of possible scenarios that need to be considered and planned for depending on what the nature of the fruit fly outbreak is, and what time of year it happens in.
• Develop a set of guidelines to assist individual post-harvest operators to develop their own documented quality management plan for approval by MPI should cold disinfestation of fruit be required by our markets.
• Discuss the guidelines with MPI for comment and agreement prior to publishing these to the wider industry.

It is essential for our industry to plan for what would need to be implemented, often at very short notice, in order to minimise market disruptions.

It’s important to note that while MPI are beginning the negotiations, it will likely take years for some countries to agree to these protocols.

Growers are required to have the below records available for their GAP audit this year. Note the numbers below refer to Zespri GAP Control Points.

3.1 Purchased propagation material (nursery stock, budwood etc. coming onto your orchard)

• Invoices etc. from nurseries where you have obtained plants and propagation material.
• Documentation relating to budwood obtained from another KPIN or from Zespri

3.4 Supply of budwood (if budwood has been supplied from your orchard)    

• Evidence of registration with KVH
• Completed Risk Management Plan—Budwood
• Lab test results if orchard is ‘Not Detected’
• KVH written permission if budwood is supplied outside of the region

3.5 Supply of plants, seedlings, fruit or seeds for propagation (if nursery plants, rootstock etc. has been supplied from your orchard)     

• Evidence of registration with KVH
• Completed Psa-V Risk Management Plan—Nursery Stock
• Lab test results for plants
• KVH written permission where required for movement of plants between regions

8.1 Orchard Management Plan    

• Completed Psa-V Orchard Management Plan. This must be updated as required or signed and dated to show it has been reviewed for this season
• Mandatory monitoring records and general orchard monitoring records to match the Psa-V Orchard Management Plan.
• Evidence that at least one spray from the KVH recommended indication of disposal methods or evidence of list of sprays with proven efficacy against Psa-V has been applied (spray diary entry)

8.8 disposal of Psa-V infected material    

• Verbal indication of disposal methods or evidence of burial pit.

Orchard sites that experienced colder autumn and winter periods are reporting a higher incidence of Psa-V symptoms this spring.

Wanganui, Waikato, and Waihi sites, which experienced frosts shortly after harvest and also had a number of frost events with temperatures below zero for extended periods, are reporting increased levels of symptoms in Hayward males including Chieftan.

Late growth which was not fully mature, or growth that was damaged through autumn storms, is showing higher incidence of secondary symptoms.

Growers are recommended to particularly focus on colder areas of their orchard when monitoring to determine individual orchard impacts.

• Click here to view the observation report on a Waikato Hayward and Gold3 orchard.

This week KVH held a meeting with pollen providers. Available pollen across the industry is around 50 percent lower than last year (which was not a good year for pollen). This could potentially cause problems with supply for 2014 if male vines are compromised due to Psa-V infection.

Growers are urged to have their early male flowers picked for pollen and if possible, support pollen providers by supplying flowers and labour. Contact your local pollen provider if you are able to help the industry build up supplies. Click here for a list of registered pollen providers on the KVH website.

All those intending to operate a pollen mill this season are required to register with KVH here.

Growers who are not part of the Zespri GAP audit process, and who are independently certified to Global GAP, need to retain the same documents as Zespri growers. KVH may request these records as part of random audits to ensure compliance to the National Psa-V Pest Management Plan (NPMP).

KVH currently holds the Psa-V Orchard Management Plans for these growers. Therefore, if any changes are made to these plans, please forward the updated version to KVH at info@kvh.org.nz.

 

From 1 October growers are reminded they must register their intent to spray KeyStrepto™ on the Zespri Canopy or KVH website; and orchards may be subject to random audits. The online function will be available from 1 October.

Before 1 October, you do not have to register but all requirements and best practices must be followed. Refer to the KeyStrepto™ User Guide, including a Site Inspection Record.

While some of the use conditions have changed, the responsibility to minimise nectar-bearing flowers such as buttercups and clover is unchanged from previous years. Click here for more information.
 

KVH has recently received a number of reports of red exudate appearing, particularly in male vines. Best practice advice is to determine the level of infection in each block by monitoring and recording the number of plants infected and the severity of infection.

If cankers are isolated, such as at the ends of canes or leaders, consider removing them. For cankers that cannot be easily removed, excision or cauterisation may be an option. Note—research has shown cauterisation is less successful at slowing canker spread than total removal.

Growers with more susceptible male varieties should consider their options now to graft some, or all, of their male vines over to another variety in the upcoming November grafting window. It is also important to consider the potential impact on pollination, and plan now to ensure artificial pollen can be procured. Above all else, it is important to have a plan in place to determine how cankers will be managed, and the process that will be followed moving forward.

Plant Health Australia (PHA), the industry body that coordinates the government-industry partnership for plant biosecurity in Australia, visited KVH yesterday to learn about our Psa-V management approach, and to share information about future biosecurity priorities.

The full Board of Directors participated in the visit and were extremely impressed with what the NZ kiwifruit industry has accomplished in just under four years since Psa-V arrived, in terms of managing and reducing the risks using the NPMP, and also the major R&D efforts that have been achieved.

Discussions on future biosecurity priorities included understanding the Australian approach to cost sharing for fruit fly, where the arrangement in place has government funding 80 percent and industry 20 percent of the costs associated with responses.

 

As advised in the KVH Bulletin (15 May) Lincoln University is manufacturing a prototype trichoderma product called Trimix 1. Trichoderma are fungi present in soils, and some strains are able to colonise the root system of plants resulting in beneficial effects to the plant.

Trimix 1 is available once again to growers for use as a plant health enhancer (bio-fertiliser) from Lincoln University.They also recently received BioGro approval for TriMix-1 so it can now be used without restriction by organic growers.

While there is experimental evidence that the TriMix 1 can improve plant growth, Lincoln and/or KVH and Zespri cannot promote the product for Psa-V control as it does not have ACVM label claim from the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI).

Growers interested in using the product as a plant health enhancer (bio-fertiliser) can click here to email Lincoln University.

 

New Zealand is tightening its borders by increasing scrutiny of yachts arriving in Northland this summer as a result of the two Queensland fruit fly detections in Whangarei early this year. This follows a review of how the fruit flies could have arrived in New Zealand which KVH participated in.

Eight extra quarantine inspectors will be working in Northland in ‘rummaging teams’, from October to mid-December when the bulk of yachts arrive.

MPI is also training detector dogs, working with locals, the navy and air force and contact yachties before they come to New Zealand.

Click here to read MPI's media release.

Click here to read the full article on the 3 News website.