Article from
VSCNews, Vegetable and Specialty Crop News
by Alison DeLoach
Peach Pruning Improves
San Jose Scale
Control
Recent research has shown that pruning peach trees can help growers
reduce pests in their orchards. One pest in particular, San Jose scale,
can cause difficulties for growers, including branch die back, and can
ultimately lead to tree death if left untreated.
Brett Blaauw,
an assistant professor and Extension specialist at the University of
Georgia and Clemson University, shared research on the impact of
pruning peach trees and spraying horticultural oil to suffocate San
Jose scale. He discussed this subject during an insect pest update and
forecast he presented at the recent Southeast Regional Fruit and
Vegetable Conference. The idea is very simple, said Blaauw. More limbs
are removed to allow an increase in the spray penetration of
insecticides.
After pruning, researchers used horticultural oil
to treat scale-infested trees. By removing excess limbs from the peach
trees, researchers were able to apply greater coverage of oil to the
trees, which allowed for more control over the scale.
Blaauw
discussed a study using 400, 200 and 100 gallons of oil per acre
applied at 1.5 percent. The results showed that pre-pruned trees
required 400 to 200 gallons of oil. However, when applying oil to the
post-pruned trees, 100 gallons per acre was found to be sufficient.
Given these results, Blaauw recommended applying oil to the trees after
they have been pruned.
Blaauw went on to discuss a method
growers can use to track the amount of immature San Jose scale on their
trees. He said black electrical tape wrapped around a branch that’s
roughly an inch in diameter, along with double-sided tape wrapped
around the electrical tape, creates a small sticky barrier that can be
used to monitor the scale crawlers.
The immature stage is the
only time that scale are mobile, explained Blaauw. Therefore, by using
this tape trap, growers can determine if the scale is active and track
the abundance of the pest.
Brett Blaauw
is an assistant professor and Extension specialist at the University of
Georgia and Clemson University.
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