Nectarine: Year-Round IPM Program

Year-Round IPM Program

(Reviewed 6/10, updated 6/10)

These practices are recommended for a monitoring-based IPM program that reduces water quality problems related to pesticide use. Links take you to information on how to monitor, forms to use, and management practices. Track your progress through the year with the annual checklist form. This program covers the major pests of nectarines; information on additional pests is included in the Nectarine Pest Management Guideline.

Water quality becomes impaired when pesticides move off-site and into water. Each time a pesticide application is considered, review the Pesticide Application Checklist at the bottom of this page for information on how to minimize water quality problems.

Dormant/Delayed-dormant season (leaf fall to bud swell)

What should you be doing during this period?

Apply fungicide treatments** as needed according to Nectarine Pest Management Guidelines:

Manage orchard floor vegetation:

Survey weeds and keep records(example weed survey form—PDF).
Manage weeds in rows with pre- or postemergent herbicides or nonchemically in organic orchards.
Mow any resident vegetation very close to ground.

Make an oil treatment for scales and European red and brown mite eggs.

If you saw increasing damage from scales last year, take a dormant shoot sample to see if an insect growth regulator should be added to the oil treatment.

Treat peach twig borer and obliquebanded leafroller with environmentally sound material or delay treatment until bloom.

Other pests you may see:

Fruittree leafroller egg masses
Armillaria root rot

Voles
Pocket gophers
Stink bugs
Tree borers

Bloom season (green tip to petal fall)

What should you be doing during this period?

Put out pheromone traps for:

Oriental fruit moth (February 15)
Omnivorous leafroller (February 20)
San Jose scale (February 25)

Check traps and keep records (example monitoring/degree-days form—PDF).

If using mating disruption for oriental fruit moth, place dispensers in orchard after first moth is caught but no later than March 5.

Examine flower clusters and leaves for:

Western flower thrips
Katydids
Peach twig borer
Fruittree leafroller
Obliquebanded leafroller

Monitor for other pests, including stink bugs and plant bugs, as well as known invasive pests (spotted wing drosophila, light brown apple moth).

When rainy conditions promote disease, time fungicide treatment according to Nectarine Pest Management Guidelines:

Brown rot at 20 to 40% bloom and full bloom.
Jacket rot treatment at full bloom.
Powdery mildew treatment at petal fall.
Scab, if orchard has a history of this disease.

Monitor for diseases:

Rust
- Monitor twig cankers beginning late March.
- Treat with fungicide if needed according to Nectarine Pest Management Guidelines.

Shot hole
- Fruiting structures in leaf lesions as long as weather is wet.

Manage if needed according to Nectarine Pest Management Guidelines.

Observe the orchard for vertebrates and manage as necessary:

Other pests you may see:

Fruit development period (petal fall to harvest)

What should you be doing during this period?

Put up pheromone traps for:

Peach twig borer (March 20)
Obliquebanded leafroller (April 15)

Continue to monitor for western flower thrips through jacket drop.

Monitor shoot strikes for damage from oriental fruit moth and peach twig borer.

Keep records (example monitoring form—PDF).
Manage if needed according to Nectarine Pest Management Guidelines.

If wet weather persists, continue to monitor for rust:

Manage if needed according to Nectarine Pest Management Guidelines.

If orchard has a history of scab:

Treat 3 weeks after full bloom.
Treat again 2 weeks later if scab was severe the previous year.

Take sweep samples in orchards and adjacent crops and weedy areas, beginning from early April to early June for:

Plant bugs (Lygus and Calocoris).
Katydids
Stink bugs

Manage if needed according to Nectarine Pest Management Guidelines.

Sample fruit damage every other week after color break.

Monitor powdery mildew and treat if needed according to Nectarine Pest Management Guidelines.

Manage orchard floor:

Survey weeds and keep records (example late-spring weed survey form—PDF).
Spot treat weeds if needed according to Nectarine Pest Management Guidelines.

Monitor spider mites from late April through August:

For best evaluation, conduct two 5-minute searches and keep records (example monitoring form—PDF).
Manage if needed according to Nectarine Pest Management Guidelines.

Select leaf samples in late June through July to analyze for nutrients. Pay particular attention to nitrogen, potassium, and some of the micronutrients such as zinc and boron.

Take 60 to 80 mid-shoot leaves from moderately vigorous fruiting shoots.

If rain is predicted during the last 4 weeks before harvest, treat for ripe fruit rot.

Other pests you may see:

Armillaria root rot
Bacterial canker
Phytophthora root and crown rot
Peach silver mite

Black peach aphid
Scab
Verticillium wilt
Tree borers

Harvest

What should you be doing during this period?

Monitor for ripe fruit rot and treat if rain is predicted.

Take a harvest sample to determine pest damage.

Postharvest

What should you be doing during this period?

In early harvest orchards continue to watch for:

Shoot strikes to determine if oriental fruit moth populations are building.
Webspinning spider mites

Remove fruit remaining in trees to reduce brown rot inoculum and prevent shoot death.

If surface water runoff is an issue, particularly near waterways, consider the use of cover crops or resident vegetation.

**Pesticide application checklist

When planning for possible pesticide applications in an IPM program, review and complete this checklist to consider practices that minimize environmental and efficacy problems.

Choose a pesticide from the UC IPM Pest Management Guidelines for the target pest considering:
- Impact on natural enemies and honeybees.
- Potential for water quality problems using the UC IPM WaterTox database.
- Impact on aquatic invertebrates (PDF)
- Chemical mode of action (based on efficacy, spectrum of activity, and pesticide resistance). Select an alternative chemical or nonchemical treatment when resistance risk is high.
Before an application:
- Choose application procedures that keep pesticides on target.
- Identify and take special care to protect sensitive areas (for example, waterways or riparian areas) surrounding your application site.
- Review and follow label for pesticide handling, storage, and disposal guidelines.
- Check and follow restricted entry intervals (REI) and preharvest intervals (PHI).
After an application:
- Record application date, product used, rate, and location of application.
- Follow up to confirm that treatment was effective.
Consider water management practices (PDF) that reduce pesticide movement off-site.
- Limit irrigation to amount required using soil moisture (1.6 MB, PDF) and evapotranspiration (ET) monitoring.
- Install an irrigation recirculation or storage and reuse system.
- Consider the use of cover crops.
- Consider vegetative filter strips (PDF) or ditches.
- Install sediment traps.
- Use polyacrylamide (PAM) tablets in furrow irrigation or sprinkler irrigation systems to improve soil infiltration and prevent off-site movement of sediments.
- Redesign inlets and outlets into tailwater ditches (PDF) to reduce erosion.
Consider orchard floor management practices (PDF) that improve soil structure and reduce erosion.
Consider practices that reduce air quality problems.

When possible, choose pesticides that are not in an emulsifiable concentrate (EC) formulation, which release volatile organic compounds (VOCs); this is especially important from May to October. VOCs react with sunlight to form ozone, a major air pollutant.

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