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Peach
Year-Round IPM Program
(Reviewed
3/06, updated 3/10)
These practices are recommended for a monitoring-based IPM
program that enhances pest control and reduces environmental
quality problems related to pesticide use.
Water quality becomes impaired when pesticides and sediments
move off-site and into water. Air quality becomes impaired when
volatile organic compounds (VOCs) move into the atmosphere. 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.
This program covers the major pests of peach. Details on carrying out each
practice and information on additional pests can be found in the guidelines.
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.
Dormant/Delayed-dormant season
activities (leaf fall to bud swell) |
| What should you be doing during this period? |
Apply fungicide treatments as needed according
to Peach Pest Management Guidelines:
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Manage orchard floor vegetation:
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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.
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| 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
- Voles
- Pocket gophers
- Stink bugs
- Tree borers
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Bloom season activities (green tip
to petal fall) |
| What should you be doing during this period? |
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Put out pheromone traps for:
- Oriental fruit moth (February 15 in San Joaquin Valley,
February 20 in Sacramento Valley)
- Omnivorous leafroller (San Joaquin Valley—February
20)
- San Jose scale (February 25—San Joaquin and Sacramento
valleys)
Check traps and keep records
(example monitoring/degree-days
form—. |
| 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:
- Peach twig borer
- Fruittree leafroller
- Obliquebanded leafroller
- Katydids
- Western flower thrips
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Monitor for other pests, including:
- Stink bugs
- Plant
bugs
- Known invasive pests (spotted wing drosophila,
light brown apple moth)
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When rainy conditions promote disease, time fungicide
treatment according to Peach Pest Management Guidelines:
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Monitor for diseases:
- Rust
- Monitor twig
cankers beginning late March.
- Treat with fungicide if needed according to Peach Pest Management Guidelines.
- Shot
hole
- Fruiting
structures in leaf lesions as long as weather is
wet.
- Manage if needed according to Peach Pest Management Guidelines.
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Observe the orchard for vertebrates and manage as necessary:
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If orchard floor vegetation present, manage as needed. |
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Other pests you may see:
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Fruit development period activities
(petal fall to harvest) |
| What should you be doing during this period? |
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Put up pheromone traps for:
- Peach twig borer (March 20 in San Joaquin Valley, April
1 in Sacramento Valley)
- Obliquebanded leafroller (April 15 in San Joaquin Valley
and Sacramento Valley)
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Monitor
shoot strikes for damage from oriental fruit moth
and peach twig borer, especially in mating disruption
orchards.
- Keep records (example monitoring
form—.
- Manage if needed according to Peach Pest Management Guidelines.
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If wet weather persists, continue to monitor
for rust:
- Manage if needed according to Peach Pest Management Guidelines.
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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.
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| Make fertilizer
applications at appropriate
intervals. |
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Where ground
covers are present, take sweep samples for pests,
beginning from early April to early June for:
- Plant bugs (Lygus and Calocoris)
- Katydids
- Stink bugs
Manage if needed according to Peach Pest Management Guidelines. |
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Sample fruit
damage every other week after color break. |
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Monitor powdery
mildew
and treat if needed according to
Peach Pest Management Guidelines. |
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If ground cover present:
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Monitor spider mites from May through August:
- For best evaluation, conduct two 5-minute searches
and keep records (example monitoring
form—).
- Manage if needed according to Peach Pest Management Guidelines.
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Select leaf samples in 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.
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| If rain is predicted during the last 4 weeks before harvest,
treat for ripe
fruit rot. |
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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
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| What should you be doing during this period? |
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In early harvest orchards continue to watch for:
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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:
- 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 that reduce pesticide
movement off-site.
- Limit irrigation to amount required
using soil
moisture and evapotranspiration
(ET) monitoring.
- Install an irrigation recirculation
or storage and reuse system.
- Consider the use of cover crops.
- Consider vegetative
filter strips 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 to reduce erosion.
- Consider orchard
floor management practices 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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