Resources

Summary

This 7th edition of the NSW Macadamia plant protection guide aims to provide commercial macadamia growers with up-to-date information on all aspects of protecting your orchard from pests and diseases.

Feature articles

In the 5 years since NSW DPI released the Integrated Orchard Management (IOM) series to industry, changes in canopy, orchard floor and drainage management have created more sustainable orchard systems. The benefits in productivity with fewer environmental impacts from having a stage 2 orchard are now being realised. The feature article describes these benefits and what they mean for pest and disease control. Chris Fuller, Kin Kin native bees, describes his experience with drop sheet practices for understanding the pest–beneficial dynamics within an individual tree and the whole orchard. Chris gives practical tips for protocols on how to ‘drop sheet’ and monitor. It is a very efficient way to determine pest numbers within the overall orchard and also within orchard ‘hotspot’ zones. It is especially useful when nuts are not dropped by the pest, which makes it difficult to determine actual pest numbers. Craig Maddox, NSW DPI entomologist, takes us back to 2007 when many blocks at the Centre for Tropical Horticulture were planted. In particular, he looks at how some pests may favour more dense plantings, varietal susceptibility to pests, effects of drought on yields and quality and how industry needs to manage tree height and spray drift as sustainable orchard practices.

Integrated pest and disease management scorecard - 'keep it below 50'

This year we have included a grower challenge! The aim is to end up with the lowest possible IPDM score while also maintaining adequate productivity. We have included an IPDM score for each chemical this year. Read through the example on page 30, fill out the scorecard on page 140 and send your results to Jeremy to be in the challenge.