Preparing for the Worst

Preparing for the Worst. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

For a long time dealing with pests and disease has been a reactive business. Ag producers would plant a crop and wait to see what malady might appear and then deal with it. That’s not the case anymore. Oregon recently issued an emergency quarantine against vine mealy bug in grapes even though they don’t have an issue.

SKINKIS: That’s the biggest concern at this point is that the mealy bug is being physically moved by either equipment, people, fruit that’s moving so the new emergency quarantine was specifically targeted at making sure that harvested fruit would be coming from areas that had verified vine mealy bug infestations.

Dr. Patty Skinkis Assistant Professor & Viticulture Extension Specialist with Oregon State University’s Department of Horticulture says that California is a big problem area while other states in the northwest are suspect.

SKINKIS: They believe that the vine mealy bug is in Washington but I don’t know of the specific numbers or the intensity but the case is that Washington is in the same – trying to figure out how much of the vine mealy bug is out there. We do know that mealy bug is in Washington, Idaho and Oregon; it just depends on what species.

Being proactive with a pest like mealy bug can also help keep out other diseases like leaf roll that the bugs can carry.

SKINKIS: Vine mealy bugs and some other mealy bugs are vectors for it so it can move it around and we do know that there are vineyards in the state that have leafroll but we believe that most of that is because of unclean plant materials

That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.