Anaerobic Soil Disinfestation Could be Used in Almond Orchards Soon

Anaerobic Soil Disinfestation Could be Used in Almond Orchards Soon

Patrick Cavanaugh
Patrick Cavanaugh
Anaerobic soil disinfestation, known as ASD is a good way to kill soil born pathogens in almond orchards before planting. It’s a possible alternative if soil fumigants are not an option, said Natalie Ott a Biological Sciences Technician with USDA ARS, based UC Davis.

It is quite different than typical fumigation, which has been used for decades in California. We asked Ott if she thought ASD would become reality soon.

I think it's very possible that we will come up with recommendations and we'll be able to say under these circumstances ASD would make sense under these circumstances. Fumigation would make sense and under these circumstances it might make sense just to add the substrate to help ASD work better, so that's really where we are headed. That's the goal.

We asked Ott if she's mainly working on Almonds or could it be used in all tree nuts? “We are focused mainly almonds with ASD,” she said. But she did say other UC farm advisors may be putting in a walnut trial soon with ASD.

In More news, Almond Hull rot can be a problem in orchards and it’s often linked to frontloading nitrogen fertilizers which causes a lush canopy and increasing humidity and disease

Researchers say its best to move back to a fertilizer strategy of feeding the tree when it is hungry, not frontloading, or reducing nitrogen at the end. Growers can generate a tree that has that balance which has that natural resilience and resistance to hull rot.

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