11/8/06 Dealing with the Guthion Ban

Dealing with the Guthion Ban. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. For the last several days we've been talking with Jim McPherson of the Washington State Tree Fruit Research Commission. With harvest wrapping up, one of the hot issues is the ban of Guthion. MCPHERSON: Our industry is going to be asked to phase out the use of Guthion, a major organo-phosphate chemical in the next 4 years perhaps. So we're losing what has been a standby chemical and we've got to figure how to manage our way out of that. Guthion has long been an effective tool for producers but what about the alternatives. MCPHERSON: For alternative to Guthion, yes, there are alternatives and that's what we've documented. Our research commission has sponsored that research along with other agencies for decades. Luckily, now we have the information we can put into place. Is it going to be cheaper? No, it's going to be a lot more expensive. Easier? No, a lot more management required. Do we have the tools? Yup, but not all our producers are equally well trained or aware of those tools and how to apply them. McPherson says there is a lot of education to be done. MCPHERSON: That's a, oof, several hundreds of thousands, over a million bucks program that in cooperation with Northwest Horticultural Council led by Washington Horticultural Association. We're going to be looking at securing funds for, really it's an extension and an outreach and tech transfer process. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.