02/22/07 Organophosphate Alternativves

Organophosphate Alternatives. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. A big issue for the coming fruit season is what pesticides will be used in the orchard. New legislation has been introduced that would require producers to report what pesticides they are using, where and when. And there are a number of current pesticides under review. WSU's Jay Brunner. BRUNNER: Basically we're using 4 insecticides and the dominant use was with Guthion and Lorsban. Brunner says there has been a decline in the amount of product used over the last several years. BRUNNER: And a lot of this decline was due to regulatory constraint but also was associated with a changed practice that the industry adopted because of the codling moth area wide project and research that was conducted and the adoption of pheromones as an alternative tactic especially for codling moth to reduce the use of organophosphates. Being proactive according to Brunner will help producers in the long run. BRUNNER: If we can find alternatives for these as the regulatory pressure becomes greater on these products we can understand how to proactively move in changing our practices over time so that once withdrawal occurs we understand how to use these products and we aren't in a panic. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.