Enhancement of postbloom fruit drop control measures

Enhancement of postbloom fruit drop control measures

Report Date: 11/27/2016
Project: 16-010C   Year: 2016
Category: Other
Author: Megan Dewdney
Sponsor: Citrus Research and Development Foundation

Sept 2016 The objectives for this proposal are1) Conduct ground and aerial applications of fungicides to determine the efficacy and economics of fungicide treatments; 2) Determine if Luna Sensation has enough systemic activity to protect flowers from before they fully develop and open; 3) Determine if the period flowering of trees affected by huanglongbing can be narrowed to eliminate the offseason bloom that contributes to the PFD inoculum increase in groves. The project officially started March 1st, 2016 but site selection and plot layout was initiated prior to the start of the project because PFD was beginning to affect the blocks we were planning to use. Four trials were initiated. They were in the Ona, Polk City, and Fort Meade areas. Four weekly applications were made in March by air and ground in Ona. Two applications were made in Polk City as that only was predicted to be needed by the PFD-FAD prediction system prior to the flowering period finishing. Three applications were made in Fort Meade where the bloom was more attenuated than Polk City. The button data was collected in April and May and the data from the Fort Meade, Polk City, and Luna trials has been analyzed. The fruit data was collected in June from these trials but not from aerial trial in Ona. The fruit data from Ona was collected in July. All of the data were analyzed from the Fort Meade, Polk City, and Luna trials. In both fungicide trials, all treatments performed better than the untreated control and the best treatments involved strobilurin fungides combined with Ferbam. In the Luna trial, the best treatment was that applied at the pin head stage (P < 0.0001). The sites for the plant growth regulators were selected and laid out in September.


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