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ARE ‘MAY SPRAYS’ A<br />
LOW-HANGING FRUIT<br />
TO CUT ALMOND COSTS<br />
IN <strong>2021</strong>?<br />
By DAVID HAVILAND | UCCE Entomology Farm<br />
Advisor, Kern County<br />
and JHALENDRA RIJAL | UCCE & Statewide<br />
IPM Program<br />
Cost-wary growers who plan to make one spray for navel orangeworm should<br />
apply it at the beginning of hullsplit (all photos courtesy D. Haviland.)<br />
S<br />
Take advantage of the<br />
investment tax credit extension,<br />
now at 26% through 2022.<br />
209.668.5303<br />
JKBENERGY.COM<br />
L AR<br />
TAX CREDITS<br />
<strong>2021</strong>/2022<br />
2023<br />
2024 +<br />
Safe<br />
Harbor<br />
10%<br />
22%<br />
26%<br />
For almond growers looking to<br />
cut costs in <strong>2021</strong>, ‘May sprays’<br />
present an opportunity that may<br />
be hard to pass up. May sprays, which<br />
are typically applied in either <strong>April</strong> or<br />
May, can have many purposes related<br />
to the management of peach twig borer<br />
(PTB), navel orangeworm (NOW),<br />
leaffooted bug and spider mites. However,<br />
problems with PTB these days are<br />
minimal compared to what they used<br />
to be, insecticide sprays for NOW are<br />
more effective at hullsplit, the need to<br />
treat for leaffooted bug is the exception<br />
and not the rule, and recent advances<br />
in biocontrol have made the need for<br />
preventative miticide sprays obsolete.<br />
Most growers and PCAs who monitor<br />
for each of these pests and make decisions<br />
based on principles of integrated<br />
pest management will find that the May<br />
spray can be skipped altogether in most<br />
orchards.<br />
Peach Twig Borer<br />
The term ‘May spray’ was originally<br />
coined to control PTB if growers<br />
did not have the opportunity to do<br />
so during the dormant season and/or<br />
bloom. However, despite its historical<br />
16 <strong>West</strong> <strong>Coast</strong> <strong>Nut</strong> <strong>April</strong> <strong>2021</strong>
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