04/19/05 Laying the foundation?

04/19/05 Laying the foundation?

This is not only the busiest time of the year for fruit growers and fieldmen, but among the most critical for successful crops. Nate Squires of Northwest Wholesale says these next two weeks back to back sprayings of pest control applications are taking place. And the ability to perform these timings successfully and lay down pest control foundations are the key to controlling pests throughout the year. SQUIRES: These opportunities that come in the next week to two weeks with all the activities that we normally anticipate including thinning sprays and foundations for what we're doing, whether it be stone fruit, apples, pears, these are very important times and very crucial steps in taking care of our process for the following couple of months or season as we go. And while there has been some concern about the spring weather and how it would dictate pest control, Squires says the cooler weather has given growers and fieldmen a window of opportunity to lay control foundations down. And in Squires' opinion, this could be a year where growers and fieldmen are allowed to apply optimum control. SQUIRES: The psylla control that we're seeing at this point, and I can only speak up to this point, seems to be better than it has in the past so we're anticipating that hopefully we'll have better control with pear psylla, especially on pears, because we had some opportunities where things slowed down and we got some nice coverage on what we were doing.
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