New Almond Disease Can Be Devastating
January 28, 2014 Almond growers, particularly those who farm the Fritz variety, should be on the lookout for a new disease found in California for the first time this past season.
Roger Duncan, a University of California Cooperative Extension pomology farm advisor for Stanislaus County, reports that bacterial spot can be devastating, but there is a lot that is yet to be learned. “Although we will be implementing some field trials this year,” Duncan writes on the “The Almond Doctor,” a UCCE blog, “all of the information we currently have on control is from Australia where this disease has eliminated the Fritz variety in that country.”
So far the disease has only been found in two “hot spots,” said Duncan. The most severely affected area was between Highway 120 and the Stanislaus River in the Manteca/Ripon/Escalon area. The second area was south of Turlock in the Delhi/Ballico area.
Duncan recently posted instructions for how to manage the disease on The Almond Doctor.
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