What's HOT in Strawberry Production and Research
(Updated 1 May 2009)
Upcoming
Meetings:
Diazinon uses
cancelled
by Syngenta, but...:
IRED
of July 31, 2002, proposed that
on most crops where use would be continued, applications would be
limited
to one per growing season. A single dormant use is also proposed for
cherry
and pear, limited to every other year (unless pest pressure required
annual
application). Use on apple would be limited to woolly apple
aphid,
once a year. Grape uses would be cancelled. REI in apple,
apricot,
cherry, nectarine, peach, pear, plums would be 4 days; caneberries,
blueberries
and strawberries would be 5 days. Diazinion is highly toxic to
birds.
Granular formulations, the source of most bird mortality, would be
cancelled.
These
proposed
changes have not been adopted into label changes; current labeling will
remain in effect at least until July 31, 2004. May 30, 2003Syngenta
requests cancellations of all uses, effective June 30, 2003.
Syngenta
may not distribute after August 31. Retail supplies may be sold
until
supplies exhausted. However, Makhteshim-Agan intends to
maintain
all allowable uses.
carbaryl
-
EPA announces
Interim
Reregistration Eligibility Decision (IRED -
this pdf exceeds 300p. See also 6-page fact
sheet)
for carbaryl on 10/27/04. On 30
March 2005, National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) requested
that EPA revoke
all tolerances for carbaryl. NRDC's letter
to EPA is posted (html).
EPA's
assessment of human health and environmental risks of carbaryl, and
finding on whether the tolerances for carbaryl comply with the safety
standard in FFDCA section 408, as amended by the FQPA, are contained in
the IRED document for carbaryl, which is available on EPA's website at http://www.epa.gov/edocket, under docket number
OPP-2003-0376. (More information on risk
assessment is available). The e-docket
for this issue has several items listed (NRDC letter, notice of EPA of
public comment period, public input, and an opportunity
to provide input. Public comments
must be received by May 31, 2005.
endosulfan - On 29 Apr 09, EPA announced that it had
received a petition to cancel all used of endosulfan.
Comments must be received on or before 29 Jun 09. Submit your comments
throught
the Federal eRulemaking Portal,
identified by docket identification (ID) number EPA-HQ-OPP-2008-0615.
spinetoram
- A new active ingredient in
the same
class as spinosad (SpinTor, Entrust) has been registered for fruit
crops. Delegate WG
is registered on pome and stone fruits, bushberries, caneberries and
grape. Radiant SC
is the formulation registered on strawberries
Bayer agrees
to Guthion phase-outs: Bayer
has
agreed to reducing fruit crops listed on the Guthion label. There
are 3 categories of label changes: (1) phased-out registrations
(cancelled 8/31/05, not to be used after 12/31/05): nectarine, peach,
and
caneberries. (2) time-limited registrations (cancelled 12/31/05
unless new data justify continuation): apple, blueberry, cherry, and
pear;
(3) cancelled registrations: grape, plum, quince, and
strawberry
(not to be sold after 1 September 2002;
existing
stocks may be used).
See Fruit
Growers News for more information.
More will follow.
For some industry discussion on FQPA
changes and
issues, see Issues section of the CropLife America
web
site.
Public comment period for
azinphosmethyl
and phosmet closes:
On Nov 1, EPA
announced label changes for
azinphosmethyl (Guthion) and phosmet (Imidan). The public comment
period
on these proposed changes ended on January 28, 2002. Proposed
changes include: Azinphosmethyl: 28 uses to be cancelled
(including alfalfa, beans, birdsfoot trefoil, broccoli, cabbage, caneberries
(foliar application only), cauliflower, citrus, celery, clover,
cucumbers,
eggplant, filberts, grapes, melons, nectarines,
nursery stock
(other than quarantine uses), onions, parsley, pecans, peppers, plums
and prunes, potatoes, quince, spinach, strawberries
and
tomatoes ). Seven uses to be phased out over 4 years (almonds, tart
cherries, cotton, cranberries, peaches, pistachios, and
walnuts),
and eight crop uses will be allowed to continue with "time-limited"
registration for another four years (apples / crab
apples,
blueberries, sweet cherries, pears, pine seed orchards, brussel
sprouts,
cane
berries (application to canes and soil only), and the use of
azinphos-methyl
by nurseries for quarantine requirements). There are proposed
further
mitigation procedures to minimize exposure, such increasing REI to 14
days
for all activities, 7-day application intervals, and the use of closed
systems. Phosmet: three uses to be voluntarily cancelled
(domestic
pets, household ornamentals, and household fruit trees),
nine crops are being authorized for use under specific terms for five
years
(apples, apricots, blueberries, crab apples, grapes,
nectarines,
peaches, pears and plums/dried plums), and 33 crops are
being
approved for continued use. The preharvest interval will increase from
24 hours to 3 days. More information will be posted here when
available.
See the EPA Office of Pesticide
Programs
web site for azinphos methyl fact
sheets and more information. (This site includes the Interim
Reregistration
Eligibility Decision, detailing the studies on azinphosmethyl and its
impacts.)
See EPA's Web site at
www.epa.gov/pesticides
or Fruit Growers News for more
information
2009 Revisions to Pest Management
Guide for
Commercial
Small Fruits:
The revised Pest
Management Guide for Commercial
Small
Fruits now available. The Pest
Management
Guide is available
on-line
for free. Hard copies are also
available for $6.00 plus $5.27 shipping. Call 540-231-1322).
Tables of recommendationsfor
commercial strawberries are also available in the fruit web page.
2009 Revisions to Home Fruit Spray
Guide:
The revised Pest
Management Guide for Home Small
Fruits
is now available. (The Pest
Management
Guide is available
on-line
for free. Hard copies are also
available for $5.00 plus $5.27 shipping. Call 540-231-1322).
Recommendations for home
strawberries are also available in the web page.
New! A
new active ingredient has been labeled on fruit crops. See
rynaxypyr, or Altacor, listed below under pesticide registrations
New!
The
College of Agriculture and Life Science at Virginia Tech has
established a new on-line Master's in Agriculture
and Life Sciences. This curriculum has been
approved by the State Council of Higher Education and is now accepting
applications for Fall semester 2007. In this program, you can
earn
a
master's degree in agriculture while working in your current job -
emphasis is on education for place-bound learners, and all courses are
taken on-line. In addition to a core area, there are courses
offered in five areas of concentration: (1) Biosecurity,
Bioregulations and Public Health, (2) Education, (3) Environmental
Science, (4) Food Safety, and (5) Plant Science and Pest
Management. In addition to course work, the student completes a
project decided upon in consultation with your major advisor.
Lists
of courses within each concentration may be found in the web site
linked above. This program was recently the subject of an interview
by Jeff Ishee with Virginia Public Televsion's Virginia
Farming. For
more information, contact Doug Pfeiffer (dgpfeiff at vt.edu) or Sharon Proffitt (sproffit at vt.edu) (see
2008-2009 Extended Campus tuition
rates).
New edition! Mid-Atlantic
Berry Guide
- Produced by Penn State, Rutgers Univ., Univ. Delaware, West Virginia
Univ., Univ.
Maryland and Virginia Tech. Order through Penn State for $18.00.
Pesticides in the news:
Response
to Consumers Union Study, "Do You
Know
What You're Eating?"
The current issue (March
1999) of Consumer Reports
contains a brief account of the recent study performed by Consumers
Union.
Although this article ("How Safe is our Produce?") probably will be
much
more visible to the public than the full accounts, it is really
impossible
to assess much about it because of its brevity. The claims of the short
version are that current laws do not protect children from consuming
dangerous
amounts of pesticides, that such consumption is fairly common, and that
one pesticide in particular, methyl parathion, is a major contributor
to
the problem of residues danger. The shortcomings are not readily
apparent
until the full account, entitled "Do You Know What You're Eating?" is
examined.
For a fuller account of this article, and a response, click here.
Other stories deal recently from the Consumer
Reports
issue: (Fruit
Growers News link). On Thursday, Feb. 25, the U.S. Apple Assoc.
held
a press
conference to address this issue. This release followed a statement
by the Environmental
Working Group that maintained that children are at risk from eating
apples and peaches, and recommended parental choices away from these
fruits.
The Apple Association response provides a more balanced treatment of
this
emotional issue.
This is the latest is a series of
developments
relating
to pesticides, starting with FQPA (see below). There have been two
documents
recently from Consumers Union, Worst First (
html and PDF)
and Do You Know What You're Eating? (html
and PDF)
(PDF
files require Adobe Acrobat to download). A basic premise of Worst
First
is that the most hazardous uses are already declining and alternatives
to these materials are already available or nearly so (therefore there
should be no opposition to loss of these materials through FQPA). The
report
contains many oversimplifications however, and alternatives are
actually
not as ready as portrayed.
One area of risk that has been
attributed to
certain
pesticides is estrogen
disruption. This has been one cateogry to have been addressed by
FQPA.
However, an early report of this effect, published in the journal
Science,
has
been retracted. How this retraction affects the public debate is
yet
to be seen. The "risk" is still claimed in discussions on the web and
elsewhere.
A series of pesticide profiles are
currently
under
development for Virginia apples.
Back to Small
Fruit page
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Regional Fruit Loop
Send comments by e-mail to: Douglas
G. Pfeiffer