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Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Pecan nut casebearer update

     Three times a week we scout our native pecan grove for signs of pecan nut casebearer feeding. As of Wednesday, May 23rd we have found almost every terminal bearing nuts but only 1 damaged nut. The cool evening temperatures we've experienced over the last three days have slowed both nut development and insect activity way down. However, the weatherman is predicting much warmer temps for the second half of the week. That means we should see increased casebearer activity by the weekend.
    This year's crop load is very heavy (photo at left) so we will not be spraying our grove for casebearer this year.  Instead we will be concentrating our pesticide dollars on scab control.  The weather has been unseasonably dry lately so current scab pressure remains low. However, when we do get a change in the weather, we'll be ready to spray our trees with a fungicide.