increase font size
Psa has surprisingly been less active so far this spring.
Despite the wet weather, kiwifruit vine killing bacteria Psa has surprisingly been less active so far this spring.
Kiwifruit Vine Health (KVH) chief executive Barry O’Neil says while they have seen some Psa it certainly isn’t at the levels of previous years in most orchards.
“Obviously there are some exceptions and we have visited some properties where Psa is showing quite significant presence,” he says.
“But in general we are seeing less than last year and to some extent that’s a surprise because we would have expected the wet spring to support Psa disease symptoms.
“We are wondering whether the mild winter, when we had less frosts, may have resulted in less disease.”
The frost seems to cause damage to the plant, he says. Sometimes a hard frost will crack the vine and Psa takes advantage of the damage.
“That is one possibility,” he says. “The other possibility is that as growers we are becoming much better at managing Psa so it has become more routine for growers to do the right thing in their management of Psa, whether it’s the spray protection being used, how they manage their vines, etc.
“All in all I think at this stage it is a good-news story.
“In previous years we have seen that, after Labour Weekend, if we had a storm we have often seen significant leaf spotting in the green varieties and that sometimes results in flower infection.
“So it is still early days in what could happen this spring and we obviously still want growers to be active with their management of Psa
risk.”
The properties where Psa is showing significant presence are often those more “challenged”.
“It could be very low lying areas, it could be wetter areas; so the properties where it has been bad are where we have seen significant Psa in previous years.”
As we move into the late-summer and autumn period, much of the country’s fruit growing regions are entering operationally critical windows of the horticultural calendar. The question on grower’s minds is ‘what is the outlook for the March-April harvest?’
Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) Director General Ray Smith is giving a big shout-out to the horticulture sector, especially kiwifruit.
OPINION: At the end of my first year as chair of the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), I have been reflecting on the progress made in the time I have been in the role.
Allan Freeth, chief executive of the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) has announced he is resigning.
A partnership between Canterbury milk processor Synlait and the world's largest food producer, Nestlé, has been celebrated with a visit to a North Canterbury farm by a group including senior staff from Synlait, the Ravensdown subsidiary EcoPond, and Nestlé's Switzerland head office.
Canterbury milk processor Synlait is blaming what it calls "a perfect storm" of setbacks for a big loss in its half year result for the six months ended January 31, 2026.
More of the same please, says Federated Farmers dairy chair Karl Dean when asked about who should succeed Miles Hurrell as Fonterra chief executive.
A Waikato farmer who set up a 'tinder' for cows - using artificial intelligence to find the perfect bull for each cow - days the first-year results are better than expected.
Fonterra says it's keeping an eye on the Middle East crisis and its implications for global supply chains.
The closure of the McCain processing plant and the recent announcement of 300 job losses at Wattie’s underscore the mounting pressure facing New Zealand’s manufacturing sector, Buy NZ Made says.
OPINION: If you ask this old mutt, the choice at the next election isn't shaping up as a contest of…
OPINION: A mate of yours says we're long overdue for a reckoning on what value farmers really get for the…
