It’s that time of the year! Pipfruit growers need to start thinking about pheromone trapping and registering your blocks with Apple and Pear NZ, for Codling Moth sensitive markets during August. 

Pipfruit growers should firstly identify any production sites which may have fallen into the high-risk category. It is important to identify those sites now so pheromone dispensers can be pre-ordered through your Fruitfed Supplies representative or store.

All registered high-risk production sites under the Official Assurance Programme (OAP) for codling moth (Cydia pomonella) must be monitored by an accredited Pest Surveyor, so it’s important that pipfruit growers contact our crop monitoring team to register their production site for the season. The trap surveyor will put a plan in place to position traps on the orchard maps within the high-risk production site, input trap information into Fruitfed Supplies Tracit database and send all trap information to Apple and Pear NZ before 1 September. 

The Crop Monitoring Service (CMS) has seen a big jump in growers registering for the Pheromone Trapping Service. CMS can take the pain and pressure away from the growers and take care of trap placement; weekly trap reading; compliance around audits and data capture. Once growers are on board with the service, they realise the benefits quickly. 

Fruitfed CMS has developed a seamless reporting system, utilising a scout field app to capture data in the field and a database (Tracit) which correlates the data. This is then fully automated to disseminate reports to the growers within minutes of the information having been captured in the field. All trap data is then sent to Apple and Pear NZ database without the growers having to re-enter data twice.

If you would like to sign up or have any queries, please don’t hesitate to contact your Crop Monitoring Coordinator or your Fruitfed Supplies Technical Horticultural Representative. Quote packages can be put together for clients.