See the recommendations for ACP Dormant Season Sprays in the UF/IFAS Tip of the Week for Florida citrus growers.
UF/IFAS’ Tip of the Week says it’s time to start ACP dormant season sprays, according to the accompanying Citrus Industry article. Written by UF/IFAS CREC assistant professor, Lauren Diepenbrock, the article maintains it’s important to take advantage of pest life cycles because management efforts then have a greater impact on pest populations. See the details below.
ACP Dormant Season Sprays
Diepenbrock wrote in the article that “ACP dormant season sprays take advantage of a largely uniform population of psyllids at this time of year. By targeting the adult population, growers can decrease the mating population before spring flush, reducing the capacity of the population to increase rapidly.”
Then, Diepenbrock shared that growers can use a budbreak phenology model and “target adults at the beginning of each major flush cycle to reduce the reproductive adult population, followed by additional sprays targeted to periods of heavy flush to kill nymphs as they are developing to keep the ACP population down.”
Research has shown that both spray models reduce ACP populations. In the article, Diepenbrock wrote “Dormant sprays are a proven method used across multiple crops around the world to reduce pest pressure prior to spring initiation of plant growth and pest population growth. As such, these sprays are an integral part of an integrated pest management program.”
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