Producer
Kiyokawa Family Orchards
City: Parkdale, OR,
Website: https://kiyokawafamilyorchards.com/
Practices
Our early season pest and disease control program starts when the trees are just coming out of dormancy in March. We use a preventive oil and sulfur or lime-sulfur on all our fruit trees. This spray inhibits egg laying as well as smothers eggs that have been laid. The adult insects such as aphids, scale and mites are also affected to some degree. This sulfur spray is also good to control apple and pear scab and other diseases.
As the bud swells, we start our weekly monitoring of the orchard for insects and record and monitor weather conditions for any disease’s infection periods. A formulation of copper and oils is commonly used just before bloom to reduce fire blight, cankers, pseudomonas, and other diseases.
All our oils we use throughout the season are OMRI approved for Organic Certification.
For the summer insect and disease program our first option is always to allow the natural predators such as lady bugs, lace wing, birds, ear wigs and praying mantises, to do their job.
If we feel the target insect is not being controlled, then our next option is to use a “Soft” pesticide to reduce the population. A “soft” pesticide is one that will not harm the beneficial insets and many times only controls the targeted pest at its most vulnerable stages, when it is going from an egg to a nymph and while in the nymph stage.
We use pheromones, insect traps and even solar powered bug “Zappers” that targets moths at night to help us in reducing the need for harsh pesticides.
As the fruit develops and we move closer to harvest, we are much less critical of having the “perfect” appearing fruit since it is more important for us not to have any residual pesticide residue on our fruits.
As the bud swells, we start our weekly monitoring of the orchard for insects and record and monitor weather conditions for any disease’s infection periods. A formulation of copper and oils is commonly used just before bloom to reduce fire blight, cankers, pseudomonas, and other diseases.
All our oils we use throughout the season are OMRI approved for Organic Certification.
For the summer insect and disease program our first option is always to allow the natural predators such as lady bugs, lace wing, birds, ear wigs and praying mantises, to do their job.
If we feel the target insect is not being controlled, then our next option is to use a “Soft” pesticide to reduce the population. A “soft” pesticide is one that will not harm the beneficial insets and many times only controls the targeted pest at its most vulnerable stages, when it is going from an egg to a nymph and while in the nymph stage.
We use pheromones, insect traps and even solar powered bug “Zappers” that targets moths at night to help us in reducing the need for harsh pesticides.
As the fruit develops and we move closer to harvest, we are much less critical of having the “perfect” appearing fruit since it is more important for us not to have any residual pesticide residue on our fruits.