Zespri provides global Psa update - FreshFruitPortal.com

Zespri provides global Psa update

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Zespri provides global Psa update

New Zealand kiwifruit company Zespri has recently provided a video briefing on how partner growers in the Northern Hemisphere are handling vine disease Psa, with circumstances in Japan and France raising the most concern. shutterstock_94877275 kiwifruit panorama

Zespri Orchard Productivity Center manager for global supply, Shane Max, said the virulent strain of Psa - known as 'Psa-V' in New Zealand and 'Psa-3' in Japan - arrived in the East Asian country last year, with authorities believing the incursion most likely came through imported pollen.

"Last year the eradication program that they ran saw the removal of about 20 or 30 orchards," he said, emphasizing most Japanese orchards were isolated and small, prompting hopes the disease could be eliminated.

"But unfortunately that didn’t result and we’re getting more reports this year of new orchards getting infected."

He said the Japanese government offered a compensation package to growers of more Psa-susceptible varieties like Hort16A and Rainbow Red, but it's difficult to know the full extent of the situation.

"We understand that a lot of growers aren't keen to report symptoms in their orchard for fear they will have to remove their orchard, so we're not very clear at all about what's going on in Japan at the moment.

He said the relationship was closer with growers in South Korea, where Psa arrived on the island of Jeju last year; a region where Zespri Hort16A kiwifruit are grown.

Max said a "small number" of orchards on the island showed a range of symptoms, right from cankers through to a little bit of leaf spot.

"This year it seems to be much more widespread," he said, adding that a mobile phone text survey showed around half of the growers were reporting some sign of infection.

"We’ve also seen quite a bit of flower infection there as well which is something we haven't typically seen in the years to date."

Covered trials and Psa management in Europe

Max said the Psa situation in France was "not a pretty story", with Hayward growers seeing one of the worst seasons so far since the disease arrived in the country.

"They've seen a lot of trunking, something they've never observed before and it's quite worrying for them as to why that's occurred," he said.

"One of the small growing districts in the southeast of France, the government’s actually intervened and is requiring badly affected orchards to be completely removed.

"The Gold3 in France is performing well, certainly not quite as well as Italy, but growers are reporting a little bit of Psa infection - both in the older vines and the younger vines - but nothing too worrying at this stage."

He said in Italy most growers seemed to be living with Psa now, just cutting it out and pruning it.

"Italy's faring pretty well – certainly the colder regions and some colder orchards within some of the major growing regions are seeing some cankers in Hayward, but generally the industry doesn’t seem too fazed with how things have gone," Max said.

"With our Gold3 over there, certainly most of the orchards are showing no symptoms whatsoever, and then the occasional orchard is showing a little bit, but typically that’s a little bit of dieback and cankers, usually associated with males."

Max said that in both countries the company was seeing positive results in its covered orchards.

"We have a cover trial block in France like we do in Italy with young Gold3 underneath it; certainly in the covered block it’s growing very well, better than it is growing in the uncovered block, but virtually no Psa at all of any significance.

"In the same orchard where the Gold3 is covered there are Hayward blocks and they are showing some infection; again, trunk cankers. An interesting observation there, where not quite sure how to make sense of all that.

"The covered blocks everywhere [in Italy] are performing very well," he said, pointing to one block that had a little bit of Psa but emphasizing it was of no consequence and the plot was at full production.

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