Project Overview

Reports

Commodities

• Nuts: pecans

Target Pests

Practices

• Pest Management: chemical control, decision support system, pesticide resistance management

Pecan scab is the most economically important fungal disease in pecan production in the U.S. The disease is common and chronic and when severe, it can have a significant economic impact due to crop yield reduction and loss in quality. Control of pecan scab heavily relies on fungicides where conducive environmental conditions prevail during the growing season. Multiple times of applications with different fungicides are necessary to protect foliage and developing nuts. Unfortunately, fungicide resistance of pecan scab is becoming a threat to the pecan production in Texas and the southern U.S., where grower’s complaints about scab fungicide resistance have been largely ignored compared to the southeast regions. Pecan growers in the southern U.S. urgently need cadre of disease management consultation to respond to scab fungicide problems. New working group will be developed from this proposal and used to address and target the IPM strategy for management of scab and its fungicide resistance in pecan production in the southern U.S. The IPM strategies developed by the new working group will directly contribute to enhancing agricultural biosecurity of pecan production. The industry will be able to access to updated information that provides the knowledge and infrastructure needed for proper detection of fungicide resistance and subsequent management of this important disease. When development of resistance to certain fungicides became a problem in local pecan orchards, the new working group will be able to begin working about developing customized IPM strategies that can be used to cope with this phenomenon. If the strategies that have been developed prove successful in practice, the working group will make great socioeconomic impact on the pecan production in the southern U.S.

Planned Outputs:

• Identify the working group members.
• Identify commercial orchard producers who intend collaboration in the follow-up projects.
• Establish the preliminary screening protocol for fungicide resistance of pecan scab.
• Establish online delivery platforms to convey information about pecan scab to growers and stakeholders.
• Conduct surveys for Texas pecan industry.

Anticipated Outcomes:

• Coordinate future activities among working group members.
• Coordinate future activities and responsivities among working group members.
• Find federal funding sources to support the follow-up research and extension efforts of the working group.
• Optimize fungicide sensitivity assays suitable for pecan scab fungus against key fungicides.
• Enhance the effectiveness and practicality of the in-vitro assays for fast and reliable screening of fungicide resistance.
• Increase efficiency to disseminate extension and educational materials to the pecan industry.
• Provide research results to regional and national policy makers how to regulate fungicide use in the pecan protection.
• Engage with pecan growers and stakeholders to develop proper fungicide programs for pecan scab.
• Optimize application rates and intervals of proper fungicides in the scab management.
• Exercise the proper fungicide program customized for pathogen populations regarding fungicide resistance development.
• Obtain economic returns in pecan production from adopting new IPM strategies with proper fungicide programs.
• Measure socioeconomic impact of new IPM strategies for management of pecan scab.