Pest Management


SIR on board to adapt DAS


Online systemprovides real-time data to help growers determine what to do and when. By Judie Steeves


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new tool that could help growers avert disasters in their orchards will be tested in B.C. by the Sterile Insect Release program next year, with implementation planned for the following season. In conjunction with the B.C. Tree Fruits Co-op, the B.C. Fruit Growers’ Association and the Summerland Research and Development Centre, the SIR board voted to adapt the Tree Fruit Decision Aid System (DAS) developed by Washington State University, to the needs of B.C. growers.


SIR has received a grant of $90,000 from the provincial Agriculture and Food Climate Action Initiative to help with adaptation of the innovative technical tool to the weather, regulations and pests in B.C., although models have already been built for most of the pests common in local orchards. The DAS is a web-based platform designed to transfer time- sensitive


Vince Jones information on


pest management to orchardists, using real-time, local weather data and scientific pest and disease management information to help in prediction and decision-making for management of pests and diseases.


Entomology professor Vince Jones of WSU is director of the WSU-DAS and says the software will provide complex information to growers in time to treat


for a wide range of orchard insect and disease pests. It is a perfect fit with use of Integrated Pest


Management practices, he noted, and works on web-based systems with either cell phones or tablets as well as computers.


There are 16 models currently available on the system, including 10 insects: apple maggot, campylomma bug, codling moth, Lacanobia fruit worm, oblique-banded


leafroller, oriental fruit moth, Pandemis leafroller, peach twig borer, San Jose Scale, western cherry fruit fly;


The web-based Decision Aid System developed at Washington State University may provide growers in this province with instant information to cope with weather, pest and disease problems.


as well as four diseases: apple scab, cherry powdery mildew, cherry shot hole and fireblight; and storage scald and sunburn browning of apples. He notes that the tool will be especially useful in treating fireblight, for instance, because sprays for it must be applied within 24 hours, and the window for codling moth treatment is also critical. For SIR staff, it will automate much of the information processing for control of codling moth. If growers express interest, it could be possible for SIR staff to include monitoring such new pests as apple clearwing moth and apple maggot. Jones’ team is still working to include other pests and diseases, as well as bloom thinning sprays.


“Poorly-timed management costs money and is ineffective. DAS clarifies treatment timing and improves orchard management overall,” he comments. In Washington State, where the system has been in use for a number of years, he said growers estimate it saves them $185 a hectare and it is in use in 90 per cent of acreage, helping to add up-to-the-minute science for more efficient operation of orchards. He estimates its value at $16 million a


British Columbia FRUIT GROWER • Fall 2016


year and says it has cost around a million dollars to develop since 2007, most of which has come from grants. “It’s a simple user interface with lots of flexibility. Users can view the data by weather station, crop or by pest and disease models,” he explains. He says the rapid growth of cell networks and the maturity of internet technology allows users access to critical information no matter where they are. “It’s an exciting time for both educators and end-users,” he comments. The cost of subscribing to the program until 2020 will be borne by the SIR program for all growers in the valley, while the BCTFC will contribute weather station data, along with Agriculture Canada, and the BCFGA will make its Tree Fruit Production Guide available.


Researchers at the SRDC will provide technical expertise, including climate science, disease modelling and entomological knowledge to the project. “It’s great to see all these


organizations working together on this project, for the benefit of everyone,” commented Melissa Tesche, acting manager for the SIR program. “I hope this collaboration will breed


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