Sean Moore & Wayne Kirkman
Citrus Research International
E-mail: seanmoore@cri.co.za
Orchard sanitation is the regular removal and destruction of all fallen fruit and all hanging fruit, which is infested, damaged or decaying. Regular orchard sanitation has three major benefits, in assisting to control false codling moth (FCM), fruit flies and fungal pathogens. Orchard sanitation should be initiated early in November and continued until harvest. Thereafter, all out-of-season fruit should also be removed from the orchard.
Weekly orchard sanitation was shown to remove an average of 75% of FCM larvae infesting fruit from December to June. Regular sanitation could save between 24 and 60 fruit per tree from FCM infestation. Without a foundation of good orchard sanitation, the efficacy of all treatments directed against FCM will be severely compromised. In addition, orchard sanitation can assist in controlling the coffee bean weevil, green and blue mould, sour rot and Alternaria.