Neonectria rot - disease monitoring

The risk of Neonectria fruit rot in store can be estimated pre-harvest based on:

• The incidence of cankered trees in the orchard
• The rot history taken from packhouse records
• The rainfall between blossom and harvest.

Inspect orchards in spring for cankered trees and estimate the % cankered trees.

• In orchards with more than 5% of trees with canker, where long term storage of the fruit is planned, apply fungicide sprays for control of Neonectria fruit rot during blossom and at petal fall.
• Monitor rainfall from blossom to harvest
• Decisions on the need for early marketing of fruit can be made as follows:

Guidelines for decisions based on orchard canker risk