2011 Export Training Workshop Schedule

At the start of each summer I am asked to present training workshops to a variety of Washington tree fruit industry personnel to fulfill various export work plan requirements. The first of the workshops are for stone fruit quality control cutters at packing facilities. In addition to needing preregistration in the export programs, any facility wishing to ship stone fruit (primarily apricots and peaches) to Mexico or B.C., Canada must have 2 certified cull fruit cutters trained annually. The training teaches participants how to identify the target pest, Oriental Fruit Moth (OFM) and to perform the required cull fruit screening/cutting for this pest using the required forms. This training is now scheduled for May 26 (Yakima) & May 27 (Wenatchee). For more information visit my Cullage Education web site.

The second set of training workshops is for growers/field managers/field scouts, etc. that must perform monitoring and sampling for codling moth (CM) in apples destined for export to Taiwan. This workshop covers the life history and identification of CM, how to perform the required field and/or bin sampling of fruit and the correct use of the official forms. Often the workshops also include participation by WSDA inspectors to perform the required training of packing house cull fruit cutters. People wishing to perform the field/bin sampling must training at least every other year. WSDA recommends that cull cutters be retrained annually. This year's CM/Taiwan workshops are currently being scheduled. Please check the web site listed above for details on the training and updates on the schedule.

Update: The Taiwan training schedule is now up.  Please visit our training schedule page for more information.

AZM limits reduced to 1.5 lb AI

This is the 4th year of the EPA phase-out of AZM (Guthion). Starting this year apple growers are limited to 1.5 lbs AI per acre. This reduction limits growers to only one application of a high labeled rate for the year. And next year will be the final year (same rate) of its use. So, if you've been putting off the inevitable, it is time to adopt OP-alternative insecticides into your pest management program.

The Pest Management Transition Program website is a good source of information on alternatives to AZM. Check out our handbook at: pmtp.wsu.edu/handbook.html

Welcome to the New and Improved PMTP Blog!

The PMTP Blog is now back online! We hope to use this new blog to present the material we formerly reserved for our newsletters. By posting here, we hope to keep our followers apprised of all recent news and events in a much timelier fashion. The material from our past newsletters is still available on our Newsletter Archive located on the PMTP website.

Our old PMTP blog is still online and can be accessed at: pmtp.wordpress.com.

We hope you enjoy our new blog!