NUTRITIONAL DISORDERS: THE MAIN LIMITING FACTOR OF ALMOND PRODUCTION IN KERMAN PROVINCE, IRAN

The Kerman province has 10,000 hectares of almond orchards that are mainly placed on gravel or sandy soils with a coarse texture and low fertility.
Nutritional disorders, low and irregular irrigation, especially in dry and warm months, caused considerable decrease in growth and consequently resulted in an outbreak of the Rosaceae branch borer.
At present, the pest is in outbreak condition in Shahrbabak.
In order to evaluate nutritional condition of orchards and its relation to pest damage a reconnaissance survey has been done and then a 4 hectare orchard was chosen in a IPM program for pest control in Bone-yakeh, a village of Shahrbabak which was the prime locality, and then a good management of fertilization, irrigation and pruning was carried out for a year.
The result showed that cultural operations were effective in controlling the pest population without any pesticide application and the trees had good growth of new branches.
In the orchard with IPM program, the infection and damage were decreased by 50 and 80 percent respectively.
Based on our consideration (questionnaires) in other places, the intensity of pest damage was less in orchards with relatively good management.

IV International Symposium on Pistachios and Almonds

M. Sarcheshmehpour, A. Yazdani

balanced fertilization, pest control, orchard management

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2006.726.46