Ventura County UCCE Staff Research Associate Maren Mochizuki shares with us how monitoring spore traps in avocado orchards can lead to better understanding and management of disease.
An important component of integrated pest management is frequent monitoring to understand which, if any, pests are present and at what time of year. In collaboration with Akif Eskalen a researcher at UC Riverside, Ben Faber, Ventura County UCCE Farm Advisor and Maren Mochizuki, Ventura County UCCE Staff Research Associate are sampling in three avocado orchards in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties using traps that catch spores, reproductive structures for many disease-causing organisms in avocado such as Dothiorella and Phytophthora
The spore traps consist of glass microscope slides suspended at two heights in the avocado tree canopy. Every two weeks, we remove the slide and replace it with a fresh one; researchers at UC Riverside examine and identify the spores under a microscope. We hope to improve our understanding of the life cycles of these spore-producing organisms for more effective disease management.
Young avocado tree killed by Dothiorella canker,
White, powdery exudates from a Dothiorella canker
Healthy green avocado foliage (right) next to the pale, yellow foliage of a tree with Phytophthora root rot