Clean herbicide strips and tightly mown alleys may make orchards look smart but they are a retrograde step for the effective control of pear sucker. That is already apparent from the first year of a three-year trial on a North Kent farm where sucker has become a major, expensive problem. Arguably even more important, stresses FAST fruit consultant Chris Levett who is running the trial, is that insecticide spray treatments to control the pest are contrary to this objective, with one exception. That is Envidor (spirodiclofen) which, apart from killing the sucker eggs and initial larval stage, has the big added advantage of being predator-safe.
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