Crop Care

Care of an orchard and its crop begins from the soil up. Walnut trees have a long productive life and therefore require good soil nutrition and irrigation practices. Continual improvements to soil fertility are focused on along with close attention to irrigation requirements of the trees. Thankfully, Australia currently does not have many of the pests and diseases that affect walnut production in other countries and as a result, minimal chemical spraying is required. Diseases such as Orange Navel Worm, Husk Fly and Cherry Leaf Roll Virus are not present in Australia, but in some other countries, walnuts play host to these pests and diseases.

The main disease pressure in Australia for walnuts is Walnut Blight. This is a bacterial disease and is controlled with timely applications of fungicides in the spring time. Being a bacterial disease it can not be eliminated; it must be managed. Walnuts Australia has done a lot of research work over many years into the best way to control Walnut Blight and has developed a predictive model for prevention of the disease. This method attempts to reduce the amount of fungicide applied and yet provide adequate disease control.

Close attention to manual pruning in winter and tree training during the growing seasons in the first 4 years of the life of an orchard is critical to achieving important early yields.

Soil and leaf tests are performed regularly and any aberrations in nutrient levels are corrected appropriately.