Cherry rot risk tool user guide
Overview
Overview
During project CY13001 a tool was developed by the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture which is available to growers on request from March 2017.
This is a preliminary version that has not been widely tested or field validated. As such, it is useful for “situational awareness” of infection risk but not as a reliable indicator of rot infection at this stage.
Developing “situational awareness” is particularly useful for new orchard owners or managers, or when growing in new locations.
This document outlines what is needed to use the tool, how to use the tool and what the outputs mean.
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To obtain a copy of the tool when it is available, please send an email to Dr Karen Barry (Karen.Barry@utas.edu.au) with your name, orchard or business name and contact details. Please use “cherry rot risk tool” in the subject line. Demo data will also be provided to you in order to help learn how to use the tool. |
Cherry rot risk – weather-based tool
User guide
Weather data is needed that includes temperature, relative humidity, rainfall and leaf wetness. This should all be recorded from one weather station or site.
The tool is currently formatted for data collected either from:
• TinyTag loggers (Hastings Data Loggers Pty Ltd.), or
Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture 2017
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• MEA weather stations (as used for the Australian Pome Fruit Improvement Program weather station network, which operate mostly via a MEA Junior weather station http://mea.com.au/soil-plants-climate/weather/weather-stations).
To obtain the most accurate situational awareness of infection-risk, weather data should be collected from as close to the orchard block as possible. Weather stations should be placed outside the spray zone of the crop so that leaf wetness sensors do not record sprays as wetness. Temperature and relative humidity sensors should be placed within a Stevenson Screen or similar. A tipping bucket rain gauge (or similar) and leaf wetness sensor are also required.
The weather-based infection risk tool requires data with 10 minute intervals. Weather data can be input for a whole season with historical data (up to about 20 years), or with selected periods of data.