Everyone is breathing a big sigh of relief since our 2020 growing season is finally under wraps. The stress is over for our farm managers, PCAs and laborers, but it turns out that it’s just beginning for our trees.

It’s essential to irrigate your orchards to keep stress levels to a minimum and to allow trees to concentrate on regeneration. Adequately irrigating the trees will ensure that they are ready for next year's growing season. Water stress can also lead to reduced carbohydrate development, which means less energy for the trees to use for flower formation. When this happens, the trees will have fewer flowers the following growing season, which we all know is a problem. That’s not the only issue that dry trees can cause, either.

It’s critical to your trees’ health to irrigate even during the rainy season while trees are dormant. Even though they aren’t producing nuts, all nut bearing trees are working to store energy and root activity continues.

The more you concentrate on irrigation now, the healthier your trees will be going into the harsh winter. Healthier trees will be better prepared to meet the demands of next season’s emergence.

While you are irrigating, I highly recommend that you take a step to protect your trees’ roots with our powerful broad-spectrum fungicide Double Nickel®. Double Nickel attacks diseases with five different modes of action and it’s proven to be highly effective.

Double Nickel is convenient to chemigate in order to protect new roots from being damaged by soilborne fungi before they can impact overall tree health. There is label information for both Double Nickel formulations (LC and WDG) dedicated to good chemigation practices, so application should be easy and convenient.

Even more, it’s compatible with most fertilizers and other products you might want to include as well. This saves time and keeps you from making multiple mixes.

I think it’s clear that I’m a big fan of Double Nickel for its potency, efficacy and ease of use. But even more, it’s one of the many Certis products that are proudly made in California. Because it’s OMRI-Listed®, Double Nickel is also flexible and can be integrated into any kind of operation that you have.

If you really want to make the most of your irrigation, along with Double Nickel, try mixing in MeloCon WG^® as well. MeloCon treatments now can reduce nematode pressure going into next season.

As always, if you have any questions or want me to talk a bit more about the abilities of Double Nickel and MeloCon to maximize the protection power of your post-harvest irrigation, reach out to me at [email protected].  You can also connect with any of our California Certis sales professionals or your local distributor. 

Now, go out and get your watering in for today!