23 March 2011
Last month’s Cyclone Yasi severely disrupted banana production in North Queensland. Even growers who aggressively pruned their banana trees to protect them have suffered differing degrees of damage, depending on
their location.
In the worst affected areas, banana trees have had to be re-established and consequently the normal spraying times for crop protection products have been delayed.
On behalf of the crop protection industry, CropLife Australia annually reviews and provides resistance management strategies for a range of products on a variety of crops, including bananas. The purpose of these strategies is to delay the development of diseases that are resistant to the products and thereby extend the life of these vital farming tools.
The current resistance management strategy for the application of Group 11 fungicides in bananas recommends that growers do not apply Group 11 sprays from the start of May until the end of September. Due to the disrupted growing season in 2011, CropLife has modified the Banana Resistance Management Strategy (Tropics) to allow banana growers to use these fungicides during the month of May 2011, provided they continue to implement the other elements of the resistance management strategy.
The Banana (Tropics) Resistance Management Strategy can be viewed here.
CropLife extends recommended spraying times for banana growers following Cyclone Yasi.pdf