Publications by authors named "Michael Hotchkiss"

Southern shagbark hickory (Carya carolinae-septentrionalis) is one of several deciduous trees in the family Juglandaceae and genus Carya that are native to North America. Southern shagbark hickory has a restricted distribution to the Southeast U.S.

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Pecan is a valuable nut crop cultivated in the southeastern United States. Among the major yield-limiting factors in the region is scab, caused by the plant pathogenic fungus . Managing scab in tall trees (15 to 25+ m) in pecan orchards is challenging because of the limitations of getting sufficient spray coverage throughout the canopy.

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Article Synopsis
  • Scab disease severely impacts pecan production in the southeastern U.S., necessitating numerous fungicide applications for control.
  • A new double volute-generated focused airflow sprayer (DVS) was evaluated against standard sprayers (SS) and showed superior scab control and better spray coverage in taller trees (over 13.8 m).
  • Results over three years indicated that DVS-treated trees had significantly lower scab severity and greater fruit weight than those treated with SS, suggesting that DVS could be a more effective and economical solution for managing scab in pecan orchards.
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Scab (caused by ) is the most important yield-limiting disease of pecan in the southeastern USA. On susceptible cultivars, the disease is managed using fungicides, but spray coverage is an issue in tall trees. In four experiments, we used an air-blast sprayer to compare scab severity on fruit at 5.

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Pecan scab (caused by ) is a destructive disease of pecan in the southeastern United States. Susceptible cultivars must be sprayed with fungicide every 10 to 21 days to ensure yield and kernel quality. Fungicide is most often applied using large orchard air-blast sprayers.

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Scab is the most damaging disease of pecan in the southeastern United States. Pecan trees can attain 44 m in height, so managing disease in the upper canopy is a problem. Fungicide is ordinarily applied using ground-based air-blast sprayers.

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Venturia effusa is the most important pathogen of pecan in the southeastern United States. Little information exists on the population biology and genetic diversity of the pathogen. A hierarchical sampling of 784 isolates from 63 trees in 11 pecan orchards in the southeastern United States were screened against a set of 30 previously characterized microsatellite markers.

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Pecan scab (caused by Fusicladium effusum) is the most economically destructive disease of pecan in the Southeast United States. Wet, humid conditions typical of the Southeast are known to provide conditions conducive to epidemics. A provenance collection of pecan from 19 locations representing the native range of the tree is located in Byron, Georgia, and was assessed for pecan scab severity in 1998, 2013, and 2014.

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Pecan scab (caused by Fusicladium effusum) is the most damaging disease of pecan in the southeastern United States. Large air-blast sprayers for orchards are used to apply fungicide to control the disease but little quantitative information exists on the spray coverage achieved in the canopy of these trees. A series of experiments using water-sensitive spray cards to record spray coverage (percent area) at different heights and locations up to 15 m in the canopy of pecan trees showed a significantly greater percentage of card area covered at the lowest sample height when compared with the highest sample height.

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Hypocreales fungi such as Beauveria bassiana (Balsamo) Vuillemin and Metarhizium brunneum Petch can be negatively affected by fungicides thereby reducing their biocontrol potential. In a previous study, we demonstrated enhanced fungicide resistance in B. bassiana through artificial selection.

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Our objectives were to determine the (1) natural variation in fungicide resistance among Beauveria bassiana strains, (2) potential to increase fungicide resistance in B. bassiana through artificial selection, and (3) stability of virulence in selected B. bassiana strains.

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