CBB is a regional problem. Whatever you choose to do/not do to reduce CBB, affects all the other Kona coffee farmers.
CHOP & CHIP 3 yr. Fallow
If you choose to fallow your coffee orchard due to CBB, because:
· The % of CBB in your cherry, makes it not profitable
· You cannot afford or don’t have the time to work on sanitation, trapping, & fungus spraying
The USDA-Natural Resource Conservation Service has a program that could help- EQIP 75-90% cost-share for 2 practices:
1. Stump your trees with the Tree & Shrub Pruning Practice creating a 3 year fallow period to reduce your CBB infection, as well as reducing cultivation and harvest costs.
2. Chip the pruned uprights with the Forest Slash Treatment Practice to contain the infected cherries from multiplying CBB in your neighborhood. (Ideally, you’ll spray Botaniguard/Mycotrol b. bassiana fungus on your piles and cover it with a black tarp for 6 months to kill the CBB too.)
*The NRCS EQIP program is a Reimbursable Program where you pay out first and are paid back. There is a fair amount of paperwork, which they help you with, and it is run as a contract. You can contact them now at the Kealakekua Office (below the post office) 328-2484, but the reimbursement may not happen until next spring. 75% – 90% cost-share means you pay 10% – 25% of actual costs.