Grant aids Christmas tree growers

North Carolina Christmas tree growers are a step closer to being able to continue using an insecticide on which they depend with the receipt by North Carolina Cooperative Extension’s Avery County Center of a grant to be used in developing an insecticide applicator.

Jerry Moody, Avery County horticulture agent, on March 30 accepted a $14,000 grant from North Carolina Agriculture Commissioner Meg Scott Phipps. The North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services grant will be used to help develop an applicator that Christmas tree growers may use to dispense an insecticide called Di-Syston.

Successful development of a closed-system applicator for Di-Syston may persuade the federal Environmental Protection Agency to allow Christmas tree growers to continue to use the insecticide on their trees, Moody said. EPA has been considering changing the label that describes how Di-Syston may be used on Christmas trees. Such a change could effectively ban use of the insecticide on Christmas trees. Christmas tree growers use Di-Syston to control mites and aphids.

Moody said EPA officials are concerned about the safety of workers applying the chemical and about Di-Syston harming small animals. Christmas tree growers now use a spoon to apply Di-Syston, placing a spoonful at the bottom of each tree.

EPA could be persuaded to to allow growers to continue to use Di-Syston, if growers use an application device that protects them from the chemical. The only trouble is, such a device doesn’t exist.

At least it didn’t until Moody and other Extension specialists and agents began working on the problem. They arranged with a company called Select-A-Feed in Johnston County to adapt a device used to apply fertilizer for use with Di-Syston.

Moody said it will cost approximately $50,000 to tool up to manufacture the adapted applicator. The $14,000 grant will be used to help defray this tool-up cost, as will $5,000 from the North Carolina Christmas Tree Association and $2,800 from growers associations in five tree-growing counties.

Christmas tree growers are a relatively small market, Moody explained, and without the funding, it probably would not be economically feasible to make applicators. The $14,000 provided by NCDA&CS was made available through the Pesticide Environmental Trust Fund.

Moody said he also hopes to secure a grant from EPA of between $20,000 and $25,000 for the project. He anticipates applicators will cost $180 to $200 each when they are finally available.

Moody and other Extension specialists and agents have been working since the winter of 1999, when they first learned the EPA was concerned about Di-Syston use on Christmas trees, to persuade the federal agency to allow growers to continue to use the insecticide.

As part of that effort, Extension specialists and agents arranged and conducted a tour of Christmas tree farms for EPA officials in the summer of 2000. Discussions during that tour led to the effort to develop the applicator, Moody said.

--D. Caldwell