Growers and advisors have to wake up and understand that plant predators and disease are symptoms of a failing crop and not the cause; it is natural to be healthy, not natural to be sick.

When a predator attacks, look to the host, attacking the predator is as foolish as suggesting that headaches are a lack of Aspirin. Or putting makeup to cover up pimples, get the fertiliser salesman out of the advisory role and feed the crop a balanced diet then it can build its own resistance.

If predators were the problem the whole system would have imploded when the first one raised its head. This is Mother Natures check and balance, "that the weak should perish, and only the fit survive" ~ Robert Service.

Nature will always look after herself; there is always a check and balance, the wolves in North America don’t take on the big Bull Moose, they move the herd around until a straggler lags behind the mob an then pick it off. The lions in Africa also take out the weak; it is nature's way of selecting and culling the weak or those suffering from malnutrition. This system would have stopped when the first predator got out of bed if the problem was predation. Predation is a matter of taking out the inferior plants or animals before their due time.

The soil is the plants rumen, and if that rumen is malnourished or hostile to the introduced plants requirements, then the plant will reveal signs of stress and as predators are opportunists, they attack when the opportunity is right. It is just right in Te Puke for PSA. Don’t attack the predator, rectify the host.

On my last trip to the Bay of Plenty, a kiwifruit grower was having a conversation with his son and said that he would need to apply some nitrogen soon via a spray. I queried as to why? And his reply was “They tell me it will do some good” I am at a loss as to who ‘they’ are, but I suspect ‘they’ are the fertiliser salesmen or some poor advisor who too is being conned.

Nitrogen availability to plants is as a result of a system that has been in existence for many millions of years. That system is called the NITROGEN CYCLE. It is not something you buy out of the bag, it is available to plants as a result of biology fixing atmospheric nitrogen and making it available to plants.
 
In nature, nitrogen comes available in tandem with all other growth factors. Pushing growth outside this window results in the problems now manifest in Te Puke Kiwifruit.