Tag Archives: IPM

Nationwide survey to understand soil pests of potato

A new nationwide survey of potato growers hopes to evaluate the wider implications of key soil pest issues, and assess whether growers are winning the battle against losses, or identify if problems are getting progressively worse.

It seeks to evaluate how growers perceive the effectiveness of current IPM measures in the field and the impacts that adopting new practices have on profitable potato production. Syngenta Potato Campaign Manager, Mark Britton, commented, “The recent AHDB-funded survey has given a good snapshot of PCN incidence, but it is crucial to now assess how growers view the control options available, and how that impacts on the complex interaction of all soil pests in practice.”

The questions have been designed to focus on the practical and financial implications for growers here and now, but would also have a valuable function in helping to shape future research and trials’ priorities to develop appropriate solutions. The survey, which should take less than ten minutes to complete, can be found at https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/JN7X8BH until the end of January. All growers and agronomist that participate will have the chance to win a copy of a practical guide to diseases, pests and disorders of the potato, and the survey results will be available to all growers.

The post Nationwide survey to understand soil pests of potato appeared first on Hort News on 23 December 2016.

Increasing earwigs in orchard for IPM

A new research project by the Dutch fruit growers association (NFO) and Wageningen UR aims to investigate why some orchards have lots of the invertebrates while others have far fewer.

“Apple and pear farmers obviously want lots of earwigs in their orchards,” says Herman Helsen, entomologist and leader of the project. “They are extremely useful against problems such as the woolly apple aphid and pear psylla.”

The earwig is one of the few insects that provides parental care. In autumn the adult insects go into the soil to overwinter. In the early spring they build an underground nest where the female protects and cares for the eggs. Once the young have reached the third ‘nymph stage’, they head into the plants, where they feed on insects, fungi or algae.

However, Herman explains that it is not currently known what the youngest earwigs eat in the nest. DNA analysis of stomach contents will be used to answer this question.

Wageningen UR and the NFO recently received a grant from the Top Sector Horticulture and Starting Materials for a new research project. The main question is what is the difference between an orchard with few earwigs and one with many? If it proves to be the availability of food for young earwigs, it may be possible to stimulate the number of earwigs by improving the conditions in the orchard.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

The post Increasing earwigs in orchard for IPM appeared first on Hort News on 24 June 2016.

New supplement boosts predatory mites in crops

A new food supplement to boost predatory mites in crops has been launched in the UK by Biobest UK.

Unveiled at the Cucumber Conference earlier this month, Nutrimite™ is claimed to be the first commercially available supplement of its kind. “Nutrimite can help cucumber growers improve the effectiveness of bio control strategies for key pests – such as thrips, whitefly and spider mite – while reducing the overall cost of the programme,” explained Mark Wilde, technical account manager at Biobest UK.  “Based on specially selected pollen, this highly nutritious food source means growers can manipulate the development of pollen feeding polyphagous predatory mites, such as Amblyseius swirskii, Amblyseius cucumeris and Amblyseius andersoni.”

Nutrimite enables the mite population to be accelerated and enhanced in the absence of the pest or natural occurring pollen – for example in cucumbers and soft fruit crops before flowering. The company says its food supplement also allows growers to establish populations of predator mites exactly where they want them in the crop. Applied in programmed introductions, the supplement can be stored in a freezer and is applied using an adapted Matika blower with a Biobest Nutri-app attachment.

The post New supplement boosts predatory mites in crops appeared first on Hort News.