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Funded Project |
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Funding Program:
Regional IPM Competitive Grants - Northeastern |
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Project Title:
Northeast Pepper IPM Project |
Project Directors (PDs):
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Lead State: CT Lead Organization: University of Connecticut |
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Cooperating State(s):
Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York |
| Undesignated Funding: $100,000 |
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Start Date: Jul-01-1997 End Date: Jun-30-2000 |
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Site/Commodity: peppers |
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Area of Emphasis: plant resistance, cultural control, biological control, biocontrol, weeds |
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Summary:
Weed interference can result in significant reductions in yield and quality of peppers. This project will determine the critical period and threshold of injury for weeds in peppers grown in black plastic.
Objectives: Research: 1) Evaluate the yields, horticultural characteristics, and degree of tolerance for BLS resistant pepper varieties through inoculated and uninoculated trials and determine the efficacy of hot-water treating seeds. 2) Investigate potential sources of the BLS pathogen and determine the race structure in the northeast. 3) Evaluate a decision system for timing copper sprays and evaluate integrated control options (chemical/genetic) for BLS management. 4) Determine the efficacy of cultural techniques, alone or in combination for Phytophthora blight management (higher, shaped, raised beds/filling soil depressions around transplants to eliminate saturated conditions/resistant plants). 5) Determine the relationship between ECB moth flight and egg oviposition/larvel infestation in fruit, and improve thresholds for initial and final insecticide applications for ECB control. 6) Develop and determine the efficacy of separate and combined biointensive methods of controlling ECB (B.t. applications and Trichogramma ostriniae), and evaluate the effect of these methods on natural controls of the green peach aphid. 7) Evaluate degree of pungency (capsaicin content) as a factor in host resistance to ECB, and determine what modifications of existing IPM thresholds and guidelines may be possible. 8) Quantify the extent of CEW and FAW infestation on unsprayed plots throughout the region to assess potential threat as secondary pests once cover sprays are removed. 9) Refine and perfect a practical and reliable monitoring system for the PM to avoid damage in the absence of cover sprays. 10) Develop efficacy data for the alternative insecticide option (neem/azadirachtin) in PM management, and evaluate its effect on the beneficials which control aphids. 11) Determine the critical weed and living-mulch free period for peppers grown in black polyethylene mulch. 12) Evaluate non-chemical alternatives for management of annual weeds between polyethylene mulch and application timing of flame cultivation and/or fertilizer salts. Extension: 1) Publish the Northeast Pepper IPM Manual complete with first and second level recommendations and color pictures of all major and secondary pests. 2) Conduct pepper IPM training seminars, on-site demonstrations and provide research results through a variety of educational materials and methods for crop consultants, IPM personnel, farmers, legislators, crop specialists, the general public and others in the agricultural community. 3) Implement research results as they become available through pepper IPM programs in NJ, NY, MA and CT, thus reducing pesticide use on commercial farms through first and/or second level IPM, while increase crop quality and farm profitability. Outcomes and Impacts Summary from 2001 IPM Center report Researchers from Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts worked cooperatively to assemble a complete IPM approach that targets the region's major pepper pests. They explored and fieldtested a broad range of IPM techniques for disease, insect, and weed control that included new monitoring systems, action thresholds, and combinations of biological, cultural, mechanical, and genetic control strategies. The project leaders and extension specialists throughout the region then collaborated to publish the Northeast Pepper Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Manual, a comprehensive growers' guide with 23 chapters and more than 200 color pictures that help to simplify pest identification. The manual sold more than 400 copies in the first two months and promises to extend IPM benefits to most of the 3,000 pepper farmers in the Northeast, as well as to growers and IPM practitioners in other regions and countries. Team members have also spread the word about pepper IPM at grower conferences and on-site demonstrations for farmers, crop consultants, extension personnel, and others in the agricultural community. Growers who've adopted the complete IPM crop system have reduced pesticide use by up to 96 percent while improving crop quality and farm profitability. More than half the pepper producers in the region have received training in IPM strategies as a result of the project. If fully implemented in the Northeast, the IPM system could save almost $1.3 million per year in pesticide costs and bring more than $4.5 million to the industry by improving quality and yields. |
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