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2019 Program Year

RFA: IPM Enhancement Grants 2019

‘MyIPM’ Smartphone App Working Group and App Update

Project Director: Brett Blaauw
Funding Amount: $12,583

Although many resources are available to producers that help them make good management decisions, such as spray guides and extension publications, there is no single resource that brings these key elements together and makes them easily available at all times. The MyIPM app aims to create a resource that is always available and provides current and relevant information to producers growing fruit in an ever-changing environment. The newly streamlined MyIPM app was released late 2017 and has since had 1,516 unique downloads. The MyIPM Working Group team proposes to update the app with the associated pests and pesticides of blackberries, grapes, and pecans to increase the functionality and broaden the target audience. Additionally, since a key goal of IPM is to help conserve beneficial organisms, we will utilize the existing strengths of the MyIPM app to also educate producers about insect natural enemies. We will create a new section in the app where users can download information that will help them identify insect natural enemies. It is crucial for the success of this app for the MyIPM Working Group team to meet in person to keep content updated, discuss necessary changes, and any issues with the app and content. Thus, we also propose to meet on an annual basis as a team to address any needed updates, ‘bug’ fixes, and the like. The updated MyIPM app will continue to help fruit producers rapidly diagnose pests in the field, to navigate the plethora of active ingredients and trade names available for pest management, to cope with the increasing threat of pesticide resistance, and to obtain more training in pathogen biology, disease epidemiology, and cultural/chemical/biological management options.

A New IPM Working Group for Developing Integrated Strategies for Managing Colletotrichum on Fruit

Project Director: Sara Villani
Funding Amount: $10,000

States within the southern agricultural region of the United States are among the top producers of tree fruit, grapes, and small fruit nationally. Excluding California fruit production, total utilized value of cultivated blueberry, peach, and strawberry from states in the southern region represented 31.0, 97.4, and 96.8% of the US utilized value of these crops in 2016. Despite high fruit annual fruit yields, achieving sustainable management of diseases in fruit crops is a constant challenge due to the subtropical and tropical climates of the southern agricultural region. Diseases of fruit crops that are caused by fungal species in the genus Colletotrichum are among the most economically devastating and challenging to manage throughout the region. Direct losses of fruit, just prior to or after harvest, result from the development of anthracnose rots on fruit. In addition, infection of leaf, root, and crown tissue by the pathogen is increasingly resulting in indirect losses throughout the Southeastern US. These losses include compromised photosynthesis due to premature defoliation, reduced winter hardiness and bud-set, and plant death. In the absence of effective management interventions, single-season losses often approach 100%.
The formation of a new working group to address integrated strategies for the management of Colletotrichum diseases on fruit crops in the Eastern US is proposed. The goal of this working group will be to conduct research and extension planning to improve stakeholder practices of managing fruit diseases caused by Colletotrichum spp. in the eastern US. Specifically this proposal will aim to define extension and research priorities for management of diseases caused by Colletotrichum on fruit crops, coordinate research and extension activities across hosts and scientific disciplines, develop and disseminate a uniform multi-crop survey to stakeholders to identify knowledge gaps and assess current management programs and prepare a proposal(s) for a collaborative approach to managing Colletotrichum spp. on fruit crops in the Eastern US.

Administrative note: The funds awarded for this project were not spent.

A new IPM Working Group to Tackle Ambrosia Beetle Issues in Tree Fruit, Tree Nut and Tree Nurseries in the Southeastern US

Project Director: Angelita Acebes
Funding Amount: $9,329

Ambrosia beetles are wood-boring pests that attack many tree species that are economically-important in the Southeastern region of the US. The agricultural industries that are mainly impacted by their infestation include tree fruit, tree nut and tree nurseries. In recent years, there have been significant findings on these beetles’ biology and management but more research is warranted including but not limited to the species complex and relative abundance, infestation behavior, spatio-temporal activities and most importantly, finding more effective and sustainable management options. Although, many researchers and Extension specialists are involved in different aspects of ambrosia beetle research and Extension, no working group currently exists to facilitate a systematic and collaborative effort to tackle the threat of these beetles on the impacted commodities in the Southeastern US. Recognizing this need, we propose to organize a regionally-focused and commodity-specific working group to address issues concerning ambrosia beetle infestations, and to develop improved and sustainable management strategies for these wood-infesting pests.

Developing wetland monarch conservation habitats for southeastern golf course IPM programs

Project Director: Adam Dale
Funding Amount: $28,523

Urbanization is a driver of habitat loss in the Southeastern U.S., reducing monarch habitat and abundance in a region where they occur year-round. Golf courses are among the largest managed urban green spaces in the Southeast. However, approximately 40-70% of acreage is out-of-play, but mostly turfgrass. PI Dale has found that creating drought-tolerant wildflower habitat in out-of-play areas conserves pollinators and increases biocontrol of insect pests. The average southeastern golf course contains at least one body of water, which require wetland plant species around them, Therefore, golf course superintendents have requested IPM guidelines for utilizing these spaces for conservation and biological control. However, there are currently no evidence-based guidelines for these habitats. IPM historically promotes plant diversity to reduce specialist herbivores and promote biological control, and we frequently see that increased nutrient content benefits plant-feeding pests. However, since we are trying to conserve an insect herbivore, plant diversity may counteract conservation efforts. Plus, evidence from other studies indicates potential negative effects of nutrient content on monarch survival. Interestingly, plant diversity and nutrients may interact to reduce negative effects of either factor on monarch conservation and lead to recommendations that conserve this threatened insect and promote golf course IPM. Therefore, our overarching goal is to develop evidence-based IPM recommendations that benefit monarchs, pest control, and the golf industry’s environmental and economic impact.

Evaluating the gall midge Orseolia javanica, a biocontrol agent for enhancing cogongrass IPM

Project Director: James Cuda
Funding Amount: $28,574

Cogongrass (Imperata cylindrica) is a diploid C4 rhizomatous grass that is a noxious weed in over 70 countries where it threatens global biodiversity and sustainable agriculture. Recent genetic analyses identified four distinct non-hybridizing clonal lineages of cogongrass in the USA. In Florida and other southeastern states, this invasive grass infests cattle pastures, pine plantations, and thrives in poor soil conditions such as ditch banks, roadside and railroad rights-of-way as well as reclaimed phosphate-mining areas. Control of cogongrass relies primarily on mowing and herbicide applications. The Indonesian gall midge Orseolia javanica Kieffer and van Leeuwen-Reijinvaan is a potential biological control agent of cogongrass. Larval feeding induces the formation of hollow, sterile shoot galls in which one larva develops. These galls serve as nutrient “sinks” that divert rhizome resources away from normal shoot production. According to literature, the only reported host plant for O. javanica is cogongrass. However, it is not known the extent to which O. javanica will develop and reproduce on the Florida peninsula or Gulf Coast (Florida Panhandle) clones of cogongrass. We collected/propagated cogongrass from two different geographic locations in Florida and shipped healthy rhizomes under permit to Bogor Agricultural University, West Java, Indonesia, for clonal testing. Performance of O. javanica on each cogongrass clone (no. of galls and adults produced, development time to adult stage) will be compared.

Reciprocal Benefits to Cotton Yield and Bee Pollinators in a Cotton/Sorghum Agroecosystem

Project Director: Michael Brewer
Funding Amount: $30,000

The diversity and abundance of native pollinators is important in providing pollination services to a diverse array of crops, many of which receive pollination or unknown pollination benefits from native bees. Under agricultural intensification, as seen in our model cotton agroecosystem where field sizes commonly exceed 300 acres, achieving efficient and productive agricultural land use while conserving biodiversity is an important challenge to U.S. agricultural sustainability. This includes native bee diversity which is a key component of the declining pollinators in the U.S. and which may have been affected by large scale planting of field crops, especially cotton in the southern region. We wish to initiate a joint bee conservation and cotton management concept which may ultimately represent a win-win for bee conservation and cotton insect management. Through agriculturally reasonable stewardship effort, can we conserve native bees (addressing the conservation and IPM charge to address U.S. pollinator decline), which in turn provides reciprocal benefit to cotton (addressing the IPM charge to contribute to agricultural productivity). We propose a seed project to further our initial efforts that support this concept and establish a data base and process that leads to specific management research and guidance for this win bee conservation – win cotton productivity scenario.

Scales as beneficial insects? Tree pests sustain biological control in urban landscapes

Project Director: Steven Frank
Funding Amount: $29,811

Urban trees often have more pests, particularly scale insects, than trees in rural areas. In extreme locations, such as parking lots, tree stress and scale density are so high that insecticide applications and other maintenance are necessary to sustain tree health. However, in more hospitable locations, such as residential landscapes, many tree species are resilient to moderate scale density and generally do not require insecticides. By supporting scales and other herbivores these trees also support robust natural enemy communities. Thus, scales could be beneficial insects if predators and parasitoids they support improve landscape IPM and reduce insecticide use. The problem addressed by this proposal is that many urban trees have scale infestations for which insecticide applications are frequently desired by homeowners and landscape professionals but which are unnecessary and often ineffective. Insecticide applications to trees and other plants could be reduced if moderate scale infestations increase conservation biological control. Willow oaks (Quercus phellos) are among the most common urban trees throughout the Southeast. We have found that nearly all willow oaks in urban landscapes host low to moderate densities of lecanium scales (Parthenolecanium spp.) while maintaining growth. These willow oaks host high densities of dozens of generalist parasitoid and predator species. Our goal is to understand if, and under what circumstances, willow oaks promote conservation biological control in ornamental landscapes and develop these benefits as an IPM tool. Our objectives for this seed grant are to determine if 1) natural enemy abundance is greater and pest density lower on landscape plants surrounding scale-infested willow oaks compared to plants surrounding uninfested trees; 2) if predation or parasitism rates are higher near scale-infested willow oaks than near uninfested trees; and 3) produce articles and outreach material promoting the benefits of low pest densities and conservation biological control in IPM.

The Farming and Food Narrative Project - Southern Region

Project Director: James Walgenbach
Funding Amount: $29,981

The general public does not have a good understanding of farming practices or the benefits of Integrated Pest Management (IPM). In fact, the national conversation about farming practices in relation to food—in the media, on campuses, in supermarkets, between growers and customers, among advocates, policymakers, and the public—is stuck. It is reduced to oversimplified versions of good versus bad, organic versus conventional, and quickly becomes polarized. Different sides each show up with experts in tow and we get dueling science. Methods that are hard to explain, such as IPM, are left out, even though they’ve been proven effective.

Scientists, environmentalists, and farmers have worked hard to educate the public about IPM for fifty years. However, they often make facts and technical language the center of their story, and these messages rarely get through. Humans are “fast and frugal thinkers” whose brains resist reason. When presented with facts that don’t fit existing understandings, the mind is apt to stick with prior beliefs, rather than going to the trouble of reorganizing itself. The fact goes, and the pre-existing assumption stays. There is a need to reframe the narrative about sustainable farming systems so that it includes IPM as a natural and necessary component. A unified, simple, effective narrative will educate the general public and policymakers on the value and need for public funding of IPM research and extension.

In The Farming & Food Narrative Project—Southern Region, we develop a more effective approach to talking to the public about farming and IPM. The project uses Strategic Frame Analysis®, an approach pioneered by the FrameWorks Institute. Since 1999, this proven method has been applied to numerous scientific topics, such as early brain development and marine conservation, with notable effects on public understanding. Strategic Frame Analysis begins by analyzing public thinking, mapping the mental models the public uses to make sense of an issue. Then, researchers design and test “reframes”—messaging elements such as metaphors—for their ability to lessen misconceptions and orient people toward evidence. These tools are tested with individuals, with groups, and with a nationally representative sample.

This project is the strategic marriage of a national research effort Farming & Food Narrative Project (FFNP) and a specific region (Southern Region). The national approach is necessary to accomplish and fund the broad objectives of a 5-year communications research agenda. The active participation of scientists, farmers, and farm/food organizations from the southern region is necessary to ensure that the project’s outputs—new narrative elements; tools for training and implementation; and a plan for dissemination—are useful and applicable to a wide variety of farms, crops, farmers, scientists and citizens in all states of the southern region.

Understanding tradeoffs for cover crop deployment in organic sweet potato

Project Director: Anders Huseth
Funding Amount: $29,990

In this project, we will use a systems-based approach to assess the tradeoffs of winter annual cover crop use in organic sweet potato production. Using an interdisciplinary approach, we will measure the benefits of crimped winter annual cover crops for integrated pest management (weeds/insects) and sustainable soil fertility. In the autumn, transplant beds will be formed and rye / rye+vetch cover crops planted. In the spring, cover crops will be terminated using a roller-crimper modified for beds. Sweet potato slips will be planted into cover crop residue with a no-till transplanter. We will amend fertility in each treatment using a fertility ramp. We will monitor the abundance of wireworms and weed density throughout the season in each treatment. At harvest, we will evaluate root damage and marketable yields. These measurements will help growers make educated decisions that minimize risk for yield loss (weeds/pests) and input dependence (fertilizer inputs). Documenting the tradeoffs between current yield-limiting factors and cover crop benefits will be an important step toward a more comprehensive understanding of how cover crops can be integrated into high value organic sweet potato production systems.