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Funded Project |
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Funding Program:
Enhancement Grants - Special Projects |
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Project Title:
Development of a Pest Management Strategic Plan for Tomato and Pepper for Georgia and South Carolina in Preparation for RAMP |
Project Directors (PDs):
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Lead State: GA Lead Organization: University of Georgia |
| Undesignated Funding: $15,000 |
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Start Date: Jul-01-2006 End Date: Jun-30-2007 |
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Pests Involved: thrips-vectored Tomato spotted wilt virus |
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Site/Commodity: tomato and pepper |
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Summary:
The tomato and pepper crops in GA were worth $122 million and $96 million and grown on 5,785 and 6,392 acres in 2003, respectively. These crops continue to be critical vegetable commodities in GA and the tomato crop has reportedly increased to 6,500 in 2005 with pepper staying about the same. South Carolina acreage of tomato in 2005 was 3,200, declining slightly from 2003 acreage. Peppers are only grown about 400 acres in SC. A myriad of insect and disease problems continue to be critical limiting factors in production, in particular, thrips-vectored Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV). We propose to develop a PMSP for tomato and pepper for GA and SC in anticipation of a RAMP proposal in 2007 to address a critical pest management concern in these crops. This effort will also facilitate completion and updating the crop profiles for these two commodities in GA and SC. A workshop is planned for fall 2006 to finalize the PMSP for each crop and coordinate proposal development for the RAMP by winter 2007.
Objectives: 1. Develop a Pest Management Strategic Plan (PMSP) for Tomato and Pepper for Georgia and South Carolina. 2. Coordinate a RAMP proposal addressing management of thrips-vectored Tomato spotted wilt virus in the Southeast. |
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Final Report: |
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Project Type: IPM Seed Grant or IPM Capstone Grant This grant funded the development of Pest Management Strategic Plans for tomato and pepper for Georgia and South Carolina |
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Non-technical summary The tomato and pepper crops in Georgia and South Carolina acreage of tomato are valued at over $200,000,000 annually. Most of this production is on fumigated plastic mulch beds. Weed problems have traditionally been minimized with the use of methyl bromide, but the loss of this fumigant is increasing the importance of weed management. A myriad of insect and disease problems continue to be critical limiting factors in production, in particular, thrips-vectored Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV). This insect transmitted virus has reportedly caused millions of dollars in damage to multiple crops in the Southeastern USA including tomato and pepper. TSWV is transmitted by multiple species of thrips, but the species responsible for spotted wilt epidemics in Georgia and Florida can be largely attributed to western flower thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis, and tobacco thrips, Frankliniella fusca. Management of all pests in tomato and pepper has therefore become more complex in recent years. Given the critical need for pest management in these crops, we developed Pest Management Strategic Plan (PMSP) for tomato and pepper in GA or SC to serve as a foundation for research and extension activity. |
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Introduction Major pests of tomato and pepper typically include arthropods (insects and mites), plant pathogens (virus, bacterial, fungi, and nematodes), and weeds. Pest impact on production can be severe and is often the main limiting factor after market restrictions. Besides pest impact, there are multiple cost considerations in commercial tomato production that require intensive pre-harvest and harvest handling. Bare-ground, non-staked tomato production for fresh market consumption is only 8% of that grown on plastic mulch in Georgia (http://www.agecon.uga.edu/%7Ecaed/VegAcreage.pdf), mostly because of the better performance of the higher input, plasticulture production system (Creamer et al. 1996). For this reason, the majority of fresh market tomato and pepper production in the Southeast is staked on fumigated beds covered with plastic mulch with drip irrigation. The change from low-input bare-ground production systems of previous years to the newer plasticulture system has increased profitability, but there are challenges to this new system. The recent losses in methyl bromide use as the primary fumigant has greatly increased the concern over pepper and tomato pests previously controlled by this fumigant. Also, pest problems that were virtually absent 20 years ago, such as thrips vectored Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV), are now some of the main threats to high-input plasticulture of tomato and pepper. We are at a time when a reassessment of the importance of pests in these two commodities is critical for establishing pest management strategies for GA and SC and planning future pest management projects in this region. |
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Outputs The two main outputs for this project were the pest management strategic plans for GA and SC in tomato http://www.ipmcenters.org/pmsp/pdf/GA-SC-TomatoPMSP.pdf and pepper http://www.ipmcenters.org/pmsp/pdf/GA-SCpepperPMSP.pdf. |
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Economic impacts These plans have been used in the development and successful funding at $1.75 million for 4 years of the USDA RAMP project entitled "A Reduced-Risk System for Managing Thrips and Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus in Tomato and Pepper in the Southeastern USA" involving four states, GA, FL, NC, and SC. |
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Environmental impacts The pest management strategic plans are a wealth of information on the relative importance of pests, the pesticides used and their risks and benefits, etc. These documents are critical information for any plans to reduce pesticide use, modify cultural practices that may impact the agro-ecosystem, and maintain or make changes to the vegetable production system in GA and SC. |
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Impacts on human health risk The pest management strategic plans clearly define production windows including the time frame of field activities and worker activities. These are important for scheduling activities associated with on farm worker health risk assessments. |
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Effects on Collaboration The process of completing the pest management strategic plans for tomato and pepper greatly increased the information exchange and collaboration between GA and SC as evidenced by the current USDA RAMP project. Also, this type of meeting has created a continuous collaboration with the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association that has resulted in sponsored meeting rooms each year at the Southeast Regional Fruit and Vegetable Conference at Savannah, GA since 2006. |
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Appendices PMSP's for tomato and pepper for GA and SC (pdf files). |
| Report Appendices |
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