- Fruits: berries (strawberries), melons
- Vegetables: cucurbits, eggplant, greens (leafy), tomatoes
- Pest Management: general pest management
High tunnel and greenhouse vegetable production (protected culture) offer high returns and season-long market capture for Northeast vegetable farmers. Alternatives to chemical pest control are sought. Biological methods such as predatory insects, resistant varieties and microbial fungicides are needed for several reasons: · Persistence, degradation and proper rates of field pesticides in protected culture have not been well researched or documented. · A growing number of small operations that depend on family labor are using greenhouse and high tunnel technology. This means children are often working within the structures and have a much lower chemical exposure tolerance than adults. · Unless biological methods are employed, the unique set of pests and diseases in these settings would require small-scale growers to apply highly specific, unfamiliar chemical pesticides with high cost for relatively low acreage. Although the project team is very familiar with the pest complexes of protected culture, growers will determine top priority pests/diseases to be addressed by the project by completing a survey in year 1. We will then expose growers to the principles behind biological pest/disease control in various educational formats. Winter meetings detailing the complete biology of target pests and natural enemies will begin this effort. Then 4 growers will host on-farm demonstration trials of the biological methods most likely to succeed. Of the 80 farmers who attend demonstration farms and educational meetings as part of this project, 15 will adopt biological control of pests and diseases in greenhouse/high tunnel vegetable production within 3 years. These controls could include predatory insects, resistant varieties and microbial fungicides.
Performance targets from proposal:
Thirty greenhouse/high tunnel vegetable growers will complete pest/disease surveys, ranking issues of greatest relevance. Eighty growers will attend winter meetings and/or one of four on-farm demonstration farms for biological control. Of the 80 farmers who attend demonstration farms and educational meetings as part of this project, 15 will adopt biological control of pests and diseases in greenhouse/high tunnel vegetable production within three years.