HERS HEY Almost every
discussion at the 122nd Annual
Meeting of the State Horticultural
Association of Pennsylvania, Inc
mentioned, if not focused on, in
tegrated pest management
known as IPM in orchard jargon.
What is IPM 9 According to Cliff
Rice, an IPM consultant, it is a
method of ridding an orchard of
harmful organisms by using the
beneficial insects that move in to
devour or rid the orchard of
nuisances without the use of
chemicals
“Integrated pest management to
me is when you have beneficial
insects, like the Stethorus punctum
or the little black beetle, and the
harmful mites, such as the
European red mite or two-spotted
mite, together in your orchard
These are two different groups or
types of organisms integrated in
the same trees
“When you have this situation in
an orchard, a miticide normally
put on to control the red or two
spotted mites would be ruled out or
at least toned down to be sure not
all the mites were killed,” he
explained.
“To make this type of program
work, it takes more time and
closer checking of orchards Many
times there are big decisions to
make, such as will the predators be
able to handle the mites, should we
use some miticide now, or should
we wait until next week and see
what the situation is then.”
Rice advised orchard managers
to start checking their plots early
in the season watching the
balance between mites, which
appear first, and the Stethorus
punctum.
“Make estimated counts of
predators, both larvae and adults
since larvae do consume as many
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Predators eat pests in IPM program
mites as do adults,” suggested
Rice “Also take an estimate of the
mites per leaf Do this at least
weekly to determine the progress
of both the predators and mites
Rice pointed out as the season
progresses the numbers of mites
and predators will increase A
decision will have to be made on
whether to apply a miticide to kill
off 60 to 70 percent of the mites or
to allow the situation to continue,
hoping the predators can hold their
own.
The IPM consultant stressed not
all mites are destroyed since
predators will need food.
“If you kill most all of the mites,
there is a good chance the
predators will leave your orchard
If this happens, you could be in a
lot of trouble with the mites before
the predators reappear again,” he
exclaimed
Rice advises using a sup
pressant-type of material in the
early part of the season and con
tinuing with it. By managing the
orchard balance this way, he
stated the decision-making battle
will be held off until the middle to
the latter part of the season.
“By trying to make it work this
way, and if it does, the population
crisis will occur just one time and
the predators will keep your or
chard clean of mites for the
remainder of the year The
predators will also feed on mite
eggs in the fall. This will keep your
trees free of overwintering mite
eggs.”
Rice recommended the following
management tips to help the IPM
program work:
have the trees pruned so
materials will be able to get to all
parts;
have a calibrated spraying
machine that is suitable for the
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operation;
use the alternate-middle
spraying method (spray intervals
determined by weather conditions
and pressure from insects, mites
and fungus diseases);
try to use the combination of
two materials at half-rate each,
whenever possible, rather than one
material at full rate;
rotate or use different
material in a spray program;
use a miticide, if needed, on a
particular block or part of an or
chard rather than snraying the
Computer program gives ‘instant’
profit
HERSHEY With increasing
costs and complexity of producing,
harvesting, packing and
marketing fresh market tomatoes,
there is a need for a program that
provides growers with information
to evaluate the profitability from
planting to selling.
Such a program was developed
over the last three years with the
cooperation of growers in
Lackawanna County. The program
provides pertinent information for
profit evaluation within two days
of packing.
“Too often in the past, with the
intense activity of harvesting and
marketing compressed into six
weeks of 24 hour days everything
became a blur of tomatoes out of
the field, then m and out of the
packing house,” said Thomas
Jurchak, Lackawanna Co. Ex
tension Agent. “There was little
time for meaningful examination
of separate parts of the process
!!
whole thing;
do not drive too fast; and
finally,
always put the right amount of
materials in the tank otherwise the
IPM program could be destroyed
and money will be wasted.
One orchard operation currently
using the IPM program is Sierer
Fruit Farms, Inc. of Mt. Pleasant
Mills, Snyder County.
“We’ve been involved in IPM
since 1974,” said Richard Sierer
“In the past four years we have not
info to tomato growers
during the harvesting and
marketing season when it was
needed most
‘lt was only after the crop was
gone that growers had tune for
evaluation. But by then, they
lacked some of the information
needed for accurate decision
making Conclusions were drawn
from incomplete or misleading
recollections.
“In addition, other farmers
considering entry into fresh
market tomato production and
marketing enterprises needed
budgets to guide them in
management decisions, including
capital and labor requirements.
In the new program, as soon as a
field is picked the first time, the
grower completes a “Producer
Reporting Form.” This form in
cludes information on the amount
of tomatoes harvested and the
resulting pack out in terms of
grades, sizes and pnces.
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exceeded 3 percent damage to fruit
due to insect and disease.”
Sierer explamed their orchard
hires a commercial pest consultant
who keeps them “current on
developments of new materials,
up-to-date on new control
measures and new research, and
informed of label changes on spray
materials” along with monitoring
insect and disease activity
Said Sierer, “The purpose of the
IPM program is not to get nd of
pesticides but to leam to use them
more effectively.”
This information is telephoned to
Penn State’s Farm Management
Extension section where a com
puter program accepts the data
and prints out the “Tomato
Marketing Analysis Report”.
This report is mailed to the
grower and includes production,
harvesting, packing and
marketing costs in total and on a
“per acre” rate.
Costs have been developed from
grower surveys and averaged for
use in the program. Gross income
is determined from the actual
yields, pack out and prices
reported by the producer on the
“Reporting Sheet” and reported in
numbers, value and per cent of
boxes packed by grades and sizes.
This gives the grower immediate
information on yields from the
field; pack out of 30 pound boxes;
cull rate; distribution of grades
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