VEGETABLE CROP UPDATE
TOMATO & PEPPER EDITION
Janice LeBoeuf, OMAFRA Vegetable Crop Specialist
· Southwest Crop Diagnostic Days
· New Irrigator’s Fieldbook Available
· Wanted! Colorado Potato Beetle
· Down to the wire! Winning the War on Wireworms
 Southwest Diagnostic Days
Southwest Crop Diagnostic Days are coming up on July 8 and July 9. The goal of the Diagnostic Days are to provide quality, state-of-the-art training in all aspects of crop production and management – and to highlight current topics of interest.
The horticulture topic this year is Diagnostic Tools and Tests for Vegetable Crops, featuring hands-on demonstrations of tool and techniques, including quick tests for soil pH, nematodes, diseases, herbicide residues and more.
Other topics of interest to those in the vegetable industry include: Insect ID Workshop, Getting the most from Manure, Compost and Biosolids, and Herbicide Injury.
Learn more and register at http://www.diagnosticdays.ca.
New Irrigator’s Fieldbook Available
Irrigation is an important production tool for many crops in Ontario. This new pocket sized record book was designed as a quick resource with information on water use efficiency, water stewardship, available water and infiltration rates of various soil types and much more. Record keeping is a crucial part of irrigation. The fieldbook charts offer options for logging water takings that will help to establish a water usage history if you have no Permit to Take Water (PTTW) in place. For PTTW holders the format will make your record keeping easy for later submission to the Ministry of the Environment. The booklet also features a handy chart for recording rainfall and lots of room for notes. Produced through the efforts of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and the Ministry of the Environment, they are available through selected OMAFRA offices or by calling Heather Jesso at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada -- (519) 780-8001 or email at Heather.Jesso@AGR.GC.CA .
OMAFRA offices
Ridgetown Resource Centre (519) 674-1690, fax (519) 674-1564
Vineland Resource Centre (905) 562-4141 fax (905) 562-3413
Simcoe Resource Centre (519) 426-7120 fax (519) 426-1142
Wanted! Colorado Potato Beetle
Dr. Jeff Tolman, Research Scientist with the Southern Crop Protection and Food Research Centre in London is interested in obtaining live Colorado potato beetle samples. In conjunction with fellow researchers, he is running the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Colorado Potato Beetle survey once again this year.
The purpose is to document the continuing spread of tolerance to the neonicitinoid insecticides (e.g. Admire, Assail, Alias) and to measure variation in susceptibility to a new insecticide, Coragen, before its widespread commercial application.
What does he need? Jeff is looking for approximately 150-200 adults per sample. If you have a few you can spare, let him know and he will arrange for someone to come and collect some. Jeff can be reached at 519-457-1470 (ext. 232) or jeff.tolman@agr.gc.ca.
Down to the wire! Winning the war on wireworms
Excerpted from Dr. Bob Vernon, AAFC-Agassiz, B.C.
Wireworms are on the rise in Canadian crops such as potato, sugar beet, carrot, cole crops forages and cereal grains. Wireworms are the larvae of slender beetles known as click beetles. There are approximately 30 pest species of wireworm in Canada – with many found in potato fields. Before pesticides, potato growing was abandoned in some areas of Canada due to wireworm damage. There are indications that wireworm numbers are increasing, and damage is growing in many crops. If you aren’t familiar with wireworms, it’s time to learn more about these damaging pests, and determine if they are a threat in your area.
Wireworm lifecycle
Wireworms have an interesting, and troubling, lifecycle. The larvae, the most damaging lifestage, are able to live in soil for several years (3-5) depending on the species. Here is a breakdown of their lifecycle:
· Click beetles (adult wireworms) enter fields, preferably those with pasture, cereals and certain weeds, between April and June to lay eggs (about 200 per female)
· Eggs hatch into wireworm larvae in about three weeks and live and feed on plant roots and germinating seeds in the soil for 3-5 years depending on the species
· Wireworms burrow deeper into the soil (up to a meter) when it is hot and dry (mid summer), or when it is cold (winter), or when there is nothing to eat
· In potato fields in the spring, wireworms move towards the soil surface, following carbon dioxide (C02) trails produced by potato seed pieces after planting
· In late August, wireworms return to the surface to feed on daughter tubers and damage from wireworms can double every three weeks until the crop is harvested
· After 3-5 years, wireworm larvae metamorphosize into click beetles (adult wireworm), which overwinter in the soil and emerge in spring to lay eggs and continue the cycle
Finding and baiting wireworms in your field
Wireworms are attracted to C02, whatever the source. Bait balls are a simple, effective way to check for wireworms in potato fields because they give off C02. Burying 1 cup of wheat flour or oatmeal in narrow 4-6 inch deep holes in fields will attract them. Mark the spot with a flag and check back in about 4-5 days (no later). About 20 evenly spaced baits per acre should suffice. This technique will indicate wireworm ‘presence’ but is NOT an indication of population threshold. Any wireworms you find should be put in a small container such as a camera film canister with soil to be identified (see “Tracking the pest” below), because some wireworm species may not be adequately controlled with certain insecticides.
Important information on control
Wireworm populations are high in fields that have had a recent history of pasture and rotations with forages and cereal grains. If growing potatoes in high risk fields, the effectiveness of insecticides will be reduced if green manure is present in soil at planting. This is because green manures produce CO2 which will attract and hold wireworms away from the treated areas. Later in the season, wireworms will then attack daughter tubers. Ideally, a well fallowed field prepared well in advance of potato planting would ensure that wireworms would visit the seed furrows and come in contact with the insecticides applied.
Tracking the pest - You can help!
Dr. Bob Vernon, entomologist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) is behind a nation-wide wireworm tracking survey. Since some insecticides do not control or suppress all wireworm species, it is important to know which type of wireworms are present in the major growing areas of Canada so that the right control option(s) are chosen to get the job done.
You can help! By using the baiting approach described above, or if you notice wireworm damage in your crops, collect the wireworms you find, along with some of the field soil, and put them in a hard plastic container. There may be more than one species present, so collect as many as you can.
Please mail the sample(s) to Dr. Vernon at:
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 6947 #7 Hwy, Box 1000, Agassiz, B.C. , V0M 1A0
It is important to include a brief description of where the sample was collected (nearest town or address), what crop the wireworms were found in, your name and phone number. Once identified, you will be contacted with the results.
If you have any questions about this wireworm tracking initiative, please contact Dr. Bob Vernon at 1 604-796-1708 (bob.vernon@agr.gc.ca), Bayer CropScience at 1 888-283-6847, or the Pest Management Regulatory Agency at 1-800-267-6315.
Visit the OMAFRA Vegetable Web Pages: ontario.ca/crops - click Vegetables |
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