Reducing Pesticides in Apple Production

New Apple-Growing Strategies Reduce Pesticide Use

With pesticide resistance on the rise in mites, Massachusetts apple researchers are finding ways to use the pests' natural enemies to prevent mite outbreaks and the damage they cause to the fruit. Photo above by Dan Cooley; photo below courtesy of NESARE.

Horticultural practices, biocontrols and spot pesticide sprays may provide the best defense against some intractable summer apple pests, according to SARE-supported research in Massachusetts. The project targets European red mites, plum curculio, apple maggot and flyspeck disease, the prime targets of summer pesticide applications. By studying the influence of tree shape, size and planting densities on biologically based pest management strategies, the project is yielding information growers can use to reduce pesticide costs - and unwanted residues on fruit. Test plots on eight commercial orchards show that careful pruning and eliminating wooded orchard borders can significantly reduce the risk of flyspeck infection, for example. Spot sprays to control flyspeck, which tends to be greatest near orchard perimeters, can provide control at a fraction of the cost of typical spray regimes. Moreover, reducing fungicides also prevents mite problems because fungicides harm naturally occurring mite biocontrols. Overall, in 1999, participating growers cut pesticide use by 6 percent compared to commonly used IPM practices, and by about 50 percent compared to a conventional calendar spray regime. 'This project is of major importance to apple growers, especially with the future of pest control materials so uncertain,' says Northboro, Mass., apple grower Maurice Tougas. 'Anything we can do to reduce the possibility of residues on the fruit is going to be to everyone's advantage.' For more information, go to www.sare.org/projects/ and search for LNE97-090

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