New Tools for IPM in Small Grains
Small Grains Extension Specialist Drew Lyon updated the publication Integrated Management of Feral Rye in Winter Wheat this quarter. The revised version includes information on the CoAXium wheat production system and harvest weed seed control, both of which are promising new technologies.
Lyon and his colleagues continued their Weeders of the West blog, begun in March 2020, with topics including:
- Have You Thought About Cooperative Weed Management?
- Does Your Field Need a Vacation?
- Fluroxypyr is Everywhere!
The popular Timely Topics section of the WSU Wheat & Small Grains website tackled IPM subjects such as:
- Stripe Rust Update
- Cabbage Seedpod Weevil Scouting in Canola
- Weeds: They Never Go Away and Greatly Influence Your Crop Yields
- I Need to Spray for Insect Pests, But I Am Concerned About All the Bees
- Wheat Streak Mosaic Virus in Eastern Washington
Also this quarter, Lyon’s colleague Dale Whaley introduced a new online Insect Pest and Damage Identification Quiz. Identification is one of the key principles of IPM: If we don’t know what it is, how can we control it? This online tool lets growers test their knowledge, then points to resources for further education. Kudos to Whaley and Communications Specialist Blythe Howell for putting this quiz together.
Full-Spectrum IPM Outreach in Wine Grapes
Extension Viticulturist Michelle Moyer used technologies old and new to deliver important information to grape growers across the region. The Spring issue of Viticulture and Enology Extension News (pdf) included articles on plant quarantines and the value of using disease-resistant varieties in IPM approaches.
Webinars via Zoom that Moyer organized or in which she participated included:
- Managing Nematodes in a Maturing Wine Grape Industry as part of the Washington Advancements in Viticulture and Enology (WAVE) series (100 attendees)
- Managing Powdery Mildew and Botrytis Bunch Rot for the Wine Island Growers Association (WIGA) in British Columbia, Canada (30 attendees)
- Phylloxera and Rootstocks for Washington Wine Technical Group (50 attendees)
- Fungicide Resistance and the Acronyms (pdf) for the Penn State Wine and Grape Team (48 attendees)
Finally, Moyer’s pièce de résistance for the quarter was producing and delivering all of the materials to conduct the first-ever Virtual Viticulture Intern Boot Camp. This in-depth, full-day workshop has been an important part of WSU’s viticulture curriculum for several years. Typically hands-on, this year’s workshop was 100% virtual, including short lectures, videos, and breakout group work to duplicate the intensive training Washington State employers and post-secondary students have come to expect on topics including the phases of a grape-growing season, pest and disease scouting, cold damage, yield estimation, nutrient disorder identification, understanding fertilizers, and more.
Vegetable Grafting: A Strategy for Stabilizing Yield
Vegetable Horticulture Specialist Carol Miles and her graduate students continued their work with vegetable grafting as a biological disease management strategy from WSU Mount Vernon Northwestern Washington Research and Extension Center (NWREC).
The article “Fruit Maturity and Quality of Splice-grafted and One-cotyledon Grafted Watermelon“ by PhD candidate Pinki Devi, Miles, and Scott Lukas, Assistant Professor at Oregon State University, was published in Hortscience in June. This article describes the team’s progress to advance the use of splice grafting, where both the cotyledons are removed from the rootstock. Splice grafting can be an effective propagation strategy in watermelon production, increasing efficiency and eliminating rootstock regrowth. These findings show that splice-grafted watermelon perform similarly to one-cotyledon grafted and nongrafted watermelon plants in field production.
As part of their outreach program to support K-12 STEM education, the team’s Class Lesson: The Science behind Vegetable Grafting was provided to Sacha Buller, teacher at Concrete High School (Concrete, WA) for her Environmental Sciences course in May. Toward learning about the structure and function of plants, the class will utilize the Concrete Farm to School greenhouse to explore grafting.
To extend the information on vegetable grafting, this summer Miles’ MS graduate student Srijana Shrestha began assessing whether grafting improves plant growth and development, fruit yield, and quality characteristics of cantaloupe cultivars grafted onto cold-resistant rootstocks. Watch for results of this study in future extension outreach.
BMSB and CM Outreach in the PNW
Tree Fruit IPM Extension Specialist Betsy Beers’ extension outreach included developing and disseminating ideas and information on control of two key orchard pests, brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) and codling moth (CM), within an integrated pest management system.
Beers’ team’s novel approaches to BMSB management were mentioned in “Stink Bugs a Foul Foe,” an article in the April 1, 2020 issue of Good Fruit Grower magazine. The article focused on BMSB in pears and other crops, primarily in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, and included interviews with Oregon State University Entomologists and colleagues Nik Wiman and Rick Hilton.
The Beers team’s outreach on CM this quarter included:
- Release of a new video, Can Codling Moths Cross Nets?, by PhD Student Adrian Marshall and Beers. Pheromone lures were placed in large orchard plots 1) without netting, 2) with overhead netting, and 3) fully netted. Both net treatments reduced moth entry, with full (top and sides) netting being most effective.
- An article in the Tree Fruit Matters newsletter written by postdoctoral research assistant Kacie Athey discussed how “Sterile Insect Release May Impact CM Trap Catches.” The article informs growers in the SIR (Sterile Insect Release) zones about moth releases and how to differentiate sterile moths from wild ones.
- The article “Codling Moth Comeback” from the March 1, 2020 issue of Good Fruit Grower magazine was reprinted in Spanish as “El regreso de la palomilla“ on June 17 in Good Fruit Grower ES. The article features an interview with Beers and discussion of the recent resurgence in CM pressure and Beers’ SIR trials.
Online Training for Bumble Bee Surveyors
As with all members of the WSU Extension IPM Team, Urban IPM Coordinator Carrie Foss spent much of this quarter adapting her activities and outreach to distance learning due to current constraints imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
One of Foss’ activities planned for second quarter involved work with the Pacific Northwest (PNW) Bumble Bee Atlas in collaboration with the Xerces Society. The PNW Bumble Bee Atlas is a project to track and conserve the bumble bees of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. Foss had scheduled two in-person Bumble Bee Atlas workshops this spring in the Puget Sound area, covering topics including the organization’s rationale and methodology, how to conduct a survey of the subject bees, and how to identify the various bees in our region and report on their habitats and locations. The workshops were reformatted as a webinar. Given the hands-on nature of bee identification and surveillance, it was extremely impressive that ~250 people engaged in the 4-hour webinar (nearly 60% of those initially registered to attend). Participants included home gardeners, Master Gardeners, educators, university personnel, biologists, Xerces and other non-profit volunteers, government agency personnel, and farmers. The Pacific Northwest Bumble Bee Atlas Training webinar is archived in 4 modules on the Atlas website.
Zooming In On Key Hop Pests
Washington State IPM Coordinator and Extension Entomologist Doug Walsh was the featured speaker at a hop grower meeting on May 28. This meeting, which took place via Zoom, was part of the Best Practices series for hop growers presented by Yakima Chief Hops in collaboration with Yakima Chief Ranches as part of their Green Chief Program. Over 180 participants attended.
Walsh presented information on IPM for Hop Aphid and Spider Mite, which included: descriptions of both pests and their damage; geographic distribution; pest biology and life history; seasonality of pest presence, damage, and control; methods for monitoring these pests in the field; and discussions of management methods for each pest, including conservation of natural predators, impacts of production inputs, and best practices for pesticide application.
Yakima Chief Hops is a 100% grower-owned global supplier of premium quality hops. Their focus is partnering to produce sustainable hop products and brewing solutions from the Pacific Northwest. The Green Chief Program is an internal farm quality and sustainability management program created in 2008 as a collaborative effort to achieve long-term goals in farm operations.
Berries Making Beekeepers (and Bees) Blue
Honey Bee Health Specialist Brandon Hopkins and postdoctoral researcher Rae Olsson began an outreach and extension project this quarter when they were approached with an urgent request for help by a western Washington beekeeper. Over the past several years, this beekeeper has experienced 70-80% colony losses and degraded hive health across 8000+ colonies in blueberry pollination. Issues of concern included extensive fungicide applications to blueberry plants and a lack of high-quality nutrition, yet the hive health issues continued even after bees were moved out of blueberries into high quality forage. Many of the losses occurred before the winter months.
Honey bee health problems associated with blueberry pollination is not a new phenomenon; it is present in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. The impacts on colony health following blueberry pollination have forced some large commercial beekeepers to stop pollinating blueberries altogether. Early work on this problem resulted in the recommendation to feed supplemental protein (pollen patties). More recently, Oregon State University researchers have shown that blueberry pollen is very low in protein and a critical cholesterol required for bee health.
Discussions with the Washington Apiary Advisory Board and the Washington State Blueberry Commission have deemed this a critical research initiative. The initial phase of this project included checking honey bee hives for health metrics, taking samples of wax and pollen to test for pesticide residue, and working side by side with beekeepers and the Skagit County WSU Extension team to promote awareness and develop a more extensive extension and research plan to address the needs of beekeepers and growers in the Pacific Northwest region.
Hopkins and Olsson’s work with the beekeeper prior to blueberry pollination this season resulted in some changes in management activities and they will remain in close contact to learn whether these changes result in reduced colony losses this fall.