Happy Retirement, Carrie Foss!
The Washington State University Integrated Pest Management Extension Team wishes to recognize longtime team member Carrie Foss for her many contributions to urban IPM. Foss retired this year after holding a leadership role in urban IPM extension at WSU for over three decades. She was responsible for development and coordination of landscape, school, and structural IPM across the state. Foss educated urban pesticide applicator professionals in the principles and strategies of IPM, as well as personal safety, pesticide regulations, and environmental protection. Foss also oversaw the popular Hortsense website, a go-to resource for home gardeners, extension professionals, and Master Gardeners.
Based out of WSU’s Puyallup Research and Extension Center, Foss joined State IPM Coordinator and Extension Entomologist Doug Walsh in successfully applying for federal funding for IPM extension activities in 2009. Year after year thereafter, through multiple funding cycles, and with a variety of team members focusing on IPM in other specialty areas, Walsh’s WSU IPM team always included Carrie Foss as its Urban IPM Coordinator. The many alliances she forged with other universities, governmental agencies, certification organizations, and other urban IPM promoters have made WSU’s urban IPM program a tremendous success.
From all of us, Carrie, thank you for your years of service to the state, the region, and the WSU Extension IPM Team.
Hop Outreach from Yakima to Slovenia and More
State IPM Coordinator and Extension Entomologist Doug Walsh participated in a symposium on how pesticides are registered at the Pacific Branch Entomological Society of America annual meeting in April. The symposium, entitled Understanding Pesticides: Regulations, Misuse, and their Role in IPM, featured presentations from academia, governmental agencies, and industry. Walsh addressed the group on the topic of the research behind pesticide labels.
Walsh’s PhD graduate student Stephen Onayemi was also honored at the PBESA meeting with its Student Leadership Award. Onayemi was recognized for his work on mating disruption as an IPM strategy as well as his service activities with ESA, WSU, and WSU Prosser Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center (IAREC).
Also in April, Walsh presented Mite Management in Hop at the Yakima Chief Hops headquarters in Yakima, as part of their Green Chief series to promote best practices and sustainable hop production.
On June 5, Walsh hosted the state’s annual Mint Field Day at IAREC.
On June 26, Walsh moderated a session at the International Hop Growers’ Convention in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Topics included control of hop aphid and two-spotted spider mite, biological control of European corn borer, refinement of predatory mites as biocontrol agents, and herbivore-induced resistance of hop plants against spider mites.
Sweetpotato Planting and Flea Beetle Management for Small Farms
Regional Horticulture and IPM Specialist Laurel Moulton conducted a class on Propagating and Planting Sweetpotatoes on June 6. Sweetpotatoes have historically been grown farther south in the US, but recent research has shown that they can be successfully grown in the cooler maritime climate of Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, including the counties of Clallam, Jefferson, and Kitsap that Moulton and the WSU Regional Small Farms Program serve. The class, which was open to beginning and current farmers, included a tour of Wild Edge Farm in Port Angeles. Farmers Karen and Jim Halberg-Weaver provided a tour of their setup for sweetpotato slip production and their sweetpotato field. Planting tips and techniques for the region’s cool climate were discussed, and participants helped plant a row of sweetpotato slips. More sweetpotato courses are planned for July, September, and October.
Moulton organized and presented Dirt Talk: Flea Beetles, an online workshop discussing identification, management, and resources to manage flea beetles on small farms.
Topics covered in the June 14 event included:
- Flea beetle biology
- Common flea beetle species in the Pacific Northwest
- Which crops are impacted by flea beetles
- How to identify flea beetles and the damage they cause
- Available management techniques for flea beetles
- Resources through WSU and elsewhere
Columbia Basin Potato and Vegetable Outreach
Regional Vegetable Specialists Tim Waters and Carrie Wohleb released their first issue of WSU Vegetable Alerts e-newsletter on April 7. Waters and Wohleb collaborate on WSU Potato Alert and WSU Onion Alert newsletters, and this new initiative was sparked by the need to share information about seedcorn maggot (SCM), an important pest of many direct-seeded vegetable crops grown in the Columbia Basin. Five subsequent alerts in April and May apprised subscribers of SCM degree day benchmarks, geographic spread, and management tactics.
WSU Potato Alerts this quarter addressed potato psyllid, beet leafhopper and the diseases it transmits, the WSU Extension Potato Insect Pest Monitoring network (which provides information on aphid, leafhopper Colorado potato beetle, loopers, lygus bugs, psyllids, tuberworm, and spider mites), herbicide carryover in seed, and chemigation for nematodes; and provided information about growing degree days and a heat crinkle alert.
Subscribers interested in these or other WSU extension e-newsletters can subscribe at this link and choose the selections that interest them.
Waters also participated in presentations at the WSU Potato Research Group’s potato field day on June 22, with information on integrated insect pest management and responses of different potato varieties to Sandea herbicide for yellow nutsedge control.
Grape IPM Newsletter, Presentation, Updates, and Boot Camp
Extension Viticulturist Michelle Moyer edited and released the Spring 2022 Edition (pdf) of Viticulture and Enology Extension News (VEEN), which included articles about beneficial insects for mealybug management, new frost mitigation strategies, and mealybug flight monitoring.
Moyer presented at the Washington Advancements in Viticulture and Enology (WAVE) series on April 20. Her topic, Nematode Management: To Fumigate or Not? was archived as a video.
Back again by popular demand, the Viticulture Intern Boot Camp took place on May 23. This all-day workshop, designed to provide a baseline level of knowledge to individuals employed in a Washington State vineyard or allied field, provided both classroom and in-field training on:
- Understanding a grape growing season
- Pest and disease scouting
- Cold damage and yield estimation
- Identifying nutrient disorders and understanding fertilization
- Organizing and planning a productive internship experience
Throughout the season, Moyer posts Growing Season Updates including timely information on current pests and solutions and Upcoming Events on her This Week in Viticulture e-newsletter. Topics this quarter included Botrytis bunch rot, powdery mildew, and crown gall.
Field Tours, Podcasts, and Blog Posts for Grain Growers
Small Grains Extension Specialist Drew Lyon and fellow WSU Weed Scientist Ian Burke conducted the 2023 Weed Science Field Tour on June 14 at the R.J. Cook Agronomy Farm in Pullman. Presentations included:
- Broadleaf weed control in winter wheat
- Italian ryegrass control in spring canola, spring pulses, and winter pea
- Harvest weed seed control
Lyon joined other members of the WSU Small Grains Team for the annual Wilke Farm Field Day on June 29th. Topics included insect and disease control in grains and brassica, cover cropping and the Washington Soil Health Initiative, and the Pacific Northwest Herbicide Resistance Initiative launched in 2022.
Lyon’s Wheat Beat Podcast included several episodes with IPM implications:
- Research Round Up from the Wilke Farm with WSU Extension Specialist Aaron Esser included crop rotation impacts on weed control
- The Night and Day Differences of Smooth Scouringrush with WSU graduate student Marija Savic discussed the biology and unique properties of this recently troublesome plant and its spread in low- and no-till systems
- Using Biological Characteristics to Manage the Weed Seed Bank with WSU Weed Scientist Ian Burke brought some clarity to a complex topic
The Weeders of the West Blog included these IPM-related posts:
- Crop Competition is Critical for Weed Control by Lyon
- Pacific Northwest Problem Weeds Survey Results by University of Idaho’s Doug Finkelnburg
- Tumbleweeds Tumbling in the Columbia Basin by WSU’s Rui Liu.
Biodegradable Plastic Mulch Presentations and Publications
Vegetable Horticulture Specialist Carol Miles and colleagues including Graduate Research Assistant Srijana Shrestha are spreading the word about biodegradable plastic mulches (BDMs) and their role in IPM and overall crop improvement.
Miles participated in a panel on Use of Plastics in Organic, providing a from-the-field focus on mulches and drip tape use and recycling at Organic Confluences: Reducing Plastic Along the Entire Organic Supply Chain, part of Organic Week 2023 in Washington, DC in May. Other presentations included two California Strawberry Commission events and the Plasticulture, End-of-Life Solutions conference in Oxnard, CA in June.
Several publications were released this quarter under a shared banner of Improved End-of-Life of Plastic Mulches:
- Storing Soil-biodegradable Plastic Mulch On-Farm (pdf) by Miles, University of Connecticut’s Shuresh Ghimire, and California Marine Sanctuary Foundation’s Jazmine Mejia-Muñoz
- Mechanically Laying Biodegradable Plastic Mulch (pdf) by Ghimire and Miles
- Soil Fumigation Compatibility with Soil-biodegradable Plastic Mulch and Tarp Recycling (pdf) by WSU’s Lisa DeVetter, TriCal, Inc.’s Mike Stanghellini, and WSU’s Ben Weiss
- Testing Degradation of Soil-Biodegradable Plastic Mulches by Miles, Ghimire, DeVetter, Weiss; WSU’s Brenda Madrid, Huan Zhang, and Markus Flury; and University of Georgia’s Henry Sintim
These fact sheets and more information on traditional and biodegradable plastic mulches are available on the WSU Plastic Mulches website.