Outreach Across the US for Hops, Mint, Alfalfa Seed, and Grapes
Washington State IPM Coordinator and Extension Entomologist Doug Walsh hit the road this quarter with outreach spanning 5 states and 4 crops, including:
- Presented Integrated Management of Mites on Hops, Integrated Management of Secondary Pests on Hops, Efficacy and Crop Safety of MB-015 (Burkholderia rinojensis), and Chlorate Residues at the 68th Annual American Hop Convention in Frisco, TX January 16-19.
- Presented Integrated Management of Mites on Mint and Development of a Novel Pheromone Mating Disruption Pest Management Strategy to Proactively Control Mint Root Borer (both to the Scientific Affairs Committee), and Biology and Management of Mites on Mint (to the general session) at the 45th Annual Mint Industry Research Council meeting in San Diego, CA January 24-25.
- Facilitated the Annual Grower Survey and presented Enhancing and Protecting Populations of Pollinators to the Western Alfalfa Seed Growers Association at their 54th Winter Seed Conference in Nashville, TN January 29.
- Participated in the annual meeting of the National Alfalfa and Forage Alliance and met with pesticide product specialists at both the US Environmental Protection Agency and USDA Office of Pesticide Management Policy in Washington, DC February 6-8.
Walsh’s ongoing work on mating disruption in grape mealybug was featured in two articles in the March 4 edition of Good Fruit Grower:
- Mealybug focus for Washington vineyards by Melissa Hansen, Research Program Director for Washington State Wine Commission
- Producing and emitting befuddling pheromones by GFG Associate Editor Ross Courtney.
Vegetable Specialist Award and Onion Storage Results
Regional Vegetable Specialist Tim Waters was honored by the Pasco Chamber of Commerce in January with the Rising Star Award, recognizing “demonstrated commitment to the future of agriculture.” He was concurrently inducted into the Mid-Columbia Agriculture Hall of Fame, joining a distinguished roster known for noteworthy achievements, expertise, and a legacy of impactful results.
Last quarter, this newsletter reported on the 2023 WSU Columbia Basin Onion Cultivar Demonstration Trials (pdf). At harvest in September, the 52 cultivars from 7 different seed companies were evaluated for yield (usable and culls) and size distribution. A subset of the harvested bulbs were placed in storage. In February, this subset was examined for storage-related characteristics including firmness, scale retention, and shape uniformity, as well as for incidence of neck rot, black mold, bacterial rot, Fusarium basal rot, single centers, and sprouts. These data were released as the 2023 Columbia Basin Onion Cultivar Storage Demonstration Results (pdf). Results from previous years’ trials dating back to 1999 are archived. Waters’ colleague and onion trials collaborator, Carrie Wohleb, presented a retrospective summary covering 2013-2023 in Performance of Onion Cultivars in the Columbia Basin: Ten Years of Cultivar Trial Results (pdf) at the Pacific Northwest Vegetable Association conference last fall.
Waters also works with growers of potatoes, carrots and other row crops, and vegetable seed crops. He presented Spider Mites and More at the annual meeting of the Columbia Basin Vegetable Seed Association in January.
Bee Specialist Award and Outreach to Veterinarians
Honey Bee Health Specialist Brandon Hopkins was presented with the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Award as part of the WSU Showcase in March. This award honors a faculty member “whose scholarly contributions and associated outreach efforts have improved lives through engagement with industry or other elements of the private sector.”
Hopkins also presented the WSU Honey Bee Program Update at the annual meeting of the Columbia Basin Vegetable Seed Association in January. His talk included a focus on the effects that nutrition might have on the bees’ pollination services.
The WSU Honey Bee + Pollinators Program has undertaken new outreach to the veterinarian community. Treatments for diseases such as foulbroods and Nosema must be done under a veterinary feed directive (VFD), therefore it is crucial to have veterinarians who are capable of and willing to work alongside beekeepers. Hopkins’ colleague, Ryan Kuesel, has been conducting educational seminars to empower Washington veterinarians to improve hive health.
Concurrently, the WSU College of Veterinary Medicine now has a student chapter for the Honey Bee Veterinary Consortium. By being a part of HBVC, WSU is recognized as a domestic and international honey bee veterinary medicine club with accreditation by the American Veterinary Medical Association.
Resources and Outreach for Tree Fruit Growers
Tree Fruit IPM Extension Specialist Betsy Beers and her colleagues at the WSU Tree Fruit Research & Extension Center in Wenatchee and those involved in Tree Fruit Research and Extension across the state released the 2024 Crop Protection Guide for Tree Fruits in Washington this quarter. Revised annually, the guide contains information on:
- Recommended apple, pear, cherry, and stone fruit IPM programs
- Pesticide safety
- Pollinator protection
- Pesticide resistance management and pesticide intervals and impacts
- and much more
The electronic version is free to use online, and a free pdf version or 174-page full-color version printed ($25.00) is available from WSU Extension.
Additional information on key pests and management strategies is available at Beers’ Tree Fruit IPM website. Highlighted pests include brown marmorated stink bug, codling moth, and spotted wing drosophila.
Among Beers’ outreach presentations this quarter was New Products and Approaches for Codling Moth Management presented at the North Central Washington Apple Day in January. Her talk focused on factors influencing trap catch and presented two years of new product efficacy data. The event was co-sponsored by WSU Extension and the North Central Washington Fieldman’s Association.
Video Helps Growers Assess BDM Deterioration
Vegetable Horticulture Specialist Carol Miles and graduate research assistant Srijana Shrestha continued their outreach on the IPM and other horticultural implications of biodegradable mulch (BDM) with the release of a new BDM Update article this quarter.
Plastic mulches have been widely used in agriculture for weed control, temperature modification, moisture retention, and promotion of earlier harvests. BDM is a sustainable alternative to polyethylene (PE) mulches that are non-recyclable and can present disposal challenges and environmental concerns. BDM provides comparable benefits to PE but is designed to be tilled into the soil at the end of the cropping season, where the fragments biodegrade into carbon dioxide and water and do not impact soil health.
In a video entitled How to Assess Mulch Deterioration as Percent Soil Exposure (PSE), Shrestha demonstrates methods to measure the area of soil exposed relative to intact mulch area, which provides an indication of loss of mulch functionality. With this knowledge, growers can determine which BDM thickness performs best for a particular crop under a given set of biotic and abiotic factors.
For additional information about BDM, its uses, and its degradation, interested growers can visit the Small Fruit Horticulture Research & Extension Program Plastic Mulches website.
Spray Technologies, Rootstock Use, and Quarantine Info in Grapes
Extension Viticulturist Michelle Moyer and colleague Gwen Hoheisel co-managed a session on Getting Every Drop to the Crop: Tools and Technologies for Precision Spray Applications at the WineVit 2024 Convention and Trade Show in Kennewick in February. Sponsored by the Washington Winegrowers Association, this event brings growers, vintners, researchers, and other stakeholders together for 3 days of education and networking. This session discussed and demonstrated a range of tools and strategies to improve spray coverage within a vineyard IPM program.
WineVit 2024 also provided an opportunity to educate growers about use of rootstocks. Washington State wine vineyards have historically been planted with own-rooted vines, but emerging pest pressures are driving the use of rootstocks, which have IPM and other horticultural advantages. Moyer and PhD student Bernadette Gagnier presented posters about rootstocks (Rootstocks 102 – Receiving, Storing and Initial Planting Considerations and Greenhouse Evaluation of Rootstocks Against the Northern Root-Knot Nematode, respectively), and Moyer co-managed a session called To the Root of Grafted Vineyard Management.
On a different IPM topic, Moyer recently curated an online playlist called Stop The Spread: “Pests to Watch Out For” Webinar Series for those interested in identification, management, and migration of Washington State quarantine grape pests.
2023 Weed Control Report and Blog Posts for Dryland Farmers
Small Grains Extension Specialist Drew Lyon, fellow WSU weed scientist Ian Burke, and research associates Mark Thorne, Jessica Kalin, and Marija Savic, released the 2023 WSU Weed Control Report (pdf) in January. This 66-page document summarizes 19 field studies conducted to evaluate management strategies for weeds of concern to dryland farmers in eastern Washington, including growers of winter wheat, spring wheat, pulse crops, spring canola, and Kentucky bluegrass.
Weeds investigated included:
- Italian ryegrass
- Ventenata
- Mayweed chamomile
- Common lambsquarters
- Russian-thistle
- Smooth scouringrush
- Field horsetail
Annual Weed Control Reports dating back to 2013 are also available.
Posts in the Weeders of the West forum relating to IPM in small grains this quarter included:
- Small Grains: The Best and Worst Rotational Crops for Palmer Amaranth Management in the PNW by University of Idaho’s Albert Adjesiwor
- Can Mixed Cover Crops Double as a Weed Control and Soil Health Builder by University of Idaho’s Doug Finkelnburg
- Drone Pesticide Application: The Second Take by Oregon State University’s Joel Felix and Clarke Alder, a weed scientist with Amalgamated Sugar.
Olympic Peninsula Blueberry Pruning, Sweetpotato Success, and More
Regional Horticulture and IPM Specialist Laurel Moulton focused on providing technical assistance to local farmers in Clallam, Jefferson, and Kitsap counties this quarter. Inquiries fielded included:
- Clubroot and wireworm management
- Use of mustard biofumigants
- Restoring scotch broom (pdf) infested pastureland
- Recognizing and managing brown marmorated stink bug, an invasive pest now present in the tri-county area
Moulton hosted three blueberry pruning workshops this quarter for farmers and gardeners. Proper pruning supports IPM by increasing air flow (which can help mitigate disease), providing an opportunity to remove diseased material, and encouraging thorough inspection of plants. Thanks to the Lazy J Tree Farm in Port Angeles for hosting in their U-pick blueberry patch.
A new fact sheet, Growing Sweet potatoes in Western Washington, was created. Sweet potatoes have historically been grown in warmer, southern states, but are proving to be a viable specialty crop in the western Washington counties Moulton serves. Moulton’s Regional Small Farms Program has been working with the In cooperation with the Vegetable Research and Extension team at the WSU Northwestern Washington Research and Extension Center in Mount Vernon to educate growers in propagation, IPM, and successful production of this crop.