By Anne Harnish Food and Family Features
Editor
LANDISVILLE, Pa. — Biocontrols were the
“young, exciting science” on display along with showy petunias, tall begonias
and succulent portulacas at the horticulture trial gardens field day last
Thursday, July 26, at Penn State’s Southeast Agriculture Research and Extension
Center in Manheim, Pa. The flower trials are one of the largest university-led
horticultural evaluations in the region.
While whorls of brightly colored blooms were
freshened up by an early morning thunderstorm, field day participants learned
how the plant industry is developing and using biocontrols in the plant
industry.
Biocontrols, or “biological controls,” are
part of an integrated pest management (IPM) strategy, in which pests, diseases
and weeds are controlled via biological methods instead of chemical sprays.
Using biocontrols may mean doing things like introducing a fungus to the
greenhouse to decimate unwanted weeds or releasing an insect disease to attack
a plant pest such as aphids.
“Ten years ago, these methods weren’t
available,” said Penn State Extension educator Steve Bogash at the flower
trials. He said that biocontrols use novel forms of action and can persist for
long periods.
As new biocontrol products are coming on the
market, some are being developed as “colonizers” and can provide control of
“truly challenging” pathogens where there was little control available before,
such as with verticillium, fusarium and phytophthora, Bogash said.
He said biological fungicides and
bactericides have amazing potential to supplement and sometimes replace
chemical sprays. Many biocontrols are labeled with a low REI (restricted-entry
interval) number, allowing workers to re-enter a greenhouse soon after
application, rather than having a long waiting period. He and his interns at
the Penn State research farm have graduated to biocontrols and organic
procedures because he said they can’t afford to stay out of the greenhouses for
4-5 days for re-entry as other chemical labels require. During harvest time, a
high REI interferes with their work.
“We’re going to these softer programs,”
Bogash said. “They do more than just coat the plant like with chemicals.”
Many biocontrols are less expensive than
chemicals, he said, and work in a more complex way. He explained that with
plant growth happening in just a few days, a chemical coating applied to the
plant quickly can become ineffective on the new growth.
Bogash described using two biocontrols,
Stimplex and Regalia, and described how they provide a complex series of
actions to protect the plants.
“I want my growers to stay ahead of problems;
not be reactive to them,” he said.
According to “buglady” Suzanne
Wainwright-Evans, who consults on pest management for commercial growers
throughout the U.S., biocontrols work, but they are used differently from what
many growers are used to.
“Don’t give up if it doesn’t seem to work,”
she said. She explained that there may be many reasons why a biocontrol might
not seem to do well, such as pesticide residues on cuttings or if a problem in
the greenhouse is misidentified in the first place. In her work, she gives
growers detailed instructions for how to use biocontrols.
“Proper identification (of a pest) is so very
important,” she said. “And, starting clean’ is critical.”
According to research, said Wainwright-Evans,
many thrips and whiteflies arrive at an operation on new cuttings. Instead of
waiting for a problem to develop, she said, “Some people will now wash cuttings
with (horticultural) soaps and oils first. The problem will only get worse down
the road if cuttings aren’t clean.”
During her lecture, Wainwright-Evans played a
series of graphic videos showing how predator bugs parasitize or attack
greenhouse pests.
Bogash’s recent preference for biocontrols
was influenced by a recent Penn State study of 1,500 home gardeners he said.
“(In the survey) 97 percent said they would
prefer to buy horticulture crops organically grown,” Bogash said. The same
people were surveyed about what they would do if they thought they might lose a
crop, and 40 percent said they would still avoid using chemicals.
“These are your customers,” Bogash said to
the nursery growers in attendance. “The market is headed to organic. People
don’t want chemicals.”
The Blooming Trials
For the flower trials, 21 plant breeders from
around the world enter many of their newly bred and existing plant varieties to
the trials to be evaluated by Penn State Extension research staff throughout
the growing season. Each plant is treated exactly the same during the season
and is evaluated regularly, with the collected data published in the fall on a
CD and online for use by nursery owners, plant breeders, landscapers and
others.
The flower trials team this year included
horticulture professor Rob Berghage, Alyssa Collins, Anne Hawk, Carol Lee
Shirk, Steve Bogash, John Stepanchak, Jim Bollinger and Thong Le. An army of
master gardeners from surrounding counties assists with the work of potting and
daily maintenance of the plants.
“It’s been a team effort, and it’s gone very
smoothly,” Berghage said of his first year taking over as director since former
director Alan Michael retired in December.
“The trials are self-supporting with the seed
companies paying for their entries,” he said. “We try to keep the burden off
the (research) farm.”
Berghage said that overall, plant genetics
are improving greatly over recent years, especially with certain plants like
verbenas, calibrachoas and petunias.
“There is less difference between good and
bad ones than in the past. In general, they are all good now,” he said, though
he acknowledged that the spreading petunias are getting better each year. He
said the calibrachoa “double” blooms were introduced 5-8 years ago, but this
year there is more of a “doubling” effect within the flower than before.
“The angelonias were spectacular this year,”
Berghage said. “And, the begonias are becoming huge and tall, with tremendous
flowers and big leaves.”
There are so many varieties of sweet potato
vines coming on the market, Berghage said, that there are now a huge range in
leaf shapes, colors and sizes.
Vinca has more trailing types than before,
and the pennisetum (grasses) have looked great this year, according to
Berghage.
As for geraniums, he said people still like
them and probably always will. “It’s a stable crop,” he said.
With the category of hanging baskets,
Berghage said that over the last 4-5 years there have been more pre-mixed pots,
which are looking better and better each year, as the breeders figure out which
ones to grow together based on their habits and colors and watering needs.
“Ten to 12 years ago, growers had to mix
their plants themselves,” Berghage said. “Whatever you had leftover, you threw
together in a pot. Nurseries don’t have to worry about that anymore.”
Though the overcast day of the trials meant
that they were slow to open their flowers, a calibrachoa variety that performed
well at the 2010 and 2011 flower trials, Minifamous Igeneration Light Pink Eye,
was well on its way to being a top performer this year, according to the
evaluations for the year so far.
Supertunia Lavendar Skies, a profusely budded
single petunia followed suit, with excellent performances for the last two
years and on course for a great showing this year.
Kate Chernich, with the landscape department
at Masonic Village, said she and her colleagues were at the trials to evaluate
and compare the flowers to their own plantings at the large, landscaped
retirement community.
“I always like coming here. It’s exciting to
see the plants and compare them to ours,” Chernich said. “I’ve noticed with
this year’s weather — early warmth, high heat (which stressed the plants), then
high rains, many plants are splitting out.’ ”
Another new nursery owner, in his second year
of business in Manheim, Pa., was at the trials to look for plants his consumers
would enjoy. He likes to get 10 percent new material each year. If it sells, he
gets more.
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