College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
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Teaching Character and Learning from It, Too
Building Partnerships with Urban Boarding Schools
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EQIPping Growers to Protect the Environment
Timely Notifications Ward Off Vegetable Foes
How Important Are Locally Grown Foods?
Timely Notifications Ward off Vegetable Foes
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Virginia farmers along the Eastern Shore planted approximately 6,000 acres of Irish potatoes in 2007, and the region’s two counties – Accomack and Northampton – account for the vast majority of Virginia’s potato crop.
To increase profitability and reduce the impact of fungicide and insecticide applications in close proximity to fragile coastal estuaries, Virginia Cooperative Extension has brought the latest vegetable disease and pest management tactics to the Eastern Shore.
“Potato disease development relies strongly upon environmental conditions that favor pathogens,” says Steve Rideout, assistant professor of plant pathology, physiology, and weed science at Virginia Tech’s Eastern Shore Agricultural Research and Extension Center (AREC). “If conditions are favorable, disease development can be severe and cause considerable crop loss. However, if conditions are not favorable, unnecessary fungicide applications can reduce producer profitability.”
| "We monitor air temperature, humidity and leaf wetness, and rainfall in our attempts to determine the favorability for potato diseases such as early blight and late blight to occur," Rideout says. |
Rideout runs the Virginia Potato Disease Advisory (VPDA), which notifies commercial potato producers about environmental conditions that might favor disease development. The weekly notifications last through the height of the potato growing season from March to June.
“The system began in 1995 as a mailing to potato growers and those in related agriculture industries. Over the years the VPDA has evolved into a mainly electronic weekly alert delivered through e-mail to producers through the Northampton County Extension Office,” says Rideout. The VPDA also disseminates information via local radio, the local newspaper, and the Virginia Ag Pest Advisory.
Although crop disease monitoring systems exist throughout the commonwealth, the VPDA is the only vegetable disease forecasting system in the state. “We monitor air temperature, humidity and leaf wetness, and rainfall in our attempts to determine the favorability for potato diseases such as early blight and late blight to occur,” Rideout says.
Every commercial potato producer in the region receives the online notifications, which have led to considerable cost savings.
“In 2006 and 2007, the Virginia Potato Disease Advisory saved Eastern Shore producers eight and six fungicide applications respectively, amounting to a total savings of $840,000 for the two years,” says Bill Shockley, agriculture and natural resources Extension agent in Northampton County.
Rideout and Shockley also address disease management for other vegetables in the region, including snap beans, cucurbits, and tomatoes. Accomack and Northampton county farmers grew more than 3,000 acres of tomatoes last year, turning Virginia into the No. 3 tomato-producing state.
Although pathogens are a major threat to these crops, other research at the Eastern Shore AREC focuses on insects with the potential to devastate crop yields.
“We monitor the flight activity of numerous insect pests of vegetable and agronomic crops, as well as certain forest and nursery pests,” says Thomas Kuhar, associate professor of entomology at the Eastern Shore AREC. “In addition, during the summer months, we operate several pheromone traps for European corn borer, corn earworm, fall armyworm, and beet armyworm on farms.”
In addition, the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has funded moth monitoring units and black light traps throughout the Eastern Shore to assist with notifications to farmers. Pest infestation scouts report their findings to growers through the Virginia Ag Pest Advisory and a pest hotline established at the Northampton County Extension Office.
“Growers are able to use this information to apply insecticides in a rational, timely fashion, and to avoid the application of unnecessary sprays,” Kuhar says.