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Project Leader: John Mishanec, Area Vegetable IPM Educator, CCE
Cooperators: Albert Sheldon, Sheldon Farms, Salem, NY and Tim Stanton, Feura Farms
Feura Bush, NY
Type of grant: Pheromones; biorationals; microbials; conventional pesticides
Project locations: Washington and Albany Counties, applicable throughout the Northeast.
Abstract:
A common technique in cold climates to speed maturity in sweet corn
is to start the corn under plastic or floating row cover. Once the corn
is from one to two feet tall, the plastic or row cover is removed. Because
it is so much farther advanced than sweet corn planted on bare ground
the crop attracts early season european corn borer (ECB). Scouting for
insect damage is difficult or impossible because the larvae are deep
in the plant. Working with two large-scale growers of row cover sweet
corn, a successful technique for insect control was identified. Pheromone
traps next to the fields are used to monitor early season flight patterns.
At flight peaks, the grower waits 3 to 4 days, than applies an insecticide
spray. After another 3-4 days, a second insecticide application, if
needed, is made. No further applications are necessary. After three
years of informal observation, a formal trial was set up in 2002. With
2003 data collection, our confidence in the process is strengthened.
Growers have developed the growers conducting the trial have confidence
in using this technique and have achieved both high quality early sweet
corn and minimal pesticide applications
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