A Strawberry Multi-dimensional IPM Systems Comparison Demonstration 1997
Author: Joe Kovach, Dept. Entomology, Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, 1680 Madison Ave., Wooster, OH 44691-4096
INTRODUCTION
In New York, weeds, Botrytis fruit rot, and the insects, tarnished plant bug (TPB) and clipper weevils consistently cause problems to strawberry growers each year. Since the last strawberry implementation project ended in 1990, the NY IPM program has funded several research projects on these problem pests. Results from these projects have been encouraging and it may now be possible to grow strawberries in New York with little or no herbicide, fungicide, or insecticide use. By using such cultural methods as cover crops and/or interplanting with rye or sudan grass, herbicide use can be reduced or eliminated. Acceptable disease control can be obtained using cultivar selection, avoidance of spring nitrogen, narrowing rows and using Trichoderma as a biological control agent. Insect injury can also be reduced through cultivar selection, and biological control agents. However, all of these tests were conducted in isolation and there is a need to test these practices in combination with one another before full implementation can be expected. Therefore the primary goal of this project was to conduct a multidimensional system comparison trial to evaluate three different strawberry pest management systems (organic IPM, future IPM, and conventional IPM) for managing the New York pest complex. | 
