Project Overview

Reports

Commodities

• Additional Plants: greenhouse, hemp, ornamentals

• Fruits: berries (blueberries), berries (cranberries), berries (other), berries (strawberries)

• Vegetables: beans (lima), sweet corn, tomatoes

Target Pests

• Target Pests: aphids, insects, nematodes, other, scale, small fruit insects, weeds & diseases, spider mites, western flower thrips

Practices

• Pest Management: biological control

• Production Systems: agroecosystems, organic agriculture

Augmentative biological control (ABC) is commercially available for several important crops in the Northeast Region and can reduce pesticide inputs and encourage IPM and organic practices. The process of successfully implementing an ABC program includes both a monetary and educational investment by growers, however, there is a lack of resources available online to give growers access to taking the first educational step towards ABC use. Resources freely available online generally fall under one of two categories – either providing information about the background and types of biocontrol (e.g., “What is biocontrol?”) with little information on successful implementation, or directly selling biocontrol (e.g., “Buy our biocontrol agent”). We strongly believe that pulling together available resources into a comprehensive stepwise online guide will greatly increase the number of growers using ABC. This proposal seeks to create an ABC Working Group in the Northeast Region to identify gaps in available information for growers and roadblocks towards adoption of ABC. The objectives of this proposal are to (1) Establish an Augmentative Biological Control Working Group (ABCWG) for the Northeast Region; (2) Gather available resources for growers seeking to implement augmentative biological control, assess missing information, and create new factsheets for gaps in the available resources; (3) Create a website for growers to use to access this information and ensure growers know about it through outreach by working group members; and (4) Workshop ideas for the creation of a shared purchase networking group for growers looking to find an economical way to use ABC.

This project proposes the following objectives:

1. Establish an Augmentative Biological Control Working Group (ABCWG) for the Northeast Region

Anticipated impacts: WG will consist of researchers, educators, and practitioners involved with biological control releases for pest control in indoor and outdoor agriculture.

2. Gather available resources for growers seeking to implement augmentative biological control, and assess missing information, and create new factsheets for gaps in the available resources.

Anticipated impacts: Gaps will be found and need to be bridged between available educational information about ABC, Anticipated gaps may include species-specific: release timing and conditions, pesticide compatibility, and quality control checks.

3. Create a website for growers to use to access this information and ensure growers know about it through outreach by WG members.

Anticipated impacts: Accessible information will be freely available to growers at this “one stop shop” location that will fill the missing gaps of what can currently be found online.

4. Workshop ideas for the creation of a shared purchase networking group for growers looking to find an economical way to use ABC.

Anticipated impacts: Aiding growers who cannot afford large shipment prices for ABC to purchase and share shipments with one another. Specific logistics will be worked out through discussions of the WG.