Development of an Integrated System for Controlling San Jose Scale, Peach Twig Borer, Oriental Fruit Moth, Western Flower Thrips and Katydids in Clingstone Canning and Fresh Shipping Peaches, Plums and Nectarines

Gary Van Sickle
California Plum Marketing Board
PO Box 968
Reedley, CA 93654
559-638-8260
559-638-8842 (fax)
gvansickle@caltreefruit.com

Project Duration: August 1, 2001 to July 31, 2003

	Request	Matching Funds (Not Required)
		Non-Federal	Federal
First Year Funding	38,000	177,899	0
Second Year Funding	40,000	181,089	0
Total Funding Request	78,000	358,988	0

Executive Summary

Significant research progress was achieved in 1999 and 2000 to address clingstone canning and fresh shipping peach, plum and nectarine integrated pest management (IPM) throughout California. The purpose of the proposed 2001/2003 project is to augment and expand upon the information gathered in the first two years of this endeavor. This proposal incorporates the current year of a multi-year project funded by the California Cling Peach Growers Advisory Board (CCPGAB), California Tree Fruit Agreement (CTFA) and the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR). [The California Plum Marketing Board program is an instrumentality of the California Department of Food and Agriculture and is managed by the California Tree Fruit Agreement.] The CCPGAB and CTFA are separate commodity organizations that have partnered in an effort to deal with the implementation of the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA). DPR's contribution ($89,425 for 2001) is limited to those portions of the project, which focus on the use of reduced risk alternatives. This alliance would seek that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) assist with the research and demonstration of the reduced risk materials. [A grant proposal for $7,200 has been submitted to EPA Region 9's Agricultural Initiative program to be applied towards grower outreach and extension activities.] The primary pests this project will study include San Jose scale (SJS), peach twig borer (PTB), oriental fruit moth (OFM), Western flower thrips and katydids. Stone fruit growers need to develop an understanding that changes due to the FQPA are eminent and they need to understand what the costs and benefits of the alternatives are in order to determine the alternative control practices that best fits their needs. The desired environmental impact would be a reduction in their usage of organophosphates (OP) and carbamates.

Objectives

There are six objectives for the project during the first year.

Continue research (from previous 2 years), refine and implement changes to pest management systems in grower demonstration plots emphasizing the use of non OP and non carbamate insecticide alternatives.
Continue laboratory efficacy trials with selected natural enemies for control of SJS; and evaluate impact of commercially used insecticides on their natural enemies.
Continue field data collection for SJS bionomics and ecology.
Study the biology of secondary pests (i.e., katydids) and the effects of reduced risk practices on their management.
Screen the efficacy of oils and Insect Growth Regulators (IGRs) on various life stages of SJS and test for cross-resistance between OPs and IGRs.
Conduct grower / Pest Control Advisor (PCA) education and outreach events to routinely showcase research and grower demonstration plots.

For Year Two: For a research / demonstration of this type to be acceptable to growers and have potential for them to implement, it is important the project demonstrate sustainability. This necessitates the need for the entire project to be replicated in year two. Objectives for year two will be identical to year one, except objective "f" will include a survey of the industry that will be conducted to help measure the implementation of reduced risk practices by industry. The survey will be compared to a baseline established at the end of the 2000 harvest season.

Justification

Objective a

To be successful there needs to be an increase in the orchards being farmed with reduced risk practices. Growers and PCA's want to know that not only do these programs control targeted pests (San Jose scale, peach twig borer, oriental fruit moth, Western flower thrips and katydids), but that they are also economically competitive with conventional programs.

Objective b

The value of this work will be to determine if small amounts of residual insecticides can kill SJS parasitoids, which may explain the poor natural regulation of SJS after orchards receive only 1- 2 insecticide applications. Information sought will be on the residual activity of each insecticide on different insect species, which will prove valuable with respect to insecticide timing and potential secondary pest outbreaks.

Objective c

To be successful there needs to be a determination if the populations of resident natural enemies have increased in the demonstration orchards and if the incidence of damage from SJS is reduced from historical levels for each orchard involved. There also needs to be a determination if the released parasitoid species is more beneficial than the resident natural enemy species.

Objective d

As orchards are converted to reduced risk materials, the secondary pests, such as katydids, may no longer be targeted by the treatment. The expected outcome of this work will be to gain the information needed to eliminate the potential for secondary pests to become primary pests and to do economic damage without resorting back to harsher chemicals for treatment. Information on how to identify and treat secondary pests will be reported at grower meetings.

Objective e

Education regarding biological control of SJS will be the outcome of this objective. Results will be incorporated into the development of a comprehensive resistance management plan for stone fruits. A workshop will be held for growers and PCA's to provide more detailed information on biological control.

Objective f

CTFA and CCPGAB will communicate with growers and PCAs regarding all aspects of the project. Successful components will include newsletters, updated websites and well attended demonstration days during and after the season. Additionally, to evaluate the information dissemination component of the project, after the second year a survey of the industry will be conducted and compared to a baseline (established in 2000) to help measure the implementation of reduced risk practices. The survey can also help to identify key areas of further research and educational needs.

Literature Review

The primary sources of information regarding this project are reports from the researchers involved. Their reports have been published in the 1999 and 2000 editions of California Tree Fruit Agreement's annual compilation of research reports for funded projects. Reports included in the 2000 edition are:

Pest Management in Stone Fruits, a Demonstration and Feasibility Evaluation with Walt Bentley having served as the project leader.
San Jose Scale and its Natural Enemies: Investigating Natural or Augmented Controls with Dr. Kent Daane having served as the project leader.
Development of a Biochemical Assay for San Jose Scale Resistance to Insecticides with Dr. Beth Grafton-Cardwell having served as the project leader.

Approach and Methods

Objective 1:

Demonstrate and compare the efficacy and economics of pest control techniques that do not rely on OP, carbamate, or pyrethroid inputs to control stone fruit pests in "grower demonstration" sites in several counties throughout California. In addition to continuing the grower demonstration plots previously established in Fresno, Kings and Yuba Counties, potential cooperators in Kern, Madera and Tulare Counties have been identified and have been asked to participate. Reduced risk pest management practices developed during the previous year of the project will be implemented in these additional grower sites. Reduced risk practices include: dormant scale and mite assessment; OP free dormant application (oil only); use of Bt and pheromone mating disruption for control of PTB and OFM; monitoring of PTB and OFM with pheromone baited traps and shoot strike evaluations; SJS monitoring with double sided sticky tapes, fruit samples and pheromone traps to determine both scale and parasitoid populations and percent pest damage at the time of harvest. Monitoring of traps will be accomplished weekly for each site. Katydids, western flower thrips and mites will also be monitored and low impact oils or reduced risk materials will be used if necessary. The reduced risk material Success® (Spinosad), will be used to control katydids and thrips. Mite control will be accomplished with the reduced risk material Apollo® (Clofentezine). Each site, if possible, will be compared to a comparable acreage of a monitored commodity treated with traditional OP dormant and in-season sprays. In addition, the costs associated with the relative levels of control in the non-disruptive and conventional pest management programs will be recorded to illustrate the competitiveness of the reduced risk approaches. Several of these sites will also be used for demonstration at grower / PCA field days.

Objective 2:

Determine the effect of commonly used OP pesticides (e.g. Lorsban®, Carzol®) on selected natural enemies of SJS. To test the effect of OP pesticides on natural enemies of SJS, field and laboratory trials will be conducted. Leaf or twig samples will be collected from peach trees treated with conventional OP pesticides to conduct a leaf-dip bioassay. Leaves will be dipped in different pesticides at different percentages of a field-rate dilution. Leaf material will be allowed to dry and then placed in open-ended glass tubes. Parasitoids will be added to the tubes, which will be sealed with organdy cloth. Each day thereafter, the condition (live or dead) of the parasitoids will be determined. The second test will be more complex. At the Kearney Agricultural Center, trees will be sprayed with the same pesticides at label rates and at the appropriate time. Thereafter, leaves will be removed from the trees on different days after pesticide application dates. These "field-sprayed" leaves will be used to bioassay SJS parasitoids as described above (leaf-dip bioassay), which will determine the number of days after field application the pesticides cause mortality of parasitoids. The value of this experiment is that it provides a more realistic determination of a pesticide's effect on parasitoids after a number of days following application, with pesticide degradation progressing under actual field conditions. This work is needed to determine if small amounts of residual pesticides cause mortality of parasitoids, which may explain the poor natural regulation of SJS after orchards receive only 1 to 2 pesticide applications (often for moth or mite pests).

Objective 3:

Continue to assess the SJS population dynamics and evaluate the potential of natural and augmented biological control. Field monitoring of adults and immatures will be accomplished using a variety of sampling techniques: Pheromone traps, visual inspection of plant material, and double sided adhesive tapes will all help in determining the distribution and abundance of SJS in the field. To evaluate parasitoid activity, SJS infested squash will be placed in selected orchards for a 2-3 week period and later the squash will be returned to the insectary to determine parasitoid composition and percent parasitism. Field collections of parasitoids will also be made throughout the season to assess levels of parasitism and distribution within the tree canopy. Destructive samples will also be obtained to correlate plant infestation data with trap data. The appropriate experimental designs and statistical analyses will be utilized to evaluate population information.

Objective 4:

Study and document the biology of secondary pests (i.e., katydids) that have increased in population, in certain environments, due to implementation of reduced risk practices. Sampling methods during the growing season will include leaf damage assessment, sweep net counts and beating tray counts for katydids. Katydid eggs will be collected from "cages" and maintained for evaluation of over wintering emergence and survival in the spring. Soft-bodied scale will be surveyed in the field and counts will be recorded.

Objective 5:

Examine the effects of reduced risk materials (e.g. oils and the Insect Growth Regulators (IGRs) Esteem® and Applaud®) on various life stages of male and female SJS to determine the most effective timing for application of the materials. First, second and third instars of male and female SJS will be tested for their susceptibility to oils and the IGRs Esteem® and Applaud®. The second part of the objective will be accomplished by testing the OP resistant and susceptible colonies of SJS with each of the IGRs Esteem® and Applaud®, to see if there is any cross-resistance between these materials. All information collected on the nature, mechanism and level of resistance present in SJS will enable researchers to develop a comprehensive resistance management plan to be used in an overall pest management strategy for stone fruit pests in California orchards. A workshop on biological control will be provided for growers and PCA's. Objective 6: Continue to enhance communication and information dissemination to the stone fruit grower community. The communications infrastructure of CTFA, along with cooperating CCPGAB and UC Cooperative Extension personnel, will continue to enhance the exchange of information regarding project progress between researchers, growers, and PCAs. CTFA and CCPGAB will provide stone fruit growers with quarterly updates of project progress through industry websites and newsletters. In addition, 5 field days will be coordinated, one each in late April, May, June, July, August and October, in cooperation with the University of California, so researchers may communicate directly with growers and PCAs. CTFA and CCPGAB will provide an annual report of research progress published in their annual Research Reports. Research results will also be incorporated into appropriate internet sites and UC pest management guidelines.

Year Two: For a demonstration of this type to be acceptable to growers and have potential for them to implement, it is important the project demonstrate sustainability. This necessitates the need for the entire project to be replicated in the second year. Objectives for year two will be identical to year one, except objective 6 will include a survey of the industry that will be conducted to help measure the implementation of reduced risk practices by industry. The survey will be compared to a baseline established at the end of the 2000 harvest season, and can be used to identify key areas of further research and educational needs.

Impact Assessment

It is anticipated that this program, from the demonstration aspect through the outreach function, should have a substantial impact on informing stone fruit growers / PCAs of the severity of the problems associated with the use of OP's and carbamates, and should introduce them to practical reduced risk alternatives that they can implement. The success of the project can be measured via several avenues. We anticipate to compare the DPR Pesticide Use Report (PUR) to years prior to this research and note declines in the use of OPs and carbamates. We will also have our survey conducted at the end of the second year to compare back to the baseline established in 2000. The desired environmental impact for humans and ecosystems will be a reduction in the use of OPs and carbamates and the increase of reduced risk practices being implemented.

Appendix A. Literature Cited

None

Appendix B. Timetable

Table is too complex to recreate in webposting.

Appendix C. Major Participants

Walt Bentley, IPM Advisor, UCCE - Kearney Ag Center, Researches and implements reduced risk practices
Gary Van Sickle, Research Director, California Tree Fruit Agreement, 36 years agricultural experience
Dr. Kent Daane, Entomologist, UC Berkley - Kearney Ag Center, Researches and implements biological control practices
Dr. Beth Grafton-Cardwell Entomologist UC Riverside - Kearney Ag Center, Extensive experience with scale
Heidi Sanders Research Coordinator California Cling Peach Growers Advisory Board, 10 years agricultural experience
Robert Jackson Grower Participant Daybreak Farms, Tulare County
John Kovacevich Grower Participant Kovacevich & Sons, Kern County
Janine Hasey Farm Advisor UCCE - Sutter and Yuba Counties, Researches and implements reduced risk practices
Carolyn Pickel IPM Advisor UCCE - Sacramento Valley, Researches and implements reduced risk practices
Kevin Day Farm Advisor UCCE - Tulare County, Pomologist for stone fruit
Bob Beede Farm Advisor UCCE - Kings County
Pat Pinkham Grower Participant Pinkham Bros., Tulare County
Harry Andris Farm Advisor UCCE - Fresno County, Stone and pome fruits
Shawn Steffan Staff Research Associate Kearney Ag Center, Coordinates field activities
Steve Strong Grower Participant / PCA CTFA Research Subcommittee, Venida Packing
Bill Green PCA/Grower Relations CTFA Research Subcommittee, LVR Corp.
Rod Milton Grower CTFA Research Subcommittee
John Tos Grower CTFA Peach Administrative Committee, Tos Farms, Inc.
Bill Tos Grower Participant / Chairman Tos Farms, Inc. / CTFA Research Subcommittee
Rick Schellenberg Grower Participant CTFA Nectarine Administration Committee, Schellenberg Farms
Norman Kline Grower Participant CCPGAB Research Chairman
Sarb Johl Grower CCPGAB Committee

Appendix D. Project Budget

Project Period: August 1, 2001 to July 31, 2002 (Year One)

Budget Category	Grant Funding	Other Funding	Total Funding
Personnel		$22,500	$22,500
Fringe Benefits			Inc. in personnel
Travel	1,000	4,000	5,000
Equipment			Inc. in contractual
Supplies	3,000	15,725	18,725
Contractual	34,000	129,674	163,674
Other - Grower Outreach		6,000	6,000
Total	38,000	177,899	215,899

Project Period: August 1, 2002 to July 31, 2003 (Year Two)

Budget Category	Grant Funding	Other Funding	Total Funding
Personnel		$22,500	$22,500
Fringe Benefits			Inc. in personnel
Travel	1,000	4,000	5,000
Equipment			Inc. in contractual
Supplies	3,000	15,725	18,725
Contractual	34,000	129,674	163,674
Other - Grower Outreach - Grower Survey	2,000	6,000 3,190	6,000 5,190
Total	40,000	181,089	221,089