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Research team tackles top pests that scourge organic crops


Ithaca, New York, USA
October 23, 2012

Source: Cornell Chronicle

Foodies in search of organic cucumbers may find themselves in a pickle: A new strain of downy mildew is causing many organic growers to abandon the crop.

Cucurbit downy mildew, a particularly explosive pathogen, has joined other pests like striped cucumber beetles and aphid-vectored viruses in threatening cucumbers and other crops.

cucurbit downy mildew on cucumber
$2 million grant will allow researchers to help organic growers combat pests and diseases in vegetables. This photo shows leaf symptoms of cucurbit downy mildew on cucumber. Photo by Michael Mazourek

But now, Cornell researchers are teaming up with colleagues along the East Coast to support the organic production of cucumbers, melon and squash by addressing these pests.

A $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative will fund a four-year project that will allow an interdisciplinary team of eight Cornell breeders, plant pathologists, entomologists, economists and extension specialists to attack the problem on several fronts:

  • Using existing germplasm to breed robust, high-quality cucumber, melon and squash open-pollinated cultivars with tolerance to cucurbit downy mildew, reduced attractiveness to striped cucumber beetles and resistance to aphid-vectored viruses;
  • Evaluating and selecting cucumber, melon and squash cultivars and breeding lines for their performance under natural pest and disease pressure;
  • Developing effective, affordable management strategies to combat these pests through the collaboration of growers, extension staff and university researchers; and
  • Conducting extensive outreach to facilitate adoption of the findings in the eastern U.S. and to support the growth of organic cucurbit production, especially in the southeastern U.S.

Michael Mazourek, Ph.D. '08, the Calvin Noyes Keeney Assistant Professor of Plant Breeding and principal investigator for the project, said these strategies will help many organic growers who currently avoid cucurbit crops because of these pests.

"Since 2003, the acreage devoted to pickling cucumbers has declined by 20 percent as a direct result of the cost and risk associated with downy mildew," said Mazourek.

He added that the fundamental practices used by organic farmers to control pests -- soil building, rotation, plant variety and allowed insecticides and fungicides -- are not completely effective against these insects and diseases, and growers often feel little can be done to manage the problem.

But Cornell researchers have found some solutions that may be effective.

Unheated or minimally heated greenhouses have already been adopted by many organic farmers to extend the Northeast growing season, and early studies suggest that such environments may also help reduce or eliminate cucurbit downy mildew. Copper products may also reduce the severity of the disease, according to research by Christine Smart, associate professor of plant pathology.

What's more, strategic inter-row cropping of other vegetables, such as the perennial legume sericea lespedeza, may provide depositories for viruses when aphids enter fields, and entomologist Michael Hoffmann, director of the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station, is examining whether induced plant volatiles or attractive early flowering squash "trap crops" might help control striped cucumber beetles.

Mazourek has also bred several promising disease-resistant varieties of cucumber and squash.

"We have the genetics for host resistance and management approaches that have proven effective in preliminary trials and on-farm studies," Mazourek said. "Further experimentation with these approaches will lead to innovative crop production strategies that will benefit the entire East Coast region."

Additional collaborators on the project include researchers and growers in North Carolina and Alabama, where squash is a particularly important crop.

"Given the anticipated increase in pest pressure associated with a warming climate, cucurbit research done today in more southerly regions will ultimately benefit agricultural systems to the north as shifts in distribution in pests and crops occur," Mazourek said.

By cey Shackford, staff writer for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.



More news from: Cornell University


Website: http://www.cornell.edu

Published: October 23, 2012

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