Ag Alert. April 12, 2023

Lygus Continued from Page 21

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“Things are looking better, and we don’t seem to be concerned about losing many of these chemistries in the next few years,” Pearsons said. Since growers first experimented with bug vacs to remove lygus from strawberry plants in the 1980s, they have learned much about how low the vacuum should be set and how fast it should travel to achieve maximum efficiency. “In the early 2000s, people started incorporating alfalfa trap crops with the bug vacs,” Pearsons said. “In the 1990s, growers also tried releases of parasitoid wasps.” Alfalfa is an effective trap for lygus because the pest is drawn to it but does not cause crop damage. Weed control in and near strawberry fields can help to reduce lygus pressure in the spring months. It is also important to disk under legume cover crops before they become hosts for lygus. Plant breeders may eventually provide additional help managing lygus damage in strawberries because there are no varieties available that provide tolerance for the pest, as breeding research has focused on resistance to soil-borne diseases. “There might be something in host-plant resistance, but we have more tools than ever before, and we are on the right path with low- er-risk insecticides,” Pearsons said. Increased acreage of organic strawberries should help convention- al growers because it supplies refuges for lygus bugs susceptible to widely used insecticides. But year-round production of strawberries in the state may make it more challenging to protect the crop from lygus damage. “Summer-planted acreage was up fourfold from 2009 to 2021, which means there are strawberries growing a longer part of the year,” Pearsons said. “Lygus don’t have to move to a different crop; they just move from strawberry field to strawberry field.” (Bob Johnson is a reporter in Monterey County. He may be contacted at bjohn11135@gmail.com.)

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Soil Continued from Page 22

pounds when incorporation is delayed until late October. Nitrogen pulled up to the cover crop increases from 163 to 199 pounds an acre during the 19 days in October, and it releases more slowly because the ratio of carbon to nitrogen increases. “The higher the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio, the more beneficial the cover crop,” Smith said. Despite the benefits, most Central Coast vegetable growers find it impractical to include cover crops in their systems. “On average, each piece of Salinas Valley ground is cover cropped every 20 years because of land costs and scheduling problems,” Smith said. That figure could increase, however, as growers see that cover crops sequester nitrogen and give them credits in meeting wa- ter-quality requirements. Compost applications are easier to schedule, but growers report that many buyers ask them not to use compost for food safety reasons. A compost application can add 450 pounds of carbon to the soil, according to Smith, but it mineralizes more slowly than the carbon in crop or cover-crop residue, or in organic fertilizers. “If compost is properly prepared, is it a food safety concern?” Smith asked. UC Davis food safety specialist Trevor Suslow is researching whether and when compost can be applied without endangering food safety. “I’m very excited about the work Trevor Suslow is doing,” Smith said. Once organic matter is in the soil, minimizing tillage helps to keep it there. “Every tractor pass introduces more oxygen into the soil,” Smith said. That oxygen combines with the carbon to form carbon dioxide, which then leaves the ground and enters the atmosphere as a pollutant. (Bob Johnson is a reporter in Monterey County. He may be contacted at bjohn11135@gmail.com.)

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April 12, 2023 Ag Alert 27