Strawberry growers take strides towards Integrated Pest Management, with new research showing promise

STRAWBERRY GROWERS TAKE STRIDES TOWARDS INTEGRATED PEST

MANAGEMENT, WITH NEW RESEARCH SHOWING PROMISE

Words by Hugh Chesterman : Communications and Events Assistant, HortNZ

Early findings from a three-year research project into thrips management are already yielding promising results, and sparking conversations about how Integrated Pest Management, or IPM, can be adopted by the industry.

More than 50 strawberry growers, consultants, and industry specialists attended a field day on 14 January to see field trials at Anthony Rakich’s Danube Orchards. The field day marked a key milestone of the Sustainable Farming Fund research project which seeks to find new ways to treat thrips using an IPM based approach. At Anthony’s family property, Plant & Food Research are testing, in consultation with Dr Paul Horne (IPM Technologies Pty Ltd, Australia) and Chris Thomson (Bioforce Ltd), a range of IPM strategies as part of the “Future-proofing thrips management in strawberries” research project.

If we’re able to have less pests and use less spray, we’ll have a better product. That would be a win-win for everyone

“The results have been really exciting,” said Anthony. “Thrips numbers are already starting to come down, and I’ve been finding predators that have been released spreading to other blocks. It’s really cool to see. “We’ve learnt a lot from the trials already. We missed an opportunity to spray early on which could have helped the establishment of predators, but it’s all part of building information that growers can use about what to do and when to do it.

“I’m really optimistic about what IPM can offer. I want to be able to have a programme that doesn’t rely on sprays, especially with resistance increasing. I think it would be great for the industry if we’re able to embrace it early while we still have an arsenal of working soft chemistries. “As an industry, we want people to buy strawberries. If we’re able to have less pests and use less spray, we’ll have a better product. That would be a win-win for everyone.” To understand what species of thrips, other pests, and their natural enemies are present on strawberry crops, the first year of the project sought to identify bugs present in crops and review what has worked overseas in treating pests. “A cornerstone of the trials, and any IPM strategy, has been monitoring the numbers of pest species and their naturally occurring predators,” said Dr Mette Nielsen, Entomologist at Plant & Food Research. “By monitoring levels in our test block against Anthony’s control block, we’re able to test the effectiveness of various IPM interventions.

Blue sticky traps and the release of commercially available predatory mite controls such as Cucumeris, Hypoaspis and Persimilis have already been successfully deployed in Danube Orchards this season.

“Cucumeris mite has proved to be a promising beneficial (predatory insect) that is already on the market. It feeds on the early larval stages of thrips, disrupting their lifecycle. They also can feed on other pests such as the ‘two spotted spider mites’. “We’re also looking at what pesticide products most accurately target pests. By combining field monitoring with spray diaries, we’re able to get a good picture of which sprays are most effective and don’t disrupt beneficials.”

Mette Nielsen (standing) presented findings from the SFF project and Paul Horn answered questions via Zoom

Integrated Pest Management, as Mette Nielsen explains it, “is all about identifying what pests or issues you are noticing, seeing what’s causing it, and then looking at all the options available to react to it. It’s not all about not spraying because sometimes you do need to step in and give the beneficials some help.” Industry adoption of Integrated Pest Management is an alluring prize that could come from this project. Australian IPM specialist Dr Paul Horn said that the New Zealand industry has a unique opportunity to proactively adopt IPM. “New Zealand growers can adopt IPM before pests become resistant to chemicals,” Paul said via Zoom.

Neither biologicals nor spray will do it all. It’s about using all tools available to you and trying to prevent issues before they happen. IPM has been very successful here in Australia, and there’s no reason it can’t work in New Zealand

“When the Victoria strawberry industry moved to IPM, it was because they had to – chemicals alone were not working. “Here, the New Zealand industry has the advantage of moving towards IPM before you use all the tools in the toolkit. You can keep targeted chemicals working for a long time when you’re not using them frequently. “Neither biologicals nor spray will do it all. It’s about using all tools available to you and trying to prevent issues before they happen. IPM has been very successful here in Australia, and there’s no reason it can’t work in New Zealand.

Plant & Food Research has been trialling blue sticky traps and releasing Cucumeris mites

“When strawberry growers in Australia started with IPM, they had the same beneficials as what’s currently available on the market in New Zealand. It is important to start thinking about incorporating IPM while the chemistry options still work.”

The “Future-proofing thrips management in strawberries” research project is co-funded by Ministry for Primary Industries and Strawberries Growers New Zealand Inc, with research led by Plant & Food Research and Berryworld Ltd. The three-year project is also a collaboration with industry providers Adria Crop Protection, Orion AgriScience, Agpro NZ Ltd, Bioforce, and Zonda. Dr Paul Horne’s involvement is supported via an AGMARDT Visiting Fellowship.

WHY IPM?

The strawberry industry started this project to tackle the challenge of managing thrips through the use of Integrated Pest Management, which can earn a premium when adopted overseas. New Zealand growers saw that, in Europe, IPM grown produce attracts a higher price by minimising the use of sprays. For example, in European markets there are three levels of ‘premium’ based on how strawberries are grown: Traditional (no premium); IPM (normal premium); Organic (very high premium). A key principle of IPM is less reliance on insecticide sprays by preventing pests where possible. Fewer pests mean that less fruit gets damaged, leading to a higher quality product. Less spray can mean a healthy ecosystem, lower costs and potentially greater market access.

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