Examples of Farmscaping

Cropping System & Problem

Location; Strategy (e.g. beneficial habitat, trap crop) and Details

Researcher and
Contact Information

Stink bugs in Pecans

Texas: Trap crop of black-eyed peas for stink bugs. When the growers compared the average dollar losses from stink bugs between the trap-cropped sites and the non-trap-cropped sites they found that the non-trap-cropped sites sustained $29.29 more stink bug associated losses than did the trap-cropped orchards. It cost the growers approximately $2,112.50 (about $211.25/acre of peas) to establish and maintain the trap-cropped peas. When spread over the 650 acres of the pecan farm being affected by the presence of the trap crops, the growers spent $3.25/acre (of pecans) to establish and maintain the trap crops. The growers determined for every dollar they spent establishing and maintaining the trap crops, they prevented $9.01 in kernel damage from stink bugs.

Kyle Brooksheir
Box 216
Van Horn, TX 79855

(915) 283-2506

Thrips on pepper plants

Florida: Cover crops and weeds as beneficial insect habitat for thrips control. During the summer of 1994 the participants tried Alyce clover and Aeschynomene, both legumes, as cover crops. Rank growth of the latter resulted in these being mowed soon after peppers were planted. The participants also monitored insect populations in a native weed species, Wedelia triloata, found growing abundantly on the ditch banks. This particular weed harbored large numbers of a non-destructive species of thrips, as well as predatory insects, and will be examined further in the future. Future testing of such nursery areas will include a more critical selection of cover crops. The researchers will be seeking plants with a prostrate growth habit that does not interfere with farming operations and that will continue to flower through Florida's winter season. The research found that cover crops are helpful in providing refuges for predatory insects, but more covers with prostrate growth and a winter flowering period need to be identified. USDA entomologists predict that the range of the melon thrips, Thrips palmi, will extend north into Georgia, and west to the Pacific Ocean. Accordingly, nearly all of the nation's winter pepper production is at risk.

Ted & Trudy Winsberg
Green Cay Farms
Rt. 1 Box 331B
Boynton Beach, FL 33437

(407) 499-5345

Establishing Hedgerows as Beneficial Insect Habitat

California: perennial plants and native grasses as hedgerows for beneficial insect habitat for various row crops.

Mary Kimble
221 W. Court St., Ste. 1
Woodland, CA 95695

(530) 662-2037 ext. 3

Lygus bug on strawberries

California: Annual trap crop of one dormant and one semi-dormant alfalfa variety, two radish varieties (Daikon and the edible variety Cherry Belle) and sweet alyssum (Carpet of Snow variety). Preliminary indications are that lygus moving in from surrounding fields settle on the annual trap cop mix. The trap crop can then be treated by chemicals or vacuumed, thereby avoiding any chemical applications to the strawberries.

Sean Swezey/
Polly Goldman
U.C. Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, CA

(831) 755-2889

Integrated sour cherry orchard design effects on pest management

Michigan: The orchard systems include an integrated system of Alternative Insect Management (AIM); and a Permaculture System (PER). A third system, Integrated Pest Management (IPM) which is currently used by progressive growers is included for comparison. AIM is based on fundamental changes in the orchard ecosystem, including mixed species hedgerow barriers to reduce pest immigration and enhance beneficial arthropod abundance; insect pheromone mating disruption; endophytic grasses to inhibit pest abundance; mass trapping; tree mulches and alternative groundcovers to reduce weed competition and enhance biological diversity.

Charles Edson
IPM Program,
Center for Integrated
Plant Systems,
Michigan State Univ.
B18 Food Safety and Toxicology Bldg
East Lansing, MI 48824

(517) 353-5134

Strip-Intercropping clover-alfalfa mix with vegetables for insect pest control

California: Pest break strips (D1) have been effective for enhancing biological control in potatoes and several other row crops. Pest break strips have a dual role: 1) as trap crops, they divert pests away from market crops; and 2) as insectary crops, they grow beneficial insects helping to provide biological control of pests in adjacent rows of vegetable crops. This report noted that control was "Good to excellent. Insect predators and parasites keep aphids and caterpillars under control; leafhopper and leaf miner prefer alfalfa in pest break strips to other hosts." The large-scale trials occurred on a farm in central California. Managers made pest break strips five to seven beds wide (80-inch bed width) at intervals of 350 feet across the farm. Several mixes of grasses, legumes and wildflower were tested for effectiveness in supporting beneficial insects. The most effective mix was found to be predominantly alfalfa (60%) mixed with Dutch white clover, strawberry clover, berseem clover and crimson clover (10% each).

Nature Farming
Research and
Development Foundation
6495 Santa Rosa Road
Lompoc, CA 93436

(805) 737-1536
FAX: (805) 736-9599

Green peach aphid on lettuce

California: W.E. Chaney of the UC Cooperative Extension in Salinas, CA, has done field trials interplanting insectary plants (which provide beneficial insects pollen and nectar) with vegetables for biological control of the green peach aphid. He used sweet alyssum interplanted every twenty rows in a field of lettuce. Alyssum was chosen because it can be seeded instead of using transplants, and will flower in about 30 days. It does not attract either aphids or tarnished plant bugs, is not aggressive, and provides a good food source for parasitic wasps. By adding sweet alyssum and other pollen and nectar plants to monoculture vegetables, natural enemies such as the green peach aphid parasite, Diaretiella rapae, will have a chance to play a greater role in vegetable pest control. Under ideal conditions, Diaretiella rapae parasitized 90-95 percent of available host aphids (D2). Cheney's trial in lettuce provided sufficient reduction of aphids to do without other controls. However, 5 percent of the production area was lost to alyssum. It should be noted that during the course of this research, changes in the lettuce pest complex led to a situation in which the pea leafminer, Liriomyza huidobrensis, was increasing in importance relative to the green peach aphid. As a result, local growers did not adopt this system.

W.E. Chaney
U.C. Cooperative Extension
1432 Abbot St
Salinas, CA 93901

(408) 759-7350

Cabbage aphid in broccoli

Oregon: In an on-farm research trial exploring the use of beneficial insectary flowers to increase the abundance of predatory insects, experimental plots using the insectary plant Alyssum maritima showed a significant increase in predacious syrphid flies caught in traps and in number of syrphid eggs laid on broccoli leaves. Parasitism of the cabbage aphid was doubled in the alyssum plots. Bugg and Ellis (D4) observed that flowers of canola attracted adults of the following species of hoverflies (Syrphidae): Allograpta obliqua (Say), Sphaerophoria spp., Syrphus spp., and Toxomerus spp. Larvae of all of these species are predators of aphids.

John Luna
Oregon State University
Dept. of Horticulture
Corvallis, OR 97331

(541) 737-5430

Diamondback moth on Crucifers

Florida: Trap crops of highly fertilized collards planted in a border around cabbage fields are more attractive to egglaying adult female diamond back moths (dbms). This resulted in minimal damage from dbm to cabbages. In commercial cabbage fields, two rows of collards were planted around perimeters with seven collard plants planted on the ends of each cabbage row. Cabbage fields with collards required 75-100% fewer chemical applications than those without collards. Marketability from both collard and non-collard fields was the same.

Everett Mitchell
USDA-ARS
1600 S.W. 23rd Dr.
Gainesville, FL 32604

(352) 374-5710

Black Flea beetles on crucifers

Eastern Colorado: Radish cultivar, "Japanese Daikon" as trap crop interplanted at 2" intervals within broccoli rows, which were planted 16" apart. This technique reduced the numbers of black flea beetles colonizing broccoli compared to plots without interplanted radishes or with interplanted radishes at lower densities (D7).

Mohammed Al-Dogghairi
1700 W. Plum St. #57F
Ft. Collins, CO 80521

(970) 491-3005 or 5261

Azalea lace bug on Landscape/ ornamentals

New Jersey: The presence of flowering plants--shasta daisy plugs (Little Princess Chrysanthemum maximum and Marconi leucanthemum superbum) and coriander (Coriander sativum)--reduced lacebug numbers because of the buildup of syrphids, lady beetles and other unidentified predators. There appears to be a seasonal impact of flower species on the duration of predator species and abundance. Coriander flowered earlier but more briefly than the two daisy species, and appeared to harbor less diversity than the daisy. However, there were more species of syrphids in the coriander. The azaleas were small, and researchers believe that many released lacewings left the plots. The flowers and azaleas established well, so prospects for clear results are high in 1999.

Paula M. Shrewsbury
Rutgers University
Dep. of Entomology,
J.B. Smith Hall,
P.O. Box 231
New Brunswick NJ, 08903

(908) 932-9324

Leafhoppers and flower thrips in vineyards

California: This study suggests that the creation of corridors of sequentially flowering native plant species can serve as a key strategy to allow natural enemies emerging from riparian forests to disperse over large areas of otherwise monoculture sytems. This study examined distributions and abundance of western grape leafhopper, Erythroneura elegantula, its parasitoid, Anagrus spp., western flower thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis, and generalist predators (D6).

Miguel Altieri
Center for Biological Control
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720

(510) 642-9802

agroeco3@nature.berkeley.edu

Leafhoppers and spider mites in vineyards

California: If properly managed, winter annual, legume/grass (oat/vetch) cover crops can reduce the reliance of grape growers on insecticides and miticides used to control leafhoppers and spider mites. Two systems: 1) the cover crop as dry mulch by cutting the cover crop biomass and placing it on row berms for weed suppression to reduce herbicide use, 2) cover crop was cut and left in row middles. If sulfur dust (used for disease control) was used sparingly in late Spring and early Summer, the presence of these cover crops increased early season activity of predatory mites, resulting in reduced spider mite infestations. Similarly, where leafhopper numbers were not very low and cover crops were properly maintained through early July, the presence of cover crops resulted in reduced infestations of leafhoppers. These reductions were attributed to enhanced activity of certain groups of spiders, which consistently attained higher densities in the presence of cover crops compared to the clean-cultivated systems. Leafhoppers were also utilizing the cover crops as non-host crops, which may have resulted in less time spent on vines.

Frank G. Zalom
Extension Entomologist
Department of Entomology
University of California
Davis, CA 95616

(916) 752-8350
FAX: (916) 752-6004

fgzalom@ucdavis.edu

Aphids in Cereals (D3)

England: Recent research in England indicates that by planting border stips of Phacelia tanacetifolia Bentham (a North American annual that is a good source of pollen for syrphids--syrphid larvae feed on aphids) along cereal fields, significant reductions of aphid populations can be obtained. Increased populations of syrphid flies extended up to 180 meters (195 yards) from the border strips. The researcher notes that in seasons of early crop maturity, syrphid fly larvae may not be able to decrease aphid populations due to lack of attractiveness of the "older" wheat to ovipositing syrphids.

Janice M. Hickman
Department of Biology,
School of Biological Sciences,
Biomedical Sciences Building
The University,
Southamption, SO16 7PX
UK

Pest in Vegetables

North Carolina: Organic vegetable grower plants an insectary strip every 36 feet or so (i.e., if growing canteloupes on 6 foot rows, the 7th row will be an insectary strip, or if growing peppers on 3 foot rows, every 13th row will be planted in an insectary strip). Rye/vetch mixtures are planted in the fall and will flower early in the spring and are plowed down and sequentially replaced with buckwheat prior to the rye/vetch going to seed. For example, one week a third of the rye/vetch rows may be plowed down and replaced with buckwheat. A few weeks later, another third will be plowed down, etc. This way, there is habitat as well as continual pollen and nectar sources for beneficial insects throughout most of the year. During the summer, the buckwheat is also replaced sequentially as it senesces. The farmer states that this system has been very successful.

Kenny Haines
Looking Back Farms
Rt. 2, Box 600D
Tyner NC, 27980

(252) 426-2218
FAX: (252) 426-9661

Pests in Cotton (D6)

Texas: This study examined the predator flux between adjacent planted cotton and grain sorghum fields. It was found that there was a general influx of generalist predators (Orius spp.--minute pirate bug, and Hippodamia convergens--convergent lady beetle) from sorghum to cotton, although dispersion of predators works in both directions and may be dependant on both crop phenology and associated food resources (i.e., lack of or abundance of herbivorous prey).

Jarrad R. Prasifka
Biological Control Lab
Department of Entomology
Texas A&M University,
College Station, TX
77843-2475

(409) 862-3407

jrp7200@labs.tamu.edu

Phylloxera on Grapes

California: A recent 2-year field study (D8) by UC Davis researchers found that soil management practices can significantly influence the amount of root damage resulting from phylloxera-induced fungal infections. The researchers found that per-unit root populations of phylloxera did not significantly differ between organically managed vineyards (OMV) and conventionally managed vineyards (CMV), when both were infested with phylloxera. However, root samples from OMVs displayed significantly less root necrosis (9%) caused by fungal pathogens than did samples from CMVs (31%). Organic vineyard management is characterized by use of cover crops and composts and no synthetic fertilizers or pesticides.

This study sampled four OMVs in Sonoma, Napa and Mendocino counties. Eight CMVs were initially sampled in these counties and San Joaquin County. This was later reduced to five CMVs for practical reasons. All vines except for those in San Joaquin (own-rooted) were on AXR#1 rootstock. No significant differences between OMVs and CMVs were found for single year comparisons of percent organic matter, total nitrogen, nitrate and percent sand/silt/clay. The pooled data for the two years tell a slightly different story: OMVs soil had a significantly higher (by .5%) percent organic matter (%OM) than CMVs soil and over all vineyards and all years there was a weak but significant inverse correlation between root necrosis and soil %OM. Cultures of the necrotic root tissue also revealed some interesting differences: significantly higher levels of the beneficial fungus Trichoderma were found in OMVs in 1997 (but not in 1998) and significantly higher levels of pathogens Fusarium oxysporum and Cylindrocarpon spp. were found in CMVs in 1998 (but not in 1997).

Dr. Jeffrey Granett
380B Briggs Hall

(530) 752-7650
FAX: (530) 752-1537

jgranett@ucdavis.edu