By Ashley Robinson
The May issue of VSCNews Magazine targets the best pest management practices for growers.
Researchers from the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) are already looking ahead and making plans to see what more can be learned about growing hemp in Florida, as they reach the midpoint of their pilot project. Lourdes Rodriguez, a public relations specialist for UF/IFAS Communications, provides a progress update of the UF/IFAS Industrial Hemp Pilot Project and future plans.
In the Southeast, chemical control is the most predominant approach for managing root-knot nematodes in vegetable production systems. However, multiple cover crops are excellent candidates for managing nematodes. Abolfazl Hajihassani, an assistant professor and Extension specialist at the University of Georgia (UGA), and Josiah Marquez, a UGA plant pathology graduate student, address considerations of selecting the cover crop cultivar best suited to your production.
Since its first detection in 2008, spotted-wing drosophila (SWD) has emerged as a devastating pest of berry and cherry crops throughout the U.S. Ashfaq Sial, an associate professor in the Department of Entomology at UGA, gives 10 of his best tips to effectively control SWD while protecting your fruit.
In addition, Hugh Smith, a vegetable entomologist at the UF/IFAS Gulf Coast Research and Education Center in Wimauma, Florida, provides readers with strategies to effectively manage diamondback moth larvae. Diamondback moths, which feed on plants in the crucifer family, develop resistance to insecticides very easily.
Finally, in the From the Back Forty column, growers can find information on relief efforts in the agriculture industry in light of COVID-19. Organizations such as American Farm Bureau and Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services are working diligently to bring some relief to US farmers.
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