MN Fruit & Vegetable IPM News - Vol. 2, No. 15

This past season has been a busy one for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture's (MDA) apple and strawberry integrated pest management (IPM) program. The program was the recipient of several funding awards that augmented program activities.

The Minnesota Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association (MFVGA) provided funding to the MDA's IPM Program through a grant they received from the USDA Risk Management Agency. As a result, the MDA was able to increase the number of participants in the apple and strawberry pest monitoring cooperator network. The funding allowed us to provide data loggers and trapping supplies to five apple growers who sent in weather and insect trapping data that was used in the MN Fruit & Vegetable IPM News . Also, as part of this project, two apple and two strawberry growers received input from consultants on various pest problems and suggestions on how to increase the use of IPM in their operations. The four growers were interviewed by our MDA student worker who spent time with each grower. She wrote a profile of each grower discussing their pest management practices. The profiles will appear on the MDA-IPM web site this fall. The printing and mailing costs for the 2005 MN Fruit & Vegetable IPM News were also covered under the grant.

For the past two years, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Region 5, Chicago IL has provided funding for another part of the MDA apple/strawberry IPM project. We received EPA funding to work one-on-one with five apple and five strawberry growers in Minnesota . The purpose of the project was to help these growers to begin using or to increase their use of IPM practices and to monitor their progress throughout the two years. The funding allowed the IPM program to hire an apple pest consultant and a strawberry pest consultant. The grower participants received supplies to trap insect pests and loggers to monitor and collect weather data. The consultants worked closely with the participants throughout the two growing seasons. These growers also contributed data to the IPM program's monitoring cooperator network. Project results will be available this fall on the MDA-IPM web site.

Finally, the MDA-IPM apple program was also involved in the USDA's Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey (CAPS) program for the first time this year. Eight apple growers, throughout the primary Minnesota apple growing regions, volunteered to have traps in their orchards to monitor for three exotic apple insect pests. These pests were the Apple Ermine Moth (Yponomeuta malinellus), Apple Tortrix (Archips fuscocupreanus, Walsingham), and Light Brown Apple Moth, (Epiphyas postvittana, Walker ). Two traps for each insect were placed at each orchard. None of the three exotic apple insect pests were found in any of the orchards.

It has been an exciting season. I want to thank those organizations that provided funding and the many apple and strawberry growers who participated in helping us make this a successful program. I look forward to working with all of the grower cooperators in 2006! Have a wonderful fall and winter. See you in the spring.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Co-Editors: Bill Hutchison (hutch002@umn.edu), Department of Entomology, University of Minnesota, Jeanne Ciborowski, Minnesota Department of Agriculture, Ag. Resources Management and Development Division, and Suzanne Wold-Burkness (woldx018@umn.edu), Department of Entomology, University of Minnesota

The Newsletter is published weekly from May through August, cooperatively, by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) and the University of Minnesota (U of MN). Reports are posted on the U of MN and MDA web sites on Fridays. If you have suggestions and/or comments, please send your contributions by 4 p.m., Wednesday to Jeanne Ciborowski, 651-297-3217, jeanne.ciborowski@state.mn.us , MDA, 90 W. Plato Blvd., St. Paul, MN 55107-2094. You can access the Newsletter at the U of MN web site in htm format at: www.vegedge.umn.edu/MNFruit&VegNews/mnindex.htm and at the MDA web site in pdf format at: www.mda.state.mn.us/biocon/fruitreports/

Partial funding for this publication is provided through partnership agreements with the Minnesota Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association (MFVGA) and the United States Department of Agriculture – Risk Management Agency (RMA). These institutions are equal opportunity providers.

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The University, including the Minnesota Extension Service, is an equal opportunity educator and employer. ©1999-2005 Minnesota Extension Service, University of Minnesota. All rights reserved. Contact copyright@extension.umn.edu for information on reproduction or use of this material.