IPM and Monitoring

As we start the growing season, there are several newly registered pesticides available and these new reduced risk products need a good understanding of how they work and good idea what is happening in field in order to get the best possible results. It is important to have an IPM program in place.

Regular scouting or monitoring is the foundation for effective integrated pest management. It entails looking for insects, diseases and weeds at critical times and recording their incidence to determine when and if you need to manage these pests. Everyone has good intentions at the beginning of the growing season to do this job on a regular and consistent basis but then other priorities get in the way and monitoring slips down to the bottom of the "to do" list. By the end of the week it hasn't been done. A smart plan is to designate someone on your farm or hire a pest management scout to make sure this job is done. If you don't have someone from your farm, several companies provide scouting services and in some areas, there are grower groups that share a scout to monitor their fields, orchards and vineyards on a weekly basis. Now is the time to get this person in place.

You need someone who can work independently, be flexible and resourceful. This person needs to be organized, a good record keeper and good communicator. There is no point in gathering up all this information if they don't give you the information in an organized and timely manner. A reporting system needs to be in place. The scout should like to work outside, be observant and pay attention to detail. However, the first step in becoming a good IPM scout is that they should be trained on the basics of crop scouting and integrated pest management.

OMAFRA has planned at series of IPM workshops for a wide range of fruit and vegetable crops starting at the end of April through to the end of May, and upon request, follow up field training during the growing season. You can find the list of workshops on the OMAFRA website at the horticultural section of the conferences and meetings page. http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/conferences/index.html#hort

To register for any of these workshops call the OMAFRA AG Information Contact Centre at 1-877-424-1300 or the Brighton OMAFRA office at 1-613-475-1630.