UMass Amherst: NRE Year in Review

Guarding a cherished New England tradition

On a quiet Tuesday afternoon, Anne Averill is staring up at the list of flavors, trying to decide between raspberry chip and butter pecan ice cream. A man’s voice calls her out of her decision-making. “Anne?” Before she’s had time to spin around and figure out who it might be, he’s wrapped her in a bear hug. Other people in the shop turn to watch. The contradiction of her befuddled face with his words “thank you, thank you” have them wondering who she is. A doctor who helped in an emergency? An accountant who got him through an audit? In truth, she’s an entomologist, an expert in insects, and she’s just saved this farmer’s cranberry crop from being completely devastated by weevils.

Anne works in tandem with a team of other experts, including one in weeds (Hilary Sandler), one in diseases (Frank Caruso), and one in plant physiology (Justine Vanden Heuvel). The colleagues are the heart of the Cranberry Station, a UMass Amherst facility that’s been dedicated to cranberry research for nearly a hundred years. It’s no surprise that the state’s Cranberry growers are huge fans of the Station. Their appreciation extends well beyond the local ice cream parlor. Groups such as the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers and the Cranberry Growers Service make sure that local politicians know just how critical the Station is to their livelihoods.

“Massachusetts cranberry growers are an important part of the state’s economy and they need access to high quality research and educational outreach. These efforts are vital to their ability to continue farming in a rapidly urbanizing landscape. The growers have consistently told me of the crucial role the Cranberry Station plays in delivering research-based solutions to immediate and longer-run problems,” emphasizes Senator Therese Murray.

Because of the Station’s structure, personnel are able to form unique collaborations and investigate potential solutions from multiple angles. For example, flooding a cranberry bog in the spring can help nip fruit rot problems in the bud, which means fungicides may not be needed to control it later on in the summer. For most researchers, the solution would stop there. But how does flooding impact the dodder weed, or the many cranberry insects, or the plant’s own health and integrity? “It doesn’t do much good to have a solution for one particular issue if that solution creates bigger problems in other areas. We have to look at things comprehensively and the Station is unique in its ability to do that,” explains Carolyn DeMoranville, the Station’s Director.

These days Massachusetts cranberry growers face challenges beyond the usual suspects of weeds and insects. In the late nineties when cranberry products were being heavily marketed, demand was high and prices skyrocketed. Farmers in other states followed the boom and planted new bogs with modern techniques. It didn’t take long for a cranberry glut to blossom, for prices to drop below the cost of production, and for many Commonwealth farmers to face impending financial distress. Just when it seemed things were at their bleakest, yet another crisis emerged.

The cranberry weevil is a small insect, but a large problem for growers. In early spring the weevil feeds on the plant’s buds, which destroys those buds’ potential to bear fruit. Next it feeds on the leaves of remaining plants and several weeks later when the surviving flowers are just about to bloom, the female lays her eggs inside the flower bud and seals it up so it won’t blossom. To protect her progeny, the female will actually ‘measure’ the diameter of the bud. If it’s small enough, she’ll leave it be, trusting that her seal will hold. But if it’s too large she’ll cut the bud off the plant, ensuring it never blooms. By mid-summer the next generation of weevils emerges and begins feeding on the buds that are just forming for next year’s crop. One year of bad weevil infestation can actually mean two years of lost crops.

“The cranberry weevil is a native pest, so it’s well adapted to its environment. It’s very good at what it does, which makes it a challenging insect to manage,” explains Anne. Over the last few years Anne has worked with Marty Sylvia, a research technician in the entomology lab, to develop Integrated Pest Management (IPM) techniques for cranberry insects. “We’ve found great solutions for the cranberry fruitworm, the white grub, and the cranberry root grub,” says Anne. “And we continue testing all kinds of things for weevils – flooding, pheromone traps, and other behavioral controls. But so far, only the insecticides have been effective. Fortunately, we’ve been able to find alternative compounds that are far more environmentally friendly.”

Insects commonly develop pesticide resistance and Station personnel had known that the weevil would be no exception. In addition to the IPM research Anne’s team was doing, they had also been working over the last decade to find alternate pesticides. That summer when calls started coming into the Station, they were prepared.

Growers, already financially beleaguered, were seeing heavy weevil infestations. “Under normal circumstances, when the weevils are being managed, you can sweep a net over the vines and only pick up a couple of them. But that season there were hundreds,” says Anne. The population had developed resistance to the sprays and were multiplying. If cranberry growers didn’t get an alternative to the insecticide that they had been using, it would become a true crisis for them. Not only would they be at risk for losing the year’s crop, but given the greater context, many of them would be at risk for losing their farms.

The challenge was getting regulatory approval. “That’s where our partnership really came into play,” says Jeff LaFleur, Executive Director of the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers Association. “We worked on the regulatory end to get the alternates approved. But regulations have to be based on sound science. We needed to go in there knowing that our research was strong enough to defend. And that’s what the Station was able to provide.”

“We went into ’crisis-mode’ and we worked around the clock, day after day,” says Anne. The effort paid off and the alternate compound was approved by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources. In the end, $6-$10 million in cranberry crop was saved. “I think the infestation could have pushed some growers over the edge if we hadn’t found a solution,” says LaFleur.

Since then cranberry prices have recovered to marginally profitable levels and weevil populations have returned to normal. But other challenges continue to loom on the horizon. “We’re growing crops in the third most densely populated state in the country and we’re facing increasing competition from other regions,” says LaFleur. “The Station plays an enormous role in helping us continue to farm in the Commonwealth. Growers need more efficient and environmentally sensitive ways to produce their crops. The Cranberry Station is providing those answers.”