Funding

Through increased adoption and implementation of effective IPM strategies, this EIP Project supports National Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Road Map goals of achieving increased profitability while reducing human health and environmental hazards. We will address stakeholder-identified priorities by integrating applied research and outreach activities for specialty crop growers in Massachusetts. Massachusetts produces more than 70 types of specialty crops and many of the farmers we work with grow more than 30 different crops on their farms. This project will focus on whole-farm IPM approaches tailored to fit diverse specialty crop growers. Specific commodity issues identified as high priorities by growers will be addressed through our applied research and demonstration trials and outreach programs.

The Brassica Pest Collaborative (BPC) is a project funded by Northeast-SARE that brings together Extension educators and researchers from UMass, UConn, UNH and Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County to collaborate on research and education to improve management of this suite of insect pests.

Our Project goal is to deliver effective and timely IPM information and recommendations to MA vegetable and fruit growers that enable these specialty crop growers to achieve increased profitability while reducing adverse risks to human health and the environment.

Demand for fresh, local greens in winter is limitless, and production is not nearly meeting demand, representing a huge opportunity to increase financial sustainability of individual farms and food systems. Currently, there is a gap in knowledge across our region about occurrence, biology, and management of downy mildews of winter greens, and we are lacking for modern, efficient leafy greens production systems. These two factors are limiting farm revenue and profitability, and limiting consumer access to fresh, local greens year round.

This project is addressing these concerns through research, outreach, and education. Activities of this grant include farmer case-studies to generate enterprise budgets and evaluate profitability of production methods, field trials on varieties and plant establishment, educational programming to increase adoption of cost-effective production methods, and disease diagnostic support.

In 2018, Extension personnel from the Universities of Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island documented production practices and took soil and leaf samples from 20 tomato high tunnels in those 4 states, with support from the New England Vegetable and Berry Growers' Association. Soil and tissue samples were analyzed at the Universities of Maine and Massachusetts labs. View the project report for guidelines for optimizing tomato production based on the data collected. NOTE - this project surveyed current practices and conditions in a variety of tunnels; additional research is needed to quantify the impact of different management and fertilization practices.

Improving management of cucurbit diseases, especially cucurbit downy mildew (CDM), has been consistently identified by growers and processors in MA as a major research priority in the past ten years. In 2004, new strains of CDM arrived which had overcome resistance that was then standard in all cucumber varieties and adequately controlled the disease. Since that time, growers have struggled to produce late-season cucurbit crops, and have experienced yield losses to fall-harvested crops such as winter squash, as ripening and curing of fruit is now routinely cut short due to late-season disease. In 2016, the UMass Vegetable Extension Program conducted 2 research trials to evaluate new downy mildew-resistant cucumber cultivars and to evaluate the impact of combining the use of host-resistance with the use of alternative, reduced-risk fungicides that can be used in organic cropping systems.

The goal of this project is to adapt UMass Extension produce safety training materials for vegetable and fruit growers to address the requirements of the Food Safety Modernization Act’s Produce Rule, and to work with other agricultural organizations around the state to broaden the audience for training delivery. In the long term, we aim to establish a training program and curriculum that continues to meet and respond to the needs of MA produce growers by supporting and encouraging a culture of on-farm food safety.

Across the Northeast, high-tunnels are being used with increasing frequency to lengthen the season of spinach and other greens to have produce to sell all winter long.  In this high intensity, year-round system, insect and disease pests build up over time and can become difficult to control.  In this study, UMass Extension partnered with Queen’s Greens—a commercial vegetable farm with a focus on year-round production of organic greens—to evaluate efficacy of biopesticides to improve germination, reduce disease severity, and improve yields in winter-grown spinach.

We conducted lab and field trials to: a) determine if certain biocontrol organisms are more cold tolerant than others and would thus be better suited for use in winter production systems; and b) if any of the products evaluated can significantly increase crop yield and quality.

In New England, European corn borer and pepper maggot are the most common insect pests of pepper fruit. In many locations, peppers picked at the green stage are only marginally affected by ECB, but those left in the field long enough to ripen fall prey to ECB, then to soft rots. During the 2012 season, the UMass IPM team worked with several growers to see if releases of the parasitic wasp Trichogramma ostrinae could increase their yield of healthy bright red and yellow fruit. In the process, the team observed increased incidence of pepper anthracnose in the fields in which they were working.

Preserving and improving soil health/quality/resiliency continues to be an area of strong interest and concern for MA land stewards. Not unique to MA, this concern has been echoed across the region and nationally leading NRCS to emphasize soil health awareness as a continued priority with a special emphasis on cover cropping.