Promising Research of Biopesticide Integration in Small Fruit
Growing Produce
2024.05.06
A number of biopesticides are getting “kind of hot and interesting” in the arena of berry/small fruit disease management, according to Cornell University Associate Professor Kerik Cox. Speaking in March at one of Cornell’s six Winter Fruit Webinars, Cox presented the results of his 2023 biopesticide trial involving day-neutral ‘Albion’ strawberries planted 12 inches apart in double rows during a cold and dry year.
Having previously conducted small fruit projects in 2021 and ’22, Cox is trying to answer the question: Could growers start using biopesticides and single-site fungicides in place of multisite protectants, such as captan, mancozeb, sulfur, and copper?
“These are the types of challenges we have,” Cox said. “We have a pantheon of leaf spots that, once they hit a certain threshold, will end up making it problematic for our berry production, particularly with strawberries. There is a lot of increased consumer and market interest for fruit that is made without multisite fungicides, and then there is interest in fruit that is produced with biopesticides.”
A number of biopesticides are getting “kind of hot and interesting” in the arena of berry/small fruit disease management, according to Cornell University Associate Professor Kerik Cox. Speaking in March at one of Cornell’s six Winter Fruit Webinars, Cox presented the results of his 2023 biopesticide trial involving day-neutral ‘Albion’ strawberries planted 12 inches apart in double rows during a cold and dry year.
Having previously conducted small fruit projects in 2021 and ’22, Cox is trying to answer the question: Could growers start using biopesticides and single-site fungicides in place of multisite protectants, such as captan, mancozeb, sulfur, and copper?
“These are the types of challenges we have,” Cox said. “We have a pantheon of leaf spots that, once they hit a certain threshold, will end up making it problematic for our berry production, particularly with strawberries. There is a lot of increased consumer and market interest for fruit that is made without multisite fungicides, and then there is interest in fruit that is produced with biopesticides.”
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