Author
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Brown, Mark |
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Submitted to: Acta Horticulture Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings Publication Acceptance Date: 6/27/2002 Publication Date: N/A Citation: N/A Interpretive Summary: Technical Abstract: It is generally recommended that broadleaf plants in and around peach orchards must be controlled to minimize damage from stink bugs (Pentatomidae) and plant bugs (Lygus spp.). In research orchards located in West Virginia, USA, I have been growing peach trees as a monoculture or interplanted with apple, with and without the presence of broadleaf flowering plants. The flowering plants were used to enhance biological control of peach and apple insect pests. For two years, 1999 and 2000, damage to fruit by stink bug and plant bug was not significantly different in orchards with flowering plants and reduced insecticides as compared with an insecticide treated check orchard with just grass row middles and scattered broadleaf weeds. I suggest that vigorous, flowering broadleaf plants in peach orchards are more attractive hosts for stink bugs and plant bugs than are the peach fruit, and their presence can reduce damage by these insects thereby reducing the need for insecticide applications through early and mid-summer. |
