Location: Vegetable Research
2022 Annual Report
Objectives
1. Obtain efficacy and residual data of insecticides, miticides, herbicides and fungicides on vegetable crops and ornamentals against insects and mites.
2. Provide national leadership in coordination of the minor use pesticide program in ARS; ensure compliance with all Federal GLP directives; and review, evaluate, and coordinate the development of data on efficacy, phytotoxicity, and residue data and ensure that these data are acceptable toward obtaining registrations for minor crops.
Approach
Field evaluations of insecticides, miticides, fungicides, and herbicides will be conducted on vegetable and ornamental crops. Research will be conducted according to IR-4 protocols and good laboratory practices. No specific treatments can be mentioned ahead of time because program needs change depending on industry requests. Residue samples will be assayed by appropriate federal, state, or private laboratories.
Progress Report
There is a need to develop data to support the registration of new pesticides for use on specialty food crops (fruits, vegetables, nuts, etc.) and on non-food environmental horticulture crops (floral, nursery, landscape plants, Christmas trees, etc.). Therefore, ARS researchers in Charleston, South Carolina, coordinated and conducted pesticide research on specialty crops in cooperation with other ARS sites and the IR-4 Project (previously named Interregional Research Project #4) and cooperating crop protection industries. The IR-4 Project is a national minor-use pesticide program (headquartered at North Carolina State University) that develops data required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to register pesticides on specialty crops. ARS field researchers in Charleston, South Carolina; Tifton, Georgia; Salinas, California; Wapato, Washington; and Wooster, Ohio participated in 26 IR-4 sponsored USEPA Guideline Magnitude of the Residue studies by performing 62 trials with crop protection chemicals on food crops that were initiated in 2021. In 2022, these ARS sites performed 24 studies contributing residue samples from 44 field trials. ARS scientists in Tifton, Georgia, and Wapato, Washington are contributing to IR-4 by analyzing 172 sample set of residue samples developed at various IR-4 field locations (state and federal) in 2021/2022. Also, data on the non-food environmental crops were developed by ARS researchers at Charleston, South Carolina; Corvallis, Oregon; Tifton, Georgia; Wapato, Washington; Wooster, Ohio; and ARS state cooperators at Rutgers University; these researchers established 136 pesticide/crop combinations to treat ornamental plants with pesticides for crop safety assessment in 2022. ARS researchers in Charleston, South Carolina developed information on potential new uses for target compounds in cooperation with the IR-4 Project for research on pesticides that were completed for 5 food crop residue studies (herbicide on cherry tomato, non-bell pepper and mustard, and fungicide on cherry tomato and spinach). Also, 11 performance trials (10 fungicides and 1 insecticide) were completed for studies on ornamental crops (drench treatments of boxwood, magnolia, phlox, zinnia, liviope and coreopsis, and foliar treatments of boxwood, magnolia pholox and zinnia). Results from this work are being used to support the registration of needed pesticides on specialty crops, and many of these pesticides will subsequently be available for use by growers.
Accomplishments
1. Registration of pesticides for food, nursery, and foral crops. ARS researchers in Charleston, South Carolina, coordinated ARS research in Charleston, South Carolina; Corvallis, Oregon; Salinas, California; Tifton, Georgia; Wapato, Washington; and Wooster, Ohio, in cooperation with the IR-4 Project in support of the registration of pesticides. This research was done to provide crop protection needs for specialty crop growers (food crops such as fruits, vegetables, and nuts, and non-food ornamental crops such as floral, nursery, landscape plants, and Christmas trees). ARS researchers at these research farms and analytical laboratories contribute approximately 15% of the total efforts required to achieve the registrations needed by specialty crop growers to manage pests on high value crops. Using this estimate, ARS resources yielded 17 new tolerances, 96 registrations on food crops, and impacted 226 decisions on non-food ornamental crops. In addition, Michigan State University’s Center for Economic Analysis recently published that IR-4 Project efforts adds $8.7 billion dollars to the annual gross domestic product. Based on these values, ARS’ contributions to the IR-4 Project results in $1.3 billion dollars in annual impact.
