The purpose of this document is to consolidate current Ohio information on integrated approaches to pest management. One of the intended results is to form a general working definition (practices) of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) on specific crops. Secondly, to develop a system of assessing how far along the IPM continuum growers are, and if their operation has adopted enough core practices to qualify them as IPM practitioners under these guidelines.

Growers should use this document and its six sub headings (Educational, Pre-plant, At-plant, In-season, Harvest, & Post-harvest) as a checklist of possible IPM practices. There is a point value associated with every IPM practice; the higher the number the more important the practice. Growers should only count the points of activities they perform on a crop. The goal is to accumulate 80% of the points in each of the six areas and / or 80% of the total points available, which is simply the sum of the scores from each section (comprehensive).

This document is intended to help growers identify areas in their production system that possess strong IPM qualities and also point out areas for improvement. Growers should attempt to incorporate the majority of these specific techniques into their usual production practices, especially in areas where they fall short of the 80% goal.

Major Pests of Potatoes - Primary concerns are diseases, insects, & weeds

Diseases	Insects	Weeds
Seed piece decay	Colorado potato beetle	Annual grasses
Early blight	Potato leafhopper	Annual broadleaf weeds
Late Blight	Aphids	Perennial weeds
Botrytis vine rot	Flea beetles	Yellow nutsedge
Scab	Cutworms
Fusarium dry rot of tubers	European corn borer
Mosaic, leaf roll, purple top viruses	Wireworms
Nematodes

Educational IPM Considerations

Education	Activity	Points
	Join local or state grower associations that handle this commodity.	5
	Attend the Ohio Fruit and Vegetable Growers Congress annually to meet and exchange information with other growers. Attend current pest management informational / research presentations.	10
	Obtain the latest Ohio Vegetable Production Guide and other commodity specific reports / production guides.	10
	Gain access to e-mail or fax for weekly VegNet newsletter updates on disease, insect, and weed development, plus management options during the growing season.	10
	Implement an IPM practice currently not used on your farm on limited acreage and gauge its success.	10
	Research alternative markets that may encourage less pesticide use either through specific use reduction requirements (organic, eco-, IPM labels) or simply by permitting more insect feeding, etc.	10

Marginal adoption					Full adoption
0 pts			44 pts Goal		55 pts

Pre-plant IPM Considerations

Management	Activity	Points
Site	Soil test; fertilize as needed to recommended levels. Choose a site that has good surface drainage, sandy to silt loam soils.	15
	Consider tiling, using deep rooted legumes, special tillage, or abandoning perennially wet fields.	15
	Use 3-year fields rotated with crops other than tomato, egg plant, & pepper if possible.	15
	Use 1-2 year fields rotated with crops other than tomato, egg plant, & pepper if possible.	15
	Locate potato fields 1/4 mile or further from any previous year potato or tomato field if possible to delay CPB infestation.	10
	Maintain accurate records of planting dates, field locations, varieties, fertilizer and spray applications.	10
Seed / Hybrid	Select seed with a tolerance or resistance to the prominent viral, fungal, and bacterial diseases in your area	15
	Buy certified seed treated with a fungicide.	15
	If a buyer or market has been identified, use transgenic potatoes for CPB control. Plant no more than 50% of farm or 80% of a field to Bt potatoes, encourages biological control.	10
Insect	Deploy wireworm traps at nearly 1 per acre, if trap averages >2 wireworms per trap, consider using a soil insecticide at planting.	15
	Dig trench around field to control immigrating CPB beetles.	15
Equipment	Calibrate sprayer; check flow rates and nozzles for both herbicide and insecticide use. Select drift guard nozzles.	15
	Maintain flamer and vacuum in working order.	10
Weed	Practice weed seed exclusion tactics such as high pressure washing machinery shared between farms.	15
	Buy certified seed and weed free soil mixtures; determine weed seed content of all seed and do not plant seed contaminated with weed seed not known to occur on your farm.	15
	Use site free of perennials such as quack grass, Johnson grass, Yellow nutsedge, or Canada thistle if possible.	15
	Use a combination of fall/spring tillage and fall/spring application of a broad spectrum herbicide to control established perennials or rotate with a herbicide resistant crop on which a broad spectrum herbicide was used.	15
	Apply pre-plant herbicides to control seedling broadleaf weeds and annual grasses if necessary.	10

Marginal adoption					Full adoption
0 pts			196 pts Goal		245 pts

At-planting IPM Considerations

Management	Activity	Points
Weed	Apply pre-emerge herbicides to control seedlings broad leaves and annual grasses if necessary.	10
Insect	Use systemic insecticides (Admire) for CPB control	5

Marginal adoption					Full adoption
0 pts			12 pts Goal		15 pts

In-season IPM Considerations

Management	Activity	Points
Disease	Use TOMCAST or BLITECAST for early blight, Anthracnose, Septoria leaf blight, and late blight disease forecasts. Helps to determine fungicide scheduling.	15
	Scout for late blight during periods of cool, wet weather. If late blight is visually detected, immediately disc surrounding area and apply an appropriate fungicide on a 7 to 10 day schedule until harvest.	15
Insect	Consider the potatoes along an edge of the field to be a trap crop and scout accordingly.	15
	If threshold exceeded, treat trap crop using selective insecticide.	10
	If threshold exceeded, treat trap crop by flaming or other mechanical means (vacuum).	15
	Use CPB model to predict emergence of each generation, use to minimize scouting time and target sprays.	15
	Scout for CPB, if threshold is exceeded, treat with recommended insecticide. Use a different chemical class for each generation to avoid resistance (change chemical class after July 31).	15
	Scout for leafhopper and aphids on a weekly basis, apply controls if threshold is exceeded early to mid season, later season aphid outbreaks can be controlled biologically.	15
	Use selective insecticide to conserve natural enemies.	15
Weed	Use cultivation to control weeds if possible.	10
	Control broadleaf weeds, annual and perennial grasses using broadcast or directed or shielded application of herbicide to control or suppress weeds between rows and after crop establishment.	10
	Remove weeds around field to reduce viruses vectored by insects to the crop.	15
	Update field weed maps, use to make treatment decisions next season.	15
	Watch for weeds that are not common or are new to the field, consider adopting a zero threshold for these weeds and physically remove them in order to prevent seed production.	15

Marginal adoption					Full adoption
0 pts			156 pts Goal		195 pts

Harvest IPM Considerations

Management	Activity	Points
Insect	If CPB >0.5 adults/plant and foliage is still green, concentrate them by vine killing 100 rows, skipping 2-4 rows, etc.	15
	Flame or vacuum the concentrated beetles.	15
	Spray the concentrated beetles using a selective insecticide.	5

Marginal adoption					Full adoption
0 pts			28 pts Goal		35 pts

Post-Harvest IPM Considerations

Management	Activity	Points
Crop	Avoid bruising or nicking harvested tubers that could predispose it to attack by pathogens.	15
	Evaluate and identify successful practices, incorporate them into next year's crop.	10
Weed	Update field weed maps, use to make treatment decisions next season.	15
	Spot spray persistent perennial weeds.	15
Site	Minimize volunteer potatoes by not fall plowing.	15
	Fall plow followed by a legume cover crop.	15
	Use a post bloom sprout inhibitor.	15
	Plow down residue as soon as possible after harvest to reduce weed residue, fungal inoculum, and insect over wintering locations.	15

Marginal adoption					Full adoption
0 pts			92 pts Goal		115 pts

Comprehensive IPM Score
(Add scores of previous 6 sections)

Marginal adoption					Full adoption
0 pts			528 pts Goal		660 pts

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