Can You Afford Not To Do Integrated Pest Management (IPM)?

As the growing season approaches it is a great time to start putting the finishing touches on your Vineyard IPM Strategy. To assist you with this article (reprinted in part from the Proceedings and Program of Viticulture 2010) provides links to some of the resources that are available, and those that are being developed, to assist grape growers in implementing IPM.

While reviewing the list these resources it is important to note that many of these resources will be eliminated or greatly curtailed if funding for the NYS IPM Program is not reinstated. For those who have written letters to your state politicians, thank you! The initial flush of letters has been received and has made an impact in the NY State Senate. It would be helpful if members of the NYS Assembly and Senate were reminded with a second wave of letters during the budget negotiations currently underway. Those resources that would be lost if funding is not restored for the NYS IPM Program include; NEWA, NYS IPM Web site (currently houses Fact Sheets, Grape IPM In the Northeast, Trac Grape and the Production Guide for Organic Grapes.

A great place to start, and a key component in developing a Vineyard IPM strategy, is to become familiar with the life cycle of a pest, and the conditions which favor its development. A good starting point would be the NYS IPM Fact Sheets for Grapes series

http://nysipm.cornell.edu/factsheets/grapes/default.asp

While you cannot control the weather, the Network for Environment and Weather Applications (NEWA) provides you with free access to weather stations across New York State as well as some surrounding states. NEWA collects temperature, rainfall, leaf wetness and relative humidity data for use in disease and insect models to provide the grape industry near real time information on what could be happening in the vineyard.

http://newa.cornell.edu/

A picture is worth a thousand words and the Production and Pest Management Videos found on YouTube provides a look at how scouting operations are conducted as well as many more vineyard production practices. This is an excellent tool to learn more about a production practice before implementing it the vineyard.

http://www.youtube.com/LERGPvids

Knowing the latest in materials, IPM practices and varietal susceptibility for specific diseases, copper and sulfur is the best way to plan a vineyard IPM strategy. The NY & PA Pest Management Guidelines for Grapes provides information on a products mode of action to assist in planning a resistance management strategy. The New York and Pennsylvania Pest Management Guidelines for Grapes is updated annually by research and extension staff from Cornell and Penn State Universities.

http://ipmguidelines.org/grapes

The 2010 Production Guide for Organic Grapes is not just for those who are looking at the organic grape market. The guide, funded in part by NYS Ag & Markets, contains information that should be of interest to anyone growing grapes in the Northeastern United States.

http://nysipm.cornell.edu/organic_guide/grapes.pdf

Check out the Lake Erie Regional Grape Program website for economic worksheets developed as companion pieces for the production videos found on YouTube. These worksheets provide the means to compare costs between production practices currently in use in a vineyard, proposed production practices and the actual cost of implementing the practice.

http://lergp.cce.cornell.edu/

The Cornell Fruit Resources for Grape home page provides links to a little bit of everything needed to develop a vineyard IPM strategy from an Interactive NY Vineyard Site Evaluation System to articles on management of disease or insect pests.

http://www.fruit.cornell.edu/grapes.html

Recordkeeping is extremely important in a vineyard IPM program and TracGrape Software is designed specifically for grape growers to record pest management applications on a block by block basis and develop the paperwork necessary to keep reporting agencies and processors happy. And it is still available free of charge from the New York State IPM Program.

http://www.fruit.cornell.edu/grape/index.html

Grape IPM in the Northeast is a collection of information on developing and implementing a vineyard IPM strategy. Pertinent fact sheets and bulletins can be found in one stop by going to;

http://nysipm.cornell.edu/publications/grapeman/default.asp

For more information on how IPM fits into your vineyard management strategy feel free to contact Tim Weigle at 716.792.2800 ext 203 or thw4@cornell.edu.

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