Cover Crops to Attract and Sustain Beneficial Insects of High Tunnel Pests

View the project report

Commodities

• Vegetables: cabbages, cucurbits, eggplant, greens (leafy), greens (lettuces), peppers, tomatoes

Practices

• Crop Production: cover crops, high tunnels or hoop houses, no-till, pollinator habitat
• Education and Training: demonstration, on-farm/ranch research
• Natural Resources/Environment: biodiversity, habitat enhancement
• Pest Management: biological control, cultural control, field monitoring/scouting, integrated pest management
• Production Systems: organic agriculture
• Sustainable Communities: partnerships

High tunnels extend the growing season in the Northeast. Their use has grown in popularity to protect crops from extreme and unpredictable weather resulting from climate change. The high tunnel environment also provides favorable conditions for pests like aphids, spider mites and thrips to flourish and cause economic damage. For biological control to be successful, natural enemies must be established in a timely manner to find pest problems early in the growing season. Cover crops improve on-farm ecological processes and provide numerous benefits in vegetable production systems such as increasing soil fertility and biomass, preventing erosion and attracting beneficial insects that provide pollination and pest management. Their use by growers in and around high tunnels specifically to manage pests within is limited in the Northeast. This project has three main objectives: (1) evaluate a cover crop mix established adjacent to high tunnels to determine its suitability as a habitat planting to attract and sustain beneficial insects, (2) compare natural enemy presence in screened vs. unscreened high tunnels adjacent to the cover crop habitat planting and (3) determine the level of pest management on high tunnel crops in screened vs. unscreened high tunnels adjacent to the cover crop planting. By establishing the strips outside, there’s no loss of productive growing space within the tunnels. Results will provide information about using cover crops for this purpose. A factsheet will be produced, and an on-farm demonstration event will be held to disseminate results and educate farmers about strategies to conserve beneficials on farms.

This project has three main objectives:

• Objective 1: Evaluate a cover crop mix established adjacent to high tunnels to determine its suitability as a habitat planting to attract and sustain beneficial insects.
• Objective 2: Compare natural enemy presence in screened vs. unscreened high tunnels adjacent to the cover crop habitat planting.
• Objective 3: Determine the level of pest management on high tunnel crops in screened vs. unscreened high tunnels adjacent to the cover crop planting.

This project seeks to answer the following general research questions:

• What types of beneficial insects (i.e., pollinators, natural enemies, etc.) are attracted to the cover crop habitat plantings established outside the tunnels and in what quantities?
• Are beneficials that provide pest management detected on crops plants in the high tunnels adjacent to the habitat plantings and are they suppressing pests?
• Are fewer natural enemies observed in a tunnel with screening vs. a tunnel without screening adjacent to the cover crop habitat plantings?
• What plants in the cover crop mixture are the most attractive to beneficial insects?
• What plants in the cover crop mixture will persist over winter and continue to provide floral resources the following season?