Project Overview
Annual Reports
Commodities
- Vegetables: beans
Practices
- Crop Production: conservation tillage
- Education and Training: demonstration, extension, on-farm/ranch research
- Farm Business Management: agricultural finance
- Pest Management: biological control, integrated pest management
- Production Systems: organic agriculture
- Soil Management: green manures
- Sustainable Communities: sustainability measures
Proposal abstract:
White mold (WM) is a serious disease of snap beans and other vegetable crops in Oregon and nationwide. Fields with > 6% infected bean pods are rejected by the processor. Ronilan, a highly effective fungicide, is no longer available; alternative WM management was the top research need identified in the 2005 snap bean pest management strategic plan. A stakeholder group formed the Willamette Valley Bean Mold Task Force (BMTF) to identify solutions to this problem. In 2005 the BMTF demonstrated that two applications of Topsin/Rovral or Topsin/Endura effectively control both diseases but are considerably more expensive. Farmers and processors are participating in sustainability and organic certification programs requiring progress in bio-intensive IPM. Fresh market organic vegetable and seed farmers grow many vegetable crops susceptible to white mold and management strategies are limited. Field trials will be conducted in 2009-10 and 2010-11 at the OSU vegetable research farm. Field trials will evaluate soil and foliar Contans treatments, reduced tillage, resistant cultivars and combinations thereof. At least four on-farm trials will be conducted in seasons 2010 and 2011, evaluating and demonstrating alternative white mold strategies on a field scale. Growers and staff will work together and use rotational planning software to compare individual and suites of strategies and develop farm-specific rotational systems management plans. These plans, along with grower successes and failures with mold management tools, will be described in one processed vegetable and one organic fresh market vegetable/seed case study. Farmers will be compensated for their participation in field trials and case studies. Growers and agricultural professionals will interact with project activities from planning to outreach. Each year we will conduct winter planning, discussion and evaluation meetings. We will hold at least two summer field days. Field days will permit hands-on participant evaluation of field trials. Project results will be disseminated through vegetable grower meetings. An OSU Extension Bulletin and case study on integrated mold management will be published and sent to farmers and agricultural professionals and also published as an NRCS Technical Bulletin. An organic white mold management article and case study will be published at eXtension.org. Project results will be reported at the Am. Soc. Hort. Sci. and Am. Phytopathological Society annual meetings and in print/online journals. Farmers and agricultural professionals will be surveyed to determine whether they have gained a better understanding of individual tools and their integration, and whether they intend to evaluate any new strategies as the result of their collaboration with the project or participation in outreach activities.
Project objectives from proposal:
1) Engage conventional/organic processed/fresh market vegetable growers in development, implementation and evaluation of WM management tools and systems management planning.
2) Investigate biological, cultural and integrated white mold management strategies.
3) Evaluate the economic viability of individual and combinations of strategies.
4) Develop white mold rotational systems management plans for processed and fresh market farming systems.
5) Demonstrate effective WM management strategies with and to growers to facilitate adoption.
6) Disseminate project results to a wider audience of farmers and agricultural professionals.