Sustainable use of low-risk and organic pesticides through innovative integration of plasma activated water in greenhouse crop production

Commodities

• Vegetables: beans, tomatoes
• Additional Plants: ornamentals

Practices

• Crop Production: greenhouses, nurseries, nutrient management
• Education and Training: demonstration, display, extension, networking, on-farm/ranch research, participatory research, workshop
• Pest Management: biological control, biorational pesticides, botanical pesticides, cultivation, cultural control, integrated pest management, physical control
• Production Systems: organic agriculture, transitioning to organic

Compared to conventional synthetic pesticides, use of low-risk
and organically certified pesticides (L-R & OCPs) in greenhouse
crop production systems is hampered by comparatively slow and
inconsistent performance and short residual effect. Accordingly,
a higher number of applications is needed to achieve pest
control, which leads to increase in costs of pest management and
higher use of pesticides. To promote adoption of L-R & OCPs in
greenhouse crop production systems, it is of paramount importance
to develop solutions and educate growers about ways to optimize
their performance and residual effects. The hypothesis of this
3-year project is that L-R & OCPs for use in greenhouse crop
production systems can be made significantly more effective and
lead to significantly better management of spider mites and
western flower thrips when deployed in concert with plasma
activated water (PAW). This hypothesis will be addressed based on
the following five project objectives:

Objective 1: Experimental optimization of PAW

Objective 2: Experimental integration of PAW and L-R & OCPs

Objective 3: Testing in greenhouses

Objective 4: Educational outreach

Objective 5: Academic capacity building

These objectives are linked to seven project outcomes: 1)
research publications, 2) trade journal publications, 3)
conference presentations, 4) project-specific website pages, 5)
demonstration videos, 6) adoption metrics, and 7) academic course
curriculum. This project is predicted to demonstrate important
environmental and social benefits, as it will lower the adoption
threshold for use of L-R & OCPs in greenhouse crop production
systems by showing that their integration with PAW can
significantly increase their ability to control key pest
populations. This proposal is well-supported by preliminary data
and by the greenhouse crop production industry. This proposal
includes comprehensive educational and academic capacity
building, and it will promote technological innovation and
science-based careers for aspiring young scientists with interest
in sustainable agriculture. Moreover, the project team will
create project specific pages with videos, weblinks, photos, and
pdf documents on PI Nansen’s website
(http://chrnansen.wix.com/nansen2). Most materials posted will be
translated into Spanish. Web pages will be linked directly to
extension outlets managed by relevant stakeholder organizations,
including: Plant California Alliance, the Northeast Organic
Farming Alliance Greenhouse Lighting and Systems Engineering
consortium, and California Tomato Research Institute.

Objective 1: Experimental optimization of PAW (plasma activated
water)
Objective 2: Experimental integration of PAW and L-R & OCPs
(low-risk and organically certified pesticides)
Objective 3: Testing in greenhouses
Objective 4: Educational outreach
Objective 5: Academic capacity building
These objectives are linked to seven project outcomes: 1)
research publications, 2) trade journal publications, 3)
conference presentations, 4) project-specific website pages, 5)
demonstration videos, 6) adoption metrics, and 7) academic course
curriculum. This project is predicted to demonstrate important
environmental and social benefits, as it will lower the adoption
threshold for use of L-R & OCPs in greenhouse crop production
systems by showing that their integration with PAW can
significantly increase their ability to control key pest
populations. This proposal is well-supported by preliminary data
and by the greenhouse crop production industry. Additionally, the
project team already has trained personnel and a fully
operational cold plasma system (worth >$80,000), which
constitutes highly unique and significant in-kind contribution to
this project.