How do you stop diseases on controlled environment edible crops?

Controlling the environment is a key component of preventing diseases on edible crops.

As an increasing number of growers start growing edible crops in controlled environment structures they may be facing some diseases that they haven’t encountered before. For ornamental plant growers who are adding edible crops, they will not have as many or as effective chemical controls as they have access to with their ornamental crops.

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How can sensors increase efficiency, effectiveness of your IPM strategies?

Monitoring and collecting environmental conditions during controlled environment agriculture production can assist growers in making the best use of integrated pest management strategies.

While maintaining the proper temperature and humidity is important to ensure the optimum growing conditions for controlled environment agriculture, these environmental factors become even more important when using biological controls.

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Controlling basil downy mildew might be as simple as turning on a light

The use of supplemental light to control downy mildew on food and ornamental crops could be integrated into current disease management practices.

Downy mildew is a major disease on both ornamental and food crops. Whether these crops are grown outdoors or in a controlled environment, environmental conditions, generally cool to moderate temperatures and high humidity, are favorable to downy mildew development. Warm temperatures and high humidity are conducive to powdery mildew development.

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Looking for a better, easier way to do greenhouse IPM?

Greenhouse Scout is an integrated pest management app that makes it easier to collect, store and analyze scouting data along with identifying insect pests and which beneficials can be used to control them.

Most greenhouse growers know the benefits of scouting their crops for pest insects and mites. Scouting can help to identify and minimize pest outbreaks, reduce plant damage and crop losses and save on pesticide and biological control costs.

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Consider using biological controls if adding edibles to your greenhouse crop mix

Greenhouse ornamental plant growers adding edible crops to their product mix should consider incorporating biological controls into their integrated pest management program.

An increasing number of ornamental plant growers are looking to take advantage of the growing demand for locally produced edible crops. Whether it’s for sales in their own garden centers, roadside stands, farmers markets, grocery stores and restaurants, the demand for locally-grown produce continues to increase.

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