Progress 09/01/13 to 08/31/16
Outputs
Target Audience:Farmer, Extension staff, other agricultural professionals, and entomologists Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We have shared our results with other faculty members at Penn State, extension educators and other agricultural professionals in Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Ontario, Oregon and Vermont. Talking about the project more broadly has given us opportunities to talk about pest biology, pest monitoring, and integrated pest management. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Extension presentations in Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Ontario, Oregon, and Vermont. Weekly newsletter articles during the growing season; these newletters reach approximately 3000 farmers and other agricultural professionals. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The harsh winter of 2013-2014 was hard on cover-crop establishment; thus, very little of our crimson clover survived until spring 2014 when our experiment was to begin in earnest. Our cereal rye survival was similarly low following poor establishment in fall 2013. We conducted an emergency seeding of rye in March 2014 to squeeze some data out of the field season. In these less than ideal conditions, slug populations did not materialize; however, large populations of black cutworm did and we gathered data on the influence of our two termination dates of cover crops on this important insect pest of corn. Unexpectedly, we found that black cutworm damage was significantly higher in corn following rye that was killed at the traditional termination date (about two weeks prior to planting the cash crop) compared to when we planted corn into the green cover crop and later terminated the cover crop. These unexpected results counter conventional wisdom that green cover crops can foster black cutworm infestations; our results from this first year appear to suggest the opposite (green cover crops may help manage black cutworm). The winter of 2014-2015 was also hard, but the cover crops we established in Fall 2014 survived the winter very well, and we were able to implement our full experimental design in Spring 2015. We planted our corn crop in May, but unfortunately dry conditions in May prevented slug populations from developing. As last year, we monitoring pest and natural enemy populations in the corn crop following our three treatments: no cover crop, crimson clover, and cereal rye. Our research has determined that rye cover crops can help decrease pest populations, though our data on slugs are somewhat weak because conditions good for slugs did not materialize. Rye cover crops also fostering improved natural enemy communities. Terminating the rye cover crop after corn planting seems to provide a further benefit by providing slugs and alternative food that they eat rather than the emerging corn. Planting crimson clover in central Pennsylvania is too variable to be helpful because cold winter temperatures may prevent the clover from surviving the winter.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Douglas, M. R., J. F. Tooker. A slug in the system: Unintended effects of neonicotinoid seed treatments in no-till corn and soybeans. Annual Meeting of the Entomological Society of America, Minneapolis, MN, November 2015.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Douglas, M. R., J. F. Tooker. Unexpected consequences of neonicotinoid seed treatments reveal opportunities for IPM. Third International Conference on Pollinator Biology, Health and Policy, Center for Pollinator Research, University Park, PA, 19 July 2016.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Douglas, M. R., and J. F. Tooker. Cascading effects of neonicotinoids on biological control in a soil food chain. International Congress of Entomology/Annual Meeting of the Entomological Society of America, Orlando, FL, September 2016.
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Progress 09/01/14 to 08/31/15
Outputs
Target Audience:Farmer, Extension staff, other agricultural professionals, and entomologists. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We have shared our preliminary results with other faculty members at Penn State, extension educators and other agricultural professionals in Ohio, Ontario, and Oregon Talking about the project more broadly has given us opportunities to talk about pest biology, pest monitoring, and integrated pest management How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Extension presentations in PA, OH, OR, and Ontario. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Complete sorting and identifying members of the invertebrate communities collected from our fields.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The winter of 2014-2015 was also hard, but the cover crops we established in Fall 2014 survived the winter very well, and we were able to implement our full experimental design in Spring 2015. We planted our corn crop in May, but unfortunately dry conditions in May prevented slug populations from developing. As last year, we monitoring pest and natural enemy populations in the corn crop following our three treatments: no cover crop, crimson clover, and cereal rye. These communities we collected are still being analyzed.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/13 to 08/31/14
Outputs
Target Audience: Farmer, Extension staff, other agricultural professionals, and entomologists Changes/Problems: Really cold winter of 2013-2014 prevented us from conducting the intended experiment; we will try again for 2014-2015, but have a backup plan in place based on our success evaluating the role of cover-crop termination date against black cutworm. FTEs left blank due to no info available at this time since the project just started September 1, 2013. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? We have shared our preliminary results with other faculty members at Penn State, extension educators and other agricultural professionals. Talking about the project more broadly has given us opportunities to talk about pest biology, pest monitoring, and integrated pest management How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Extension presentations in PA What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? We will complete a second year of the field experiment and hope for a milder winter
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The harsh winter of 2013-2014 was hard on cover-crop establishment; thus, very little of our crimson clover survived until spring 2014 when our experiment was to begin in earnest. Our cereal rye survival was similarly low following poor establishment in fall 2013. We conducted an emergency seeding of rye in March 2014 to squeeze some data out of the field season. In these less than ideal conditions, slug populations did not materialize; however, large populations of black cutworm did and we gathered data on the influence of our two termination dates of cover crops on this important insect pest of corn. Unexpectedly, we found that black cutworm damage was significantly higher in corn following rye that was killed at the traditional termination date (about two weeks prior to planting the cash crop) compared to when we planted corn into the green cover crop and later terminated the cover crop. These unexpected results counter conventional wisdom that green cover crops can foster black cutworm infestations; our results from this first year appear to suggest the opposite (green cover crops may help manage black cutworm). We shared these result at extension field days during summer 2014 and will do so into autumn.
Publications
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