Beneficial Insects for White Flies in Cannabis Production скачать в хорошем качестве

Beneficial Insects for White Flies in Cannabis Production

Beneficial Insects for White Flies in Cannabis Production Professor DeBacco Research Article GRAMMENOS, G., KOUNELI, V., MAVROEIDIS, A., ROUSSIS, I., KAKABOUKI, I., TATARIDAS, A., & BILALIS, D. (2021). Beneficial Insects for Biological Pest Control in Greenhouse Cannabis Production. http://journals.usamvcluj.ro/index.ph... Insect Challenges in Greenhouse Production In greenhouse cannabis cultivation an insect infestation can be the cause of many losses. Synthetic chemical insecticides have been the go to option, however in medical cannabis cultivation, there are strict legislations and restrictions in pesticides use which is the driving force toward the development of new environmentally friendly and profitable methods for pest control. Greenhouse Study A greenhouse experiment was conducted in the Agriculture University of Athens. Cannabis plants were grown in two different greenhouses. Beneficial insects were released only in one greenhouse (treatment). Νο additional pesticides were used during the cultivation. The cultivar used was Futura 75, a monoeicus variety. Greenhouse temperature and humidity fluctuation were estimated, at about, 13°C and 25% the lowest, while the greatest values were 43°C and 90%, respectively. Beneficial Insect Release Date Three weeks after transplantation, beneficial insects were released in the treatment greenhouse in order to assess the efficacy of biological pest management. Whiteflies Identified The main pests identified in the greenhouse included… Whiteflies (WF) (Trialeurodes vaporariorum & Bemisia tabaci) Basic Measurements Measurements included the visual estimation of infestation, the recording of pest species and populations, and the comparison of infestations between the two greenhouses. Only the nymphs and adult stages of pests were counted (no egg stage). Pest Population Determination The measurements of the pest population were taken in the third, fifth, seventh and ninth week. The number of pests (WF) was counted with hand-held digital 1600X microscope in order to quantify the efficiency of beneficial insects. The average pest populations were measured on ten plants (4 leaves per plant) per greenhouse. Whitefly Life-Cycle Whitefly Species Identification Beneficial Insects that Target Whiteflies: Eretmocerus eremicus Beneficial Insects that Target Whiteflies: Encarsia Formosa Whitefly Control Application Methods The application of parasitic wasps was achieved by hanging cardboard strips, which contained parasitized whitefly pupae Whitefly Numbers Over Time There was a slight delay in the overall reduction in numbers, but by week 9 there was only an average of 4 whiteflies per plant for the beneficial insect treatment group compared to over 70 in the control plants. Average Number of Pest Populations Numbers are weeks A continuous reduction of all pest populations was observed throughout the experiment, approaching zero value per plant Are Beneficial Insect Worth the Effort? In short… YES! Study results indicate that beneficial insects could control pest populations up to 100%. Pest management with natural enemies is a promising, very effective, safe method for plant protection. Growers Need to Keep In-Mind Proper pest identification is very important since this will determine the exact beneficial insect to be used. This requires frequent scouting. Timing and rate of beneficial additions are important. Link to Lecture Slides: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1E9fR... 420 Magazine Source Content by Slide Title: Title https://www.420magazine.com/community... *Due to the description character limit the full work cited for "Beneficial Insects for White Flies in Cannabis Production" can be viewed at... https://docs.google.com/document/d/1k...