Restoring livestock to mixed-vegetable farms allows on-farm fertilizer production and the sale of high-value meat products. Likewise, diversifying farms with native plants provides habitat for pest-killing birds and predatory insects. Unfortunately, both practices carry the risk of unintentional contamination of produce by human pathogens (e.g., E. coli O157:H7), transmitted through livestock feces or those of […]
Soil-borne pathogens, particularly root-lesion nematodes (Pratylenchus spp.), Fusarium spp., and Rhizoctonia spp. are a major constraint to grain production in the Pacific Northwest. Yield losses associated with these pathogens rages from 20-60% in infested fields. Symptoms often mimic drought or nutrient deficiencies because of plant root damage. The options available to growers to control pathogen […]
Grafting vegetable crops onto resistant rootstock is an effective organic and sustainable strategy to manage soil-borne diseases such as Verticillium wilt, which is a common disease throughout Washington. Grafting has been used successfully in Asia for nearly 100 years, but is only now being adopted in the U.S. Based on work done in our CSANR […]
Priority area: Novel approaches to disease and fertility management that transcend traditional organic approaches and seek to exploit and integrate biological and chemical processes. Flavins (riboflavin, FMN and FAD; vitamin B2) are bioactive molecules that have a beneficial effect on plant growth and soil quality. Recently we found that mutations in the riboflavin biosynthetic pathway […]
Potatoes are a valuable Washington crop that is threatened by devastating insect pests. We have found (1) that insect-killing “entomopathogenic” nematodes (EPNs) are key natural enemies of these insects, and (2) that organic farming greatly increases EPN genetic diversity. Additionally, genetically-diverse mixes of EPN strains are more lethal to insects than any single worm strain. […]
Arthropod pest management in Washington wine grapes is low input and based on conservation biological control (CBC). Sustainability depends on maintenance of year-round populations of pest natural enemies (PNE) in and near vineyards. Restoration of native habitat, primarily plants upon which endemic natural enemies depend for resources, should help maintain and sustain PNE populations in […]
Protecting wheat during the transition to organic production and managing soil nitrogen during the organic production phase represent major impediments to increasing organic acreage. We have developed a system that incorporates weed control and the use of a pea intercrop as a source of nitrogen to address these impediments by intercropping winter pea with winter […]
This planning grant proposal will bring together researchers from three states (WA, OR, CA) and British Columbia that work in small fruit production (red raspberries focus) from a diverse set of disciplines (pest, nutrient and cultural management) to develop improved integrated practices for red raspberries. Our first actions are to bring together these collaborators to […]
Tomato and watermelon can be significantly impacted by Verticillium wilt, a soil-borne disease common throughout Washington. Symptoms impact plants later in development after most production costs have been incurred, resulting in a 25-100% crop loss in some years. Grafting vegetable crops onto resistant rootstock is a cultural control method that provides an organic and sustainable […]
Market forces are driving conventional Columbia Basin potato growers towards less-chemically-intensive pest management approaches, such as biological control. Insect-killing, entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs), which live in the soil, have great potential for controlling insects with belowground life stages — such as the Colorado potato beetle. Our initial results suggest that EPNs can be incredibly abundant in […]