Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/466321
34 MARCH 1, 2015 GOOD FRUIT GROWER www.goodfruit.com APPLE • PEAR • CHERRY • PLUM • APRICOT Our pollen is viability tested to assure quality. Exclusive distributor of SCUMBY PUFFERS®. Accurate on any planting. 800-322-8852 www.firmanpollen.com 301 N. 1st Avenue • Yakima, Washington 98902 509-452-8063, fax 509-453-6838 Quality Firman Pollen Improves: Fruit Set Bee Efficiency Pollination Timing Quality Pollination Improves: Yield Consistency Fruit Quality Fruit Storability Trust Quality Firman Pollen Viability And Virus Tested Compatibility Matched Leaders in Application Technology j j j j j j j j j Since 1933 FIRMAN Pollen Co. QUALITY & VALUE you can TRUST WASHINGTON: CALIFORNIA: AREA REPRESENTATIVES: Columbia Basin and Yakima Valley Randy Bunce 509-452-8063 randy@firmanpollen.com Wenatchee/ Okanogan area Tom, Kyle & Linda Batch 509-687-9670 Bleyhl Farm Service Grandview 509-882-1225 Zillah 509-829-6922 Linden John DeMartini 209-484-8502 Tulare & Kern Counties Bob Cademartori 209-601-0754 Stinkbug CHAL M id-Atlantic area fruit and vegetable growers who have the full range of control options at their disposal are having trou- ble containing the brown marmorated stinkbug. So imagine how hard it must be for organic growers, with their limited arsenal of insecticides. There are very few organic fruit growers in the challenging climate of the eastern United States, but some researchers there hold out hope that they can someday manage it. Organic management of BMSB was one of the "current issues in organic fruit production" that were addressed during the Great Lakes Fruit, Vegetable, and Farm Market Expo in Michigan. Dr. Anne Nielsen, one of the first to study BMSB when it was found in the East, said organic growers would have to rely on integrating multiple methods such as natural enemies, cultural man- agement, and/or habitat manipulation for control. Nielsen was a graduate stu- dent at Rutgers University in New Jersey when the stinkbug was first found. She did postdoctorate work at Michigan State University and is now back at Rutgers, still working with the stinky insect that smells, she says, like a combination of cilantro and dirty socks. Trap crops The stinkbug has some behavioral traits that can be used against it, she said. One is that it is attracted by an aggre- gation pheromone and also by some plants more than others. This has led her to study trap crops and trap trees. "If we can find a really attractive host plant that would lure them, we could stop them at the edge of orchards and other crops," she said. Researchers are testing trap crops as a way to manage brown marmorated stinkbug. by Richard Lehnert organic