It has been a bountiful harvest this year for apples in Rhode Island. They are beautifully colored, juicy and sweet. In this segment of Plant Pro we visit the URI East Farm Research Orchards with Dr. Jeff Seeman. Dr. Seeman is Dean of URI's College of Environment and Life Sciences as well as director of Cooperative Extension.
URI orchards are primarily used for research and teaching but this year the URI Master Gardeners have teamed up with the RI Community Farm Program. These amazing volunteers have already donated over 4 tons of apples to the RI Community Food Bank and there are still more to come!
As a living laboratory, URI faculty and students develop and learn about emerging biological science techniques that can improve the quality and economics of agricultural production. Students also learn to identify insect and disease problems. There are about 20 apple varieties at East Farm. An approach to deal with potential diseases and insects are to use more resistant apple varieties. This reduces the problem numbers and the need for a broad application of pesticides. Growers go to East Farm to watch how these varieties perform.
Intriguing research has been going on in the URI orchards. Two insects, the plum curculio and apple maggot, damage a large percentage of the apple crop every year if growers don't spray pesticides. Over the next two years, biological scientists at URI will be working with a consortium of other universities in New England on cutting edge management methods to apply to problems affecting our apples. The goal is to find environmentally safe ways of managing insects.
Dr. Seeman informed us of the "trap tree", a method used at East Farm. The trap tree is baited with two scents. The first scent is that of ripe fruit and the other, an insect pheromone. These two scents attract the insects and by monitoring, scientists can determine when the insect population is most vulnerable to insecticide. Hopefully, this will allow farmers to use the least amount of pesticides as possible.
A second method used for insect control is that of the pseudo-apple. You may have seen this on our tv segment. The pseudo-apple is a perfectly large round apple that attracts insects with the pheromone and then kills them instantly on contact because the outside layer is covered thinly with insecticides.
URI scientists and volunteers have been working very hard in the URI East Farm orchards and we are incredibly proud of their dedication and research advances.
If you are interested in informative management methods please visit the following websites:
RI Apple IPM
RI Fruit Growers
For more information please call the URI Master Gardeners at 1-800-448-1011. |
