2003 - 2004 CUIPM Grants -
Final Reports

Commercial Horticulture Integrated Pest Management School

A Nursery and Greenhouse Integrated Pest Management Meeting was held on Wednesday, July 21, 2004 for clients in the green industry at the Aiken County Extension office. The purpose of this program was to educate ornamental professionals on Integrated Pest Management techniques in the greenhouse and nursery industries. The major objective was to teach better scouting techniques, biology of pests, and different management techniques which would increase the use of IPM strategies in nurseries and result in more judicious use of pesticides.

Extension specialists from Clemson University and University of Georgia were the presenters of the meeting. A copy of the agenda can be found at the end of this report. Twenty four people attended the meeting. After the lectures, the attendees visited Woodlanders Nursery in Aiken and used their scouting techniques to scout the nursery. The attendees received Integrated Pest Management for Floriculture and Nurseries by Steve Dreistadt from the University of California, the 2004 Georgia Pest Management Handbook, and a hand lens.

Fig. 1: Phytophthora root rot on Chamaecyparis

Fig. 2: Powdery mildew on Aesculus (buckeye)

In evaluating the program, we used a pre-test and post-test and also an evaluation sheet. The results are as follows:
Pre-test and Post-test evaluation- Twelve people took the pre-test and post-test. Eleven people made 50 or below on the pretest. Of these eleven, all passed the post-test with a score of 90 or above. Only one person passed the pre-test and increased his score by 10 points on the post test.

The participants also completed an evaluation on the speakers and effectiveness of the program. The results are on a separate sheet.

Follow-up interview were also made three months after the meeting. Observations from these interviews were as follows:
All of the participants had used their hands lens and Pesticide Handbooks. Seventy percent had used the Integrated Pest Management reference book. Scouting more often was the one procedure that all the nurseries said they were doing a better job of as a result of the meeting. (One nursery had hired a person to scout their nursery.)
All of them said they were doing a better job of the cultural practice of grading and discarding liners.
Fifty percent were doing a better job of record keeping.
Comments were made that the meeting was helpful in that they conversed with other nurserymen about pest problems.
All of them said the meeting was worth their time and had implemented some of the principles taught at the update meeting.

The IPM School for Nurseries and Greenhouses was very successful in getting information on integrated pest management techniques to the people who will actually use them – the growers. From the evaluations and follow-up nursery consultations, it was evident that they were implementing techniques taught at the program. The biggest changes observed were increased scouting and more accurate pest identification. Also, they are screening the liners coming into their nurseries with more scrutiny. Other positive aspects that were mentioned were having direct contact with specialists and being around the other nurserymen to see what they were doing.

I would like to do another follow up evaluation after the next growing season to evaluate whether they are doing a better job with pest control and also if early identification of pests from scouting actually reduces the amount of pesticides used and results in a higher quality product. From comments from the growers, I am considering starting a Green Industry Association in my area. Overall, this program was very effective in getting Integrated Pest Management to the growers and supplying them with information that will make their nurseries more productive and at the same time decrease the amount of pesticides they use by better and earlier pest identification and more judicious use of pesticides.

Nursery and Greenhouse IPM Program Schedule

Questions or comments:
Amy Nichols
Associate Coordinator
IPM and
Sustainable Agriculture
Programs
Contact

Dr. Geoffrey Zehnder
Professor of Entomology, Soils & Plant Sciences
IPM and
Sustainable Agriculture
Programs
114 Long Hall, Box 340315
Clemson, SC 29634-0315
864 - 656 - 6644
Contact

Last revised:
8/4/2006