drained soil, using "healthy" plants, mulching to reduce 

 winter injury (a contributing factor), and using soil fumi- 

 gants before planting. While these fumigants may help 

 black root rot management, traces of them may also end up 

 in underground water supplies. 



The IPM program plans to evaluate the use of 

 reduced rales of standard fumigation materials, the effect 

 of certain cover crops for reducing inoculum in the soil, and 

 the possible use of biological control methods by inoculat- 

 ing the roots at transplanting with avirulcnt strains of 

 Rhizoctonia. This work has been initiated by Janice 

 Drozdowski and Dr. William Manning at the University of 

 Massachusetts (7). 



Weeds in Strawberries 



Weed control in strawberries poses one of the 

 greatest challenges to commercial strawberry growers. 

 Since strawberries are a perennial broadlcaf plant, man- 

 agement of other perennials, particularly grasses, is diffi- 

 cult. If weeds proliferate they can significantly shorten the 

 longevity of a planting, reduce yields, and discourage pick- 

 your-own customers from picking in certain areas. Sev- 

 enty-seven percent of Massachusetts strawberry growers 

 use herbicides, as compared to 70% who use fungicides, 

 64% who use insecticides, and 28% who fumigate (12). The 

 average number of herbicide applications for those who 

 use herbicides is 3.2 sprays per season. This use level is 

 more than that for most other crops. 



This year the IPM program surveyed strawberry 

 plantings throughout the state to establish which weeds and 

 weed types posed the most problems to growers. This work 

 will continue in 1988 to provide a more complete picture of 

 the situation. The strawberry IPM program plans to 

 establish field plots to evaluate alternative weed manage- 

 ment .strategics using reduced rates of certain herbicides 

 and using certain mulching practices. The objective is to 

 develop a management program with fewer herbicide 

 applications without reducing yield and bed longevity. 



Conclusions 



Integrated pest management of strawberry has 

 great potential forseveral reasons. First of all, strawberries 

 suffer important damage from diseases, weeds, and insects. 

 Secondly, pesticide applications are expensive both eco- 

 nomically and ecologically. Also, several of the key pests 

 of strawberries are significant pests in other crops and have 

 been studied in the IPM context before, and this informa- 

 tion gives us a head start in strawberry IPM. In addition, 



many of our Massachusetts growers are involved in or 

 familiar with other Massachusetts IPM programs, i.e. corn, 

 potatoes, or apples. The success of these programs has 

 paved the way for an enthusiastic reception by growers to 

 the Strawberry IPM Program. 



The first season of the Strawberry IPM program 

 has been one of establishing baselines for current practices 

 and knowledge of pest control, testing our scouting meth- 

 ods and making some trial recommendations, and for 

 introducing ourselves to the Massachusetts growers. The 

 key to success of the strawberry IPM program is involve- 

 ment of the growers, because their input is instrumental in 

 directing the course of this program. 



We will be expanding our grower base from 4 in 



1987 to 15 in 1988. With a larger number of growers, we 

 hope to be able to generate more information. We are 

 particularly interested in how well the relatively untested 

 techniques described in this paper will work in the field. 

 Our new reporting forms will facilitate communication 

 with growers. These forms will be used to report togrowers 

 the scouting results for the week and recommendations 

 based on those results. We look forward to a successful 



1988 season. 



Literature Cited 



1. Bostanian, N. J., G. Mailloux, and M. Binns. 1987. 

 Modeling tarnished plant bug, (Lygiis lincolaris), nymphal 

 populations in strawberry fields by thermal summation. 

 Paper delivered at the 1987 Entomological Society of 

 America Annual Meeting. Boston MA., November 29 - 

 December 3, 1987. 



2. Braun, P. G. and J. C. Sutton. 1987. Inoculum 

 sources oi Botrytis cincrca in fruit rot of strawberries 8in 

 Ontario. Can. J. Plant Pathol. 9:1-5. 



3. Bulger, M. A., L. V. Madden, and M. A. Ellis. 1987. 

 Infiuence of temperature and wetness duration on infec- 

 tionof ripe strawberry fruit by fiof/}'//.rc//i<?re(7. Can. J. Plant 

 Pathol, (in press). 



4. Coli, W. M., T. A. Green, T. A. Hosmcr, and R. J. 

 Prokopy. 1985. Use of visual traps for monitoring insect 

 pests in the Massachusetts IPM program. Agric. Ecosys- 

 tems Environ. 14:251-265. 



5. Cook, R. J. and K. F. Baker. 1983. Vie Nature and 

 Practice of Biological Control of Plant Pathogens. Amer. 

 Phytopath. Soc, St. Paul, MN. 



