Listen Now

Anna discusses a century of plum curculio research with Doug Pfeiffer (Virginia Tech) and Anne Nielsen (Rutgers University), and how sweet we have in up here in New England compared to more southern regions.

Anna talks about the finer points of monitoring and control of spotted wing drosophila with Kelly Hamby of the University of Maryland and Cesar Rodriguez-Saona at Rutgers University.

Get to know the difference between sanitizers and disinfectants and how to use them with this special interview with UNH Extension’s Heather Bryant and Mary Saucier Choate.

Anna chats with newly minted PhD Nicole Quinn (previously Virginia Tech, now USDA-ARS) about her work studying BMSB dispersal and the dispersal of its natural enemy, samurai wasp.

If 2020 wasn’t bad enough already, the stars seem to be aligning for New Hampshire’s first BMSB outbreak in fall-harvested fruit crops. Anna takes a break from stopping people on the street to warn them and talks to some BMSB experts in this multi-part series on monitoring and control of this invasive stinker.

Anna dives deep into what we know about cucumber beetle behavior and chats with Simon Zebulo (UMD Eastern Shore) about how to make the most of that knowledge in organically-produced watermelon.

If 2020 wasn’t bad enough already, the stars seem to be aligning for New Hampshire’s first BMSB outbreak in fall-harvested fruit crops. Anna takes a break from stopping people on the street to warn them and talks to some BMSB experts in this multi-part series on monitoring and control of this invasive stinker.

Anna catches up with George Hamilton (UNH) about sweet corn monitoring in New Hampshire and touches base with Tom Kuhar (Virginia Tech) about the current state of affairs in sweet corn IPM.

Anna reports on her conclusions from a summer project funded by the New Hampshire Department of Ag & Markets IPM Program and catches up with some old friends from Cornell, Juliet Carroll of NYIPM, and Steve Hesler of the Loeb Lab at Cornell’s AgriTech campus. Monitoring SWD stinks, both literally and figuratively, but Julie and Steve will help convince you that it’s an important part of managing small fruit crops.

Anna gets philosophical with Dr. Kelly Hamby of the University of Maryland and asks: Are seed treatments really IPM?

Anna seeks the help of her neighborhood plant pathology experts, directors of the plant diagnostic clinics at UVM & UNH Ann Hazelrigg of UVM & Cheryl Smith of UNH, to break down IPM of mummyberry, a fungal disease affecting blueberry. Things get complicated as we attempt to integrate pollinator protection into our theoretical IPM program. There is a silver lining in the potential solution, a little help from work done by Rufus Isaacs, MSU. https://www.apsnet.org/edcenter/disandpath/fungalasco/pdlessons/Pages/MummyBerry.aspx https://pollinator.cals.cornell.edu/resources/ https://extension.unh.edu/resource/wildflower-meadows-plant-selection-and-establishment

Anna discusses the state onion IPM with Dr. Ashley Leach (previously Cornell AgriTech, now Purdue University), and how resistant cultivars, fertility, and chemical controls integrate to protect high quality onion crops.

Anna talks codling moth management with Peter Jentsch from the Hudson Valley Research Lab and they get down to the straight dope on what to do and when to do it.

Anna jumps into spring covering basics of soil structure and problems with compost-based potting mixes with University of Rhode Island’s Andy Radin.

Brown marmorated stinkbug (BMSB) is an invasive insect species that is a major agricultural pests in many parts of the US but only occurs at low numbers in New Hampshire. Anna wants to know if BMSB problems are in our future and when we should freak out? She asks for some advice from Rob Morison (USDA-ARS), Daniel Frank (WVU), and Anne Nielsen (Rutgers). Spoiler alert: the answer is not yet…

: Anna discusses the current situation with flies laying their eggs in blueberries with wild blueberry extension specialist, Lily Calderwood of UMaine.

Anna wonders aloud if we are currently in a golden age of striped cucumber beetle research and finds out about what’s going on down in South Carolina in the Blubaugh lab of Clemson University.

Anna chats with hops IPM expert, Lily Calderwood of UMaine, about potato leafhopper and it’s likes and dislikes.

Anna dwells on the concept of acceptable levels of pests and talks to PhD student, Kadie Britt of Virginia Tech, about establishing pest thresholds in a new crop, industrial hemp.

Anna chats with PhD candidate, Matt Boucher of Cornell University, and IPM expert extraordinaire, Kathleen Leahy of Polaris Orchard IPM, about who is to blame for spreading the causal agent of fireblight in apple.