Florida’s tropical and subtropical climates mean pests, disease and fungus are a constant concern for growers.
Part of Craig Frey’s job as a University of Florida Institute for Food and Agriculture Sciences extension director for four southwest counties is to scout for new pests that established growers aren’t used to seeing, create training programs for growers and other scouts, and do a monthly or biweekly pest and disease report for the areas south of Orlando.
“The insect pest pressure is so high here,” Frey said as he stopped his vehicle on the dirt road at a snap bean farm to talk.
“The Asian bean thrip pest caused 30% losses in Homestead in 2020, partly because nobody knew about it. But it’s better under control this year.”
Homestead has a lot of legume crops grown for Asian and Caribbean markets. Some of those crops are sturdier and don’t suffer as much damage from pests.
“But then they move to one field to the next, causing more damage,” Frey said.
Growers learned to spray sooner, at the budding stage, to minimize losses.
Jim Alderman, president of Alderman Farms, Boynton Beach, Fla., grows organic tomatoes and other vegetables.
True, growing organically is harder in the swamp than it is in more arid regions, like California, but he’s been doing it for about a decade now and has learned a few tricks.
“You’ll always lose one planting a year due to white flies or pathogens. One of our secrets is to move around from farm to farm, so if we have a problem with it one place, we won’t at another,” Alderman said.
“Plant and move. Plant and move. It’s kind of like distributing the risk.”
For watermelon, disease-carrying white flies can be the worst in the southern-most growing areas, such as Immokalee, Frey said.
University researchers are always figuring out ways to tackle the pest problems.
Vance Whitaker, a University of Florida associate professor of horticultural sciences and a strawberry breeder, works in the labs and fields of the Gulf Coast Research and Education Center in Balm, about 30 miles south of Plant City.
He’s seeking genetic traits that make strawberries succulent and able to dodge diseases.
“These varieties are constantly getting better,” Whitaker said.
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