Cultural practices and Resistant varieties in Grapes IPM

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• Grapes are susceptible to a variety of disease and

insect pests and must be constantly protected during the growing season.

• Disease, insect, and mite control are among the top priorities of any grower trying to produce high quality fruit.

• The manipulation of cultural practices at an appropriate time for reducing or avoiding pest damage to crops is known as cultural control.

Introduction

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Cultural Methods of Pest Control• This is based on habitat management and requires a

thorough understanding of various components of agro ecosystem on which the pests thrive.

• This approach is also known as ecological management. • The cultural practices make the environment less

favorable for the pests and or more favorable for its natural enemies.

• The effective cultural practices can be further improved or new ones devised if the life history, behavior, habitat and ecology of the pest concerned are fully understood.

• Proper timing of the practices is the keynote of success.

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Main characteristics of cultural practices in the context of IPM

• It is primarily aimed at prevention and reduction of pest outbreaks.

• Generally produce no or negligible undesirable ecological consequences.

• These do not result in total elimination of the pest thus allowing for conservation of beneficial insects.

• It makes cropping systems less friendly to the establishment and proliferation of pest populations.

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Various cultural methods practiced in vineyards in the context of pest management

Tillage: Type and time of tillage affect the pest survivalDeep ploughing in summer after April pruning or exposure / raking of soil in vineyards helps to destroy various pest stages and minimizing the incidence.

Crop Sanitation: Sanitation is to be maintained for eliminating the sources of pest infestation. Plant debris from previous crops is also a source of insect pests (eg., thrips, mealybugs), and they should be destroyed.

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• Pruning : remove / crowded/ dead/ broken/ diseased branches and destroy them. Do not pile them in the orchards which may act as source of pest infestation.

• Canopy management: Open and well aerated and thinning of canes will suppress the severity of Powdery and Downy mildew infestation.

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Intercropping : Inter-cropping wherever possible. All the crops are not preferred by each pest species and certain crops act as repellents, thus keeping the pest species away from preferred crops resulting in reduction of pest incidence.

• Intercropping with Tagetus sp., Asparagus or Sunhemp were found to reduce the nematode infestation of grape roots and increase fruit yield.

Irrigation: Proper irrigation scheduling reduces the water stress and also increases the humidity thereby reducing the mite population..

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• Avoid weed and Alternate hosts: Removal of weeds and alternate host plants like hibiscus, bhendi, custard apple, guava etc in vineyards. They help in harboring insect pests like thrips and mealybugs.

• Integrated water and nutrient management: Excessive irrigation and nitrogen nutrition resulting in succulent and dense growth of the vine, favorable for disease attack.

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Use of resistant variety

• One of the viable options of cultural practices.

First significant economic contribution of host plant resistance in agriculture was made in 1890 when

European grapevines were successfully grafted on to resistant rootstock to save the French wine industry from Viteus vitifoliae (causes Grapevine phylloxera)

History of resistant variety in grapesHistory of resistant variety in grapes

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Why to cultivate resistant varieties?

• Cultivation of resistant varieties greatly reduce need for chemical control measures.

• It enhances the activity of natural enemy of pests thereby aiding in biological control of pests.

• These are also greatly compatible with cultural practices.

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Some examples

Mainly resistant varieties are available for diseases

• Dogridge and 1613 resistant to nematode and phylloxera.

• Chholth Red, Chholth white, Skibba Red (Powdery mildew)

• Amber Queen, Dogridge, Red Sultana (Downey mildew)

• Bangalore blue, Golden muscat, Golden queen (Anthracnose).

Downey mildew

Anthracnose on berry

Powdery mildew

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Disease resistant rootstocks/ cultivars• Cultivars: Bangalore blue, Concord, Champion, Catawba -

Tolerant for both downey mildew and Powdery mildew. • Pusa Navrang - Anthracnose resistant• Bangalore blue - Resistant to anthracnose and Cercospora

leaf spot• Convent large black- anthracnose and Cercospora leaf spot.• Himrod- Hybrid origin, Berries yellow- green,

skin thick resistant to major grape diseases and pests.

Himrod Source: Singh et al (2009): Horticultural crops - Varietal wealth

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Let’s sum up • The manipulation of cultural practices at an appropriate time

for reducing or avoiding pest damage to crops is known as cultural control.

• The purpose of cultural control practices is to make the environment less favourable for the pest and/or more favouring for its natural enemies.

• Proper timing of the practices is the keynote of success.• Cultivation of resistant varieties greatly reduce the need for

chemical spray and also enhances the activity of natural enemy of pests thereby aiding in biological control of pests.

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