Abstract
Cucurbitaceae fruit and vegetables are important crops in Taiwan. Plant viral disease usually cause the loss of crop production. There is no pesticide which can effectively control this viral disease. However, control of insect vectors become an important issue to date. Whitefly (Bemisia argentifolii Bellows and Perring) is one of the important cucurbit pests known to specifically transmit Begomoviruses, and Squash leaf curl virus Philippines (SLCPHV) has become widespreading in Taiwan in recent years. Aphids are also important insect vectors, known to spread at least four common plant viral diseases that damage Cucurbitaceae crops commonly. Living and synthetic mulches were evaluated for control of the Bemisia argentifolii Bellows and Perring and aphids. This study focused on the application of white clover (Trifolium repens L.) as cover plant in pumpkin cultivation. It showed that whitefly population in white clover treatment significantly reduced, and infection rate of SLCPHV was 55.2%, significantly lower than those of synthetic (reflective) mulches with 91.3% and oligomeric galacturonic acid spray treatment with 95.2%. The proportion of viral infection symptoms occurrence was about 13% at the end of the experiment. This study suggests that white clover would control the population of whiteflies in pumpkin field efficiently. The practice has the potential to be applied to construct organic pumpkin cultivation environment.
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