Foliar Sprays to Control the Colorado Potato Beetle on No-Till Tomatoes, 1982

Abstract

Abstract ‘UC-134’ tomatoes were direct seeded in single row plots 25 ft long on May 10. A John Deere Model 71 planter equipped with a vegetable hopper with a fluted no-till coulter was used for the planting. Seeding was made in overwintered rye which had been killed with Paraquat (1.0 pt) on Apr 30 and Devrinol (3.0 lb) on Apr 10. Round-Up (1.5 pt) was applied on Apr 15. Each plot was buffered on either side by an untreated guard row. Distance between rows was 6 ft. When plants were 2-3 inches tall they were thinned so as to provide clumps of 3 tomato plants spaced 12 inches apart. The plots were arranged in a randomized complete block design with 4 replications. The soil was a Norfolk ‘A’ loamy sand. All spray treatments were mixed in 10 gal of water and applied with a custom built row crop sprayer. Each row was covered by 6 drop nozzles delivering 50 gal/acre at 90 psi. Treatments were applied Jun 10, 18, 30 and Aug 5. In evaluating the treatments, direct counts of the number of Colorado potato beetle larvae/10 ft of row and the % defoliation were recorded. Yields were taken on Aug 25.