Greenhouse production of vegetables in the Finger Lakes region of New York State is growing exponentially. Yates County alone has seen a 1700% increase in farms growing edible greenhouse crops over the last 6 years. Ontario, Seneca, Steuben and Orleans are showing dramatic growth. Immigration of Old Order communities of Mennonite and Amish families is responsible for this revitalization of agriculture. IPM is ideal for these greenhouses. Why? 1. Old Order families use farm activities to be together. That means infants, children and parents work together in greenhouses. 2. Vegetables are commonly grown in the same house as flowers. The two crops don’t share pesticide registrations. 3. Most growers desire low input approaches to agriculture. 4. There are very few pesticides registered for edible greenhouse crops. The goal of this project was to evaluate several beneficial microbial products for controlling damping-off, a common disease in these systems. Under grower conditions none of the products performed acceptably. At the New York State Agriculture Experiment Station Hydrogen Dioxide provided some disease control but was not equal to a fungicide. Future research could look at using Hydrogen Dioxide in combination with a microbial as an alternative to fungicides.
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