Lepidopterous Larvae Control on Staked Tomatoes With Gemstar, 1995

Six-week-old transplants were set on 15 June at the Mountain Horticultural Crops Research Station, Fletcher, NC. Plants were set 2 ft apart within 20 ft rows and rows were on 10 ft centers. Single-row plots were arranged in a RCB design with four replications. Materials were applied on 19 and 29 July, 7, 14, 21, and 30 Aug and 6, 13 and 21 Sept with a tractor-mounted boom sprayer delivering 50–100 gpa (gpa increased as plants grew) through 7 hollow cone nozzles per row (three nozzles on each side and one overhead). Powdered milk was added to all GemStar treatments at a rate of 4 lbs/acre. Treatments targeted specifically at lepidopterous larvae (All GemStar and Biobit treatments) received Provado 1.6F at 3.75 oz./acre on 29 July, 14 and 30 August, and 13 Sept for PA and SB control. Starting on 30 Aug, all GemStar treatments also received CGI-9501 (celery looper virus formulation) at 6.75 oz./acre for CL control. PA populations were monitored on 11, 20 and 25 July, 1, 11, 16 and 22 Aug by observing 10 leaves (3rd most recently expanded leaf) per treatment and recording the number infested with ≥ 1 apterous aphid. The lepidopterous larval complex (TFW, CL, SAW, YSAW) was surveyed using a beat-cloth method on 28 Sept and the total larvae found on all ten plants in three replications was recorded. Fruit was harvested on 16, 21 and 28 Aug and 5, 11, 18 and 25 Sept and those damaged by the lepidopterous larval complex (LEPS), and SB were recorded. All data were analyzed using a two-way ANOVA, and means were separated by using LSD (P=0.05).