E57

Pickleworm is a destructive pest of squash, cucumber and cantaloupe in south Florida, feeding first on flowers, then boring into fruit and reducing yield. Greenhouse raised seedlings were transplanted 3 Mar 2011 into raised beds covered with black polyethylene mulch at the Southwest Florida Research and Education Center in Immokalee FL. Four beds on 6 ft centers and 430 ft long were used, each with two drip lines emitting at 4-inch intervals to provide 60 gph/100 ft. Plants were spaced at 24-inches and received 25% of the required fertilizer incorporated as a 10-2-10 bottom mix on 9 Feb with additional fertilizer provided by daily application of 7-0-7 liquid by drip. A RCB design was used with 4 replications and 10 treatments plus an untreated check. Each plot contained 15 plants with 3 buffer plants between plots. A soil drench of Durivo on 7-Mar was made by delivering a 120 ml suspension to the base of each plant using an EZ-Dose® sprayer operating at a pressure of 45 psi and a flow rate of 3.7 gpm. HGW 86 20 SC was applied by drip on 15 and 29 Mar by sectioning off each treated plot with a ball valve and pressurizing the tape using a 12-volt pump operating at 0.23 gpm to inject 2 L water, followed by 3 L of suspension and finally 3 L of water (Table 1). Foliar treatments of Vetica, Synapse and HGW 86 10 SC were applied with a high clearance sprayer operating at 180 psi and 2.3 mph with delivery through two vertical booms, each equipped with 2 yellow Albuz® hollow cone nozzles plus one overhead for a total of 50 gpa (Table 1). All appropriately sized fruit from 6 plants per plot were removed weekly but evaluated on 8, 13, 18, 22, 27 Apr, 2 May from untreated plants and those receiving Durivo and early application of HGW 86 20 SC. Once spraying commenced, fruit from all plots were evaluated on 6, 11, 16, 20, 25 May. Evaluation included surface and internal feeding damage by pickleworm. Marketable and culled fruit were counted and weighed by category on each harvest date. Data were subjected to ANOVA and means separated using LSD (P = 0.05).