Streamline Your IPM Protocols

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is an ecosystem-based strategy of understanding potential threats, determining where they come from, how to get rid of them or better yet, how to prevent them altogether. There are many important elements to successfully cultivating consistent crops, but IPM is one of the most crucial factors. IPM can be difficult to fully grasp because it is more of a method and technique rather than a specific equipment or product, and decisions on whether to act will be based on various environmental factors that can determine potential exposures. Although it can be complicated to define the best way to implement IPM in any given cultivation space, there are some specifics to consider to refine your processes. Arborjet’s Horticulture Technical Specialist Matt Andrus shares his insights on streamlining IPM protocols.

Control Your Grow

There are many ways for pests to enter a grow room, and identifying those ways is the first step in preventative IPM. Having the ability to control and monitor your garden’s environment is crucial to avoid spreading pests. Filter all air coming into the facility and monitor grow rooms using a control system to get ahead of any environmental problems that could promote the spread of pests and disease. 

Employees can also accidentally bring contaminants into a cultivation operation on their clothes or shoes, so having protocols that limit access to plants can limit that exposure. Having “clean suits” or at least sanitary clothes specifically for the garden will further minimize accidental contamination.

Lastly, any plant matter that comes into the cultivation facility must be considered as a potential contamination source. This can mean the seeds, cuttings or clones for cultivation purposes, soil or soil amendments, or even food brought in for consumption. Quarantines and preventative treatments should be mandatory. Any plant material brought in for cultivation purposes should immediately be quarantined and treated regardless of appearance.

Test Before Committing

As growers continue to look for ways to increase efficiencies, it is important to note that not every corner can be rounded. In fact, some seemingly common-sense practices, like combining or mixing pesticide products, might damage your equipment or your crop. That said, the reward can outweigh the risk if certain precautions are taken.

The first concern starts with product formulation. One question to ask is: Can these products be combined without altering the performance of the products? A simple way to determine this is to do a basic experiment called a “Jar Test” simulating the chemical reaction with differing dose rates, mixing order, mix speeds, and settling times to estimate the minimum or ideal dose required to achieve certain quality goals. This test is done to ensure that products can be combined without coagulation or flocculation. Coagulation is the process of a liquid changing to a solid or semi-solid state. Flocculation is a process where particles suspended in a liquid form flakes and tend to settle on the bottom of a solution. It is best to find out product compatibility in a small-scale jar test so if any solids form they will not clog up your application equipment. To perform the test, simply combine the products you want to mix in a small jar, keeping the planned mix proportions and mixing order and look for any solids or flakes forming.

The next concern is phytotoxicity, or whether the products will have a toxic effect on plant growth and development. This can mean something as basic as a product being too caustic and destroying plant cells upon contact, or something slightly more complex like clogging the stomata, or pores, preventing the leaves from transpiring.

Blocking or reducing transpiration leads to plant cells dying. This is very common and can be frequently misidentified as disease. These blockages can be caused by the product(s) being too concentrated or being applied too frequently. To avoid any pore clogging issues, it is best to test a small section before committing to applying the treatment to the entire crop.

If product compatibility and phytotoxicity are acceptable, you can now proceed with treatment of your entire crop. Combination treatments are a great way of incorporating multiple modes of action (MOA) in a single treatment. Having multiple MOA increases your chances of preventing or reducing an infection/infestation.

Prevent, Don’t Treat

Applying products that have more than one purpose is another great way to save time and money, especially if you do the treatment preventatively. Applying products before the problem exists typically allows you to reduce concentration, volume and frequency. 

Using an organic and systemic pesticide, such as AzaSol, is a great way to ensure that 100 percent of the plant is protected with one application and to deliver multiple MOA. Since it is systemic, it can be applied as you are watering or feeding your plant as a combination, reducing the number of steps in your IPM program. AzaSol can be applied pre-infestation or during an active infestation. In addition to a systemic treatment, contact foliar treatments are also very effective. 

Eco-1 is a 3-in-1 contact insecticide, miticide and fungicide that can also be used preventatively to make the foliage less desirable to pests. Eco-1 can be sprayed or fogged during an active infestation to drastically reduce pest populations.

Other options to prevent and treat multiple issues include horticultural oils, which come in many varieties. Some are used for dormant plants (dormant oils) and others are used on actively growing crops. Narrow range oils are lightweight oils used as a dilute spray and are more suitable for actively growing crops. Horticultural oils come in organic and inorganic options. 

Another common pesticide used in horticulture is potassium salts of fatty acids. This is also used as a multi-purpose food additive that the FDA classifies as GRAS (generally recognized as safe). Potassium salts of fatty acids are simply soap salts. Fatty acids are extracted from animal fats and/or plant oils to form this active ingredient. Some plants used in common formulations are palms, coconut trees, and olive trees, as well as castor and cottonseed.

Sulfur is another organic pesticide used in horticulture since the 1920’s, and Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) outlines its use for cannabis production. 

Finally, the most important thing to check before applying any pesticide to your crop is to confirm with your local Department of Agriculture whether you can apply it to cannabis. Doing this simple bit of due diligence can save you from wasting months of hard work on a crop doomed to destruction.

_{Photo courtesy of Arborjet}