For the past few weeks we’ve been releasing short videos demonstrating important greenhouse IPM strategies based on current best practices.
In this week’s video, Dr. Rose Buitenhuis from the Vineland Research and Innovation Centre discusses several factors that cause a biocontrol program to fail, and explains the importance of assessing the quality of the biocontrol agents you receive. This is a great video for anyone who’s had ups and downs with their biocontrol program in the past.
Keep reading to find the link to the video and further reading on what can cause a biocontrol program to succeed or fail. The videos for the next several weeks will dive into the details of quality control guidelines for specific natural enemies.
Video Description
All videos were made by the Vineland Research and Innovation Centre, in collaboration with the Ontario Ministry of Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA), and are applicable to both greenhouse floriculture and vegetable crops.
Title: Quality Assessment of Biocontrol Agents
Initial Release Date: 2020.
Details: This video is a short recorded webinar detailing factors that can cause a biocontrol program to fail, including compromised quality of a biocontrol shipment. At the end, the grower guide to quality assurance for biocontrol agents is introduced.
More information relating to this video:
- You can find the Quality Assurance Guide by the Vineland, Research and Innovation Centre here: https://www.vinelandresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Grower-Guide.pdf
- A great magazine article detailing what’s in this video: https://www.greenhousecanada.com/test-and-release-grower-quality-assurance-of-biocontrol-agents/
- Learn more about biocontrol product quality standards used by the industry: https://anbp.org/about/quality-assurance/
Just a reminder that purpose of the guide is to help you learn more about what a “normal” emergence rate looks like, week-to-week, and to determine if any problems may have occurred with a particular product or shipment. Always work with your biocontrol supplier if you feel there is a potential issue. Remember that issues on-farm can affect product quality, too, such as improper storage. Refer to this blog post on factors that can affect predatory mite sachets as a great example where quality assessments and working with the supplier helped us solve a mystery!
Acknowledgements:
These videos were funded by the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance (previously the OMAFRA-U of G Partnership). This is a collaboration between the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food & Rural Affairs and the University of Guelph to advance research and innovation that contributes to the success of the province’s agri-food sector and promotes rural economic development. Videos were made as part of the KTT Funding Program stream.
Funding was also received by the Canadian Greenhouse Conference.
We sincerely thank those that contributed to the making of these videos, including: Dr. Rose Buitenhuis (Vineland), Jesse DeHaan (Vineland), Dr. Sarah Jandricic (OMAFRA), Laxmi Khadka (Vineland), Cara McCreary (OMAFRA), Caitlin MacDonald (Vineland), Ashley Summerfield (Vineland) and Taro Saito (Vineland).
We also thank Omni Media for video production.