Connecticut IPM Report, 2023

NEERA Report: March 31, 2023

Prepared by Nick Goltz, DPM

The 2022 IPM Program Team included Mary Concklin (fruit), Shuresh Ghimire (vegetables and hemp), Nick Goltz (plant pathology/diagnostics), Ana Legrand (vegetable entomology), Rosa Raudales and Leanne Pundt (greenhouse), and Victoria Wallace (school, invasive, pesticide safety, pollinators, turf, and landscape).

For more detailed information, please review our 2022 Annual IPM Report. It can be accessed on the UConn IPM website: ipm.cahnr.uconn.edu

Selected 2022 Outcomes

  • Fruit integrated pest management education was delivered to over 571 fruit growers and related industry members throughout 2022 via 62 fruit e-newsletters and pest alert emails.
  • Vegetable integrated pest management education was delivered to over 500 vegetable growers and stakeholders every week from May to September 2022 through 19 weekly vegetable pest alert emails focusing on pests, pest management and decision making, and safe pesticide use. The email open rate was 25–30%.
  • Sixty-three students enrolled in our online Vegetable Production Certificate course in the winter of 2022. The course had seven modules, each module with a self-paced video, supplemental materials, and a short quiz. The participants learned answers to the basic questions about farm business planning, planning and preparing for vegetable farm, warm and cool-season vegetable production techniques, season extension, identification of biotic and abiotic issues, and marketing. In the post-course evaluation survey (N = 63, n = 20), respondents indicated their knowledge on the subjects increased from average of 43% before the course to 86% after the course.
  • The Greenhouse Biological Control conference had 63 attendees. 92% of attendees stated that they learned something to cause them to adopt a new practice within the next year.
  • Carla Caballero supported the translation of IPM materials to Spanish. “Educational Needs of the Spanish speaking Workforce in the Green Industry in CT” in English and Spanish (IRB # X22-0142) surveys were developed and completed. Respondents indicated that identification and monitoring of insect and mite pests (55%), irrigation (50%) and identification and monitoring of root diseases (45%), as the top three subjects where they would like more training. Seventy-three percent of the respondents indicated that having the information only in English as a factor limiting the participation of the Spanish-speaking workforce to extension trainings programs.
  • Over 300 invasive plant activities occurred in over 50 Connecticut towns in 2022. At least 5,017 citizens directly and actively participated in the activities. Many more (at least 7,185) were reached indirectly through articles, YouTube videos, social media, fact sheets, signs, and other educational mediums. A minimum of 15,302 hours were directly invested in invasive plant management, during intensive invasive plant training sessions and management activities, as well as educational outreach. A minimum of 904 hours were provided indirectly as citizens engaged in educational efforts and learned from videos, articles, and fact sheets.
  • A small meadow area was established at the UConn Plant Science Research Facility to serve as a demonstration and educational resource that will help address questions about meadow establishment and maintenance. The demonstration meadow is composed of six seeded plots, each of which are 6' x 60' – half of the site was planted in spring 2022 and half in fall 2022.
  • The eleventh biennial Connecticut Invasive Plant Working Group (CIPWG) symposium was convened via web program on November 3, 2022, with 420 people attending. The symposium theme was Strategies for Managing Invasive Plants: Assess, Remove, Replace, and Restore.
  • The UConn Plant Diagnostic Laboratory processed a total of 311 physical samples compared to 208 samples in 2021, an increase of approximately 50%. At an average value of $50 to $100 per sample in saved time, labor, and resources, efforts of the lab in 2022 resulted in between $15,500 to more than $31,100 in direct savings to New England growers. Additionally, the lab directly responded to at least 350 stakeholder plant health inquires via phone, email, and walk-in. The lab also supported the efforts of the Home & Garden Education Center, which responded to more than 1,649 stakeholder inquiries in 2022. The full Plant Diagnostic Lab report may be accessed at: plant.lab.uconn.edu/diagnostic-reports/
  • There were 65,382 sessions created by 36,422 users of the IPM website (ipm.cahnr.uconn.edu) during 2022. Users include residents of Connecticut plus CA, GA, IL, MA, NY, TX, VA, WA, WY, and Washington, DC, as well as 167 other countries with the top ten being India, Canada, Philippines, China, Australia, United Kingdom, South Korea, Mexico, South Africa, and Kenya.