California Fresh Market Tomato Production

Priorities

Category Rank Pest Type Pest Crop Stage Priority
Extension/Outreach 1 All 6- to 12-Inch Shoot Educate government agencies on unfair trade/cultural practices, which result from regulatory burdens.
Extension/Outreach 1 Insects Develop training on using Pheromone trapping for monitoring.
Extension/Outreach 1 Insects R2 Provide training on application technology effective on specific pests.
Extension/Outreach 1 Nematodes R2 The California industry needs to communicate to seed providers that rootknot nematode resistance should be in all varieties.
Extension/Outreach 1 Pathogens Educate growers on best management practices since this impacts post- harvest quality more than any other t
Extension/Outreach 1 Pathogens R2 Educate greenhouse growers and transplant providers on disease identification and management, especially irrigation management.
Extension/Outreach 1 Weeds Educate growers on use of halosulfuron (Sandea) and pendimethalin (Prowl).
Extension/Outreach 1 Weeds R2 Educate growers on conservation tillage and precision cultivation.
Extension/Outreach 1 Wildlife Provide grower updates on vertebrate pest control options
Extension/Outreach 2 All 6- to 12-Inch Shoot Regulators and consumer groups must be educated as to how Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices are used in fresh tomatoes and how this system optimizes food production while it minimizes risks to workers and the environment. This is especially important as it relates to risk assessments for crop production.
Extension/Outreach 2 Insects Provide training on crop free periods for whitefly control.
Extension/Outreach 2 Insects R2 Continue to train growers on pest identification and damage.
Extension/Outreach 3 All 6- to 12-Inch Shoot The general public needs to understand how IPM is used in agriculture and how changes brought about by the FQPA review impacts on the cost of food. The economic side of replacing low-cost pesticides with newer, but much more expensive, materials needs to be considered in the review process.
Extension/Outreach 3 Insects Provide training on resistance management programs across borders (state and federal).
Extension/Outreach 4 All 6- to 12-Inch Shoot With a very diversified crop production system in the state, all growers need to be educated on the value of a crop free period in terms of reducing future pest infestation levels and related pesticide applications when overlapping cropping patterns are employed around their fields. This would focus on area-wide pest management.
Extension/Outreach 5 All 6- to 12-Inch Shoot Finally, the public should be reminded through effective media (e.g., “Buy California”, “Five a Day” programs) that the consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables, particularly fresh tomatoes, contributes to a nutritious diet and healthy lifestyle.
Regulatory 1 All 6- to 12-Inch Shoot Harmonization between Cal-EPA and US-EPA should be encouraged to facilitate and hasten the registration of reduced risk products. It now appears that concurrent registrations of pesticide labels on a federal and state level have been lost. Budget cuts at the state level at the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (CDPR) would force a longer waiting period for state reviews. Any delay in getting the federal pesticide label approved for use in California puts our growers at a disadvantage when materials get approved first in other states.
Regulatory 1 Insects Obtain California registrations for the neonicotinoids.
Regulatory 1 Insects R2 Register plant drenches for use in greenhouse production.
Regulatory 1 Nematodes R2 Register Iodomethane for nematode control.
Regulatory 1 Pathogens Evaluate the long-term viability of the curly top control program.
Regulatory 1 Pathogens Government should provide or conduct post-harvest residue testing (take this burden off of growers).
Regulatory 1 Pathogens R2 Clarify label language that includes greenhouse, field, and greenhouse plants for transplant production as to what can or can not be done with a material.
Regulatory 1 Weeds Ease 8-month plant-back restrictions on halosulfuron (Sandea) for tomato transplants.
Regulatory 1 Weeds R2 Register pendimethalin (Prowl).
Regulatory 1 Wildlife Obtain consistency of issuance of depredation permits.
Regulatory 2 All 6- to 12-Inch Shoot New products registered to rotate in an insect pest resistance program with methamidophos (Monitor) for stink bug control.
Regulatory 2 Insects Change Pre-harvest interval (PHI) for Pyriproxyfen (Knack) from 14 days to 7 days with an actually preferred target PHI of 3 days.
Regulatory 2 Pathogens Expedite the registration of Propamicarb hydrochloride (Previcur Flex) fungicide for use in California.
Regulatory 2 Weeds Ease plant-back restrictions on metolachlor (Dual MAGNUM) as well as restrictions on different rates for soil types (sometimes listed as acetamide). 3) Expedite the registration of pendimethalin (Prowl).
Regulatory 2 Wildlife Need to determine status of several formerly used lethal controls.
Regulatory 3 All 6- to 12-Inch Shoot New chemistries for late blight and powdery mildew control and overall disease resistance management.
Regulatory 4 All 6- to 12-Inch Shoot Clarification of the label of imidacloprid (Admire) for use with greenhouse transplants.
Research 1 All 6- to 12-Inch Shoot Of paramount importance is the need to find effective alternatives to rotate with methamidophos (Monitor), a highly efficacious organophosphate insecticide used for stink bug control. This material, along with other chemicals in this class of chemistry, has received intense scrutiny and is under threat to be removed or have the label modified as a crop protection too
Research 1 Insects Evaluate alternative controls and monitoring techniques for Stink bug.
Research 1 Insects R2 Evaluate materials for control of whiteflies and other insects with sucking mouthparts (such as Actara for aphids).
Research 1 Nematodes R2 Development of nematode resistant varieties.
Research 1 Pathogens Need to develop safe and effective post harvest chemicals and techniques with cost analysis.
Research 1 Pathogens Develop new broad-spectrum fungicides.
Research 1 Pathogens R2 Evaluate Messenger for bacterial speck control in greenhouse and field use and benzothiadiazole (Blockade), a plant activator fungicide.
Research 1 Weeds Develop control measures for black and hairy nightshade.
Research 1 Weeds R2 Evaluate materials and techniques for bindweed control.
Research 2 All 6- to 12-Inch Shoot Research is needed on vector biology. Disease management strategies for control of whiteflies/infectious viruses, thrips/tomato spotted wilt virus, leafhoppers/curly top virus, aphids/Poly viruses, and tomato psyllid/yellows virus also need to be developed. The understanding of the basic biology of disease/vector relationships is critical to the industry, especially for learning how to avoid and reduce losses from viruses.
Research 2 Insects Develop new controls for Whiteflies (especially greenhouse whiteflies).
Research 2 Insects R2 Evaluate carbamate alternatives for use in baits (e.g., neonicotinoids).
Research 2 Nematodes R2 Evaluate Brassica incorporation and solarization impact on nematode populations.
Research 2 Pathogens Conduct field fungicide trials on late blight with dimethomorph (Acrobat) and an unregistered combination of materials famoxadone and cymoxanil (Tanos).
Research 2 Pathogens R2 Improve/develop seed assays for pathogen screening.
Research 2 Weeds Develop control measures for field bindweed.
Research 2 Weeds R2 Develop resistant/tolerant varieties to dodder.
Research 3 All 6- to 12-Inch Shoot Tomato growers are concerned about effective control of soil pests and safer alternatives need to be developed to rotate with organophosphates and carbamates.
Research 3 Insects Study Psyllid biology, monitoring, and control.
Research 3 Insects R2 Study psyllid biology and control.
Research 3 Pathogens Conduct field trials on powdery mildew , evaluate other fungicides and plant resistance activators.
Research 3 Pathogens R2 Evaluate disease resistance development.
Research 3 Weeds Develop control measures for nutsedge.
Research 3 Weeds R2 Develop precision cultivation techniques.
Research 4 All 6- to 12-Inch Shoot Development of pest resistant tomato varieties needs to be encouraged, advanced, and incorporated into existing seed development research. Plant breeding research should find and develop new tomato varieties that are resistant to the many plant diseases and insect pests that are problems for the grower.
Research 4 Insects Continue Genomics research program with UC BioStar.
Research 4 Insects R2 Continue Genomics work on novel peptides for control of phloem feeding insects with Dr. Brian Federici (UC BioSTAR).
Research 4 Pathogens Develop predictive models based on detection of viral inoculum in weeds and presence of insect vectors.
Research 4 Weeds Develop control measures for nutsedge.
Research 5 All 6- to 12-Inch Shoot Weed control is also a key area to address. Development of new technologies and techniques to manage field bindweed, nutsedge, and nightshade is needed.
Research 5 Insects Develop resistance management programs for all insect pests.
Research 5 Insects R2 Develop whitefly resistance management program for tomatoes.
Research 5 Pathogens Validate late blight and powdery mildew models.
Research 6 All 6- to 12-Inch Shoot The work group agreed that a “low input systems approach” to managing all pests of tomatoes should be a focus in future research programs.
Research 6 Insects Evaluate the non-target effects of new compounds.
Research 6 Insects R2 Develop insect and virus resistant plant varieties.
Research 6 Pathogens Develop varieties resistant to Verticillium Race II and Fusarium.
Research 7 All 6- to 12-Inch Shoot Development of safe and cost-effective control of post harvest pathogens needs to be researched and evaluated.
Research 7 Insects Develop insect resistant tomato plants.
Research 7 Pathogens Develop methyl bromide alternatives.
Research 8 All 6- to 12-Inch Shoot Crop management alternatives such as the use of cover crops and reduced tillage need to be studied to identify impacts on insect pest management, with emphasis on both field and regional management.
Research 8 Pathogens Evaluate the effect of cover crops on disease.
Research 9 Pathogens Develop virus resistant cultivars