Two entomologists from University of Kentucky share ideas about the potential value and pitfalls of this strategy.

Dr. Gwyn Beattie, a faculty member at ISU's PLPM Department, walks us through the science behind working with bacteriophages (or phages for short) as potential biocontrol agents and their implications for IPM.

Dr. Mark Williams, a horticulturist at the University of Kentucky, discusses the potential for using teff as a living mulch for organic control of weeds under mesotunnels.

Dr. Ajay Nair, a professor of horticulture at Iowa State University, delves into the potential uses of mesotunnel row covers for non-cucurbit crops.For more information visit Dr. Nair's website: https://www.hort.iastate.edu/directory/ajay-nair/

Sean Murphy and Kellie Damann, research technicians with the Pehtybridge Lab at Cornell University, reflect on their experiences doing research with mesotunnels for cucurbit crops in New York. For more information visit Dr. Pethybridge's (EVADE) lab website: https://evade.pppmb.cals.cornell.edu/

In the fall of 2021, nine growers from IA, KY, and NY were interviewed to collect their thoughts regarding the use of mesotunnels as an IPM tool for cucurbit crops. Dr. Heather Dantkzer and Kaitlin Diggins wrap up the most interesting findings of these interviews.

John Bell is an organic grower and cattle farmer from Georgetown, Kentucky. John co-manages the sixth-generation Elmwood Stock Farm and in this episode, he shares with us his insight on using mesotunnels for organic cucurbit crops and the challenges faced when managing a 550-acre family farm.

Cost ratio, cost-efficiency ratio, payback time, grower survey…fairly nerdy words if you are not an economist, right? In this episode Dr. Zhang, associate professor with the Economics Department (ISU), walks us through these concepts and the importance of including socio-economic analysis into the science we do in the field.

In this episode understand the importance of knowing your enemy. Insect pests have particular life cycles, behaviors, and biological relationships. To provide good insect pest control we need to know their weak points, more so when talking about organic pest management, where insecticide sprays are limited in terms of efficiency and residuality. Two insects are of main interest for our research: cucumber beetles, and squash bugs (if you listened to episode 1 of this series you should know why!).

What is a phage? Is biocontrol a real possibility for controlling diseases in organic production of cucurbit crops? Find this and more in this episode with the renowned ISU bacteriologist Dr. Gwyn Beattie