This project aims to reduce agrichemical applications on greenhouse tomatoes by revitalising Integrated Pest Management (IPM) crop protection practices within the New Zealand greenhouse tomato industry. Please scroll down this page to find Grower resources developed from this project.

Major disruption to IPM in New Zealand glasshouse tomato production was caused by the incursion of the Tomato potato psyllid in the summer of 2005/06. The IPM programme had to revert from use of biological control agents to chemical control specifically for TPP. This, in turn, disrupted the performance of what had been successful biocontrol of Greenhouse whitefly with the parasitic wasp Encarsia formosa.

If successful, this project would achieve biocontrol of the two major economic pests of glasshouse tomato production, Tomato potato psyllid and Greenhouse whitefly, enabling growers to use an IPM crop protection programme again.

The project goals will be achieved by:

• identifying the economic risks at grower level to using an IPM programme and how these can be mitigated;
• providing growers with a guide detailing the ideal methods of pest control for their crop; and
• incorporating the use of biological control agents into crop protection programmes for New Zealand greenhouse tomatoes.

Read an article about this project here.

Activity to date

To account for variations in region and operational scale, a range of host sites have been used in both the North and South Islands. The project has also used a number of different biological control agents (BCAs) with the aim of finding the right combination to achieve target pest management. Findings have been positive to date, and another full crop cycle will be monitored to further demonstrate efficacy of learnings to date.

Read first season findings from the project in this technical update published in NZ Grower magazine.

Grower resources

The information contained in the following Greenhouse whitefly management resources has been developed specifically for tomato growers and is based on data collected from this project.

Utilising data collected and observations made to date using the biological control agent Encarsia for whitefly control, the following whitefly management resources were created.

• Whitefly Control Masterclass – how to combat whitefly using an IPM approach (video)
• Whitefly IPM Decision Making Tree Matrix (grower guide)
• Whitefly IPM Workshop (presentation)