Place a few plants in rubbish bags inside an empty greenhouse, a few days before the start of the cultivation. It sounds simple, but it is also an extremely effective method of scouting out pests at the start of a cycle.
Ronald Valentin of BioWorks, a Dutchman who moved to Canada in 1997, started using this technique some five-seven years ago, he says in a response to a post on LinkedIn, which has already generated some reactions. "Initially, I used it in cucumber cultivation during crop rotations with several crops per year, but it also works well in tomato and sweet pepper."
"There is also a plant breeder who delivers some plants especially for this purpose about five days before the real planting starts."
Ten plants per acre (just over twenty per hectare) are enough to detect pests. "It's amazing to come across thrips or pepper weevil on the 'plant trap'."
A few hours before planting, it is then easy to carefully pull up the rubbish bag and thus get rid of many pests at once.
For more information:
Ronald Valentin
BioWorks
www.bioworksinc.com
LinkedIn Ronald Valentin