The Belgian plum tomato grower Hortipower is working with the PATS-C system for the second season in a row. At the company, moth infestations are now measured automatically with ten systems. The system contributes directly to the IPM program and makes this user more alert to pests.
Astrid Sneyders, crop manager at Hortipower: “This season, we started the crop in January. In parallel, we started monitoring with PATS-C. Earlier detection of tomato leaf miner and tomato looper pests is certainly useful. It aids our IPM program as it makes us more alert, apart from the weekly scouting which we already perform. We now know what to look for and when to look for it, making our searches for potential Tuta absoluta hotspots more targeted.”
Rani Mertens, researcher at Research Centre Hoogstraten, adds: “Tuta absoluta is originally from South America and today widely present in tomato crops in Europe and other continents. When present in the greenhouse, it can take 4 to 6 weeks before you see crop damages. With this solution, we are more timely aware of an infestation. Seeing the adults from the very start enables very rapid intervention, stopping the pest development in its early stages.”
“This means less interventions, saving us spraying rounds and accompanying costs. As PATS-C monitors pest activity each night, we can then also track the effectiveness of each intervention on the population through the daily updated dashboard.”
PATS-C is useful to me as a crop manager, as we have to allocate less labor to scouting and are enabled to act timely on pests.”, Astrid concludes.
For more information:
Astrid Sneyders, Crop Manager
Hortipower (Tomeco)
hortipower.com
Rani Mertens, Manager
Research Centre Hoogstraten (PCH)
proefcentrum.be/en