Western flower thrips (WFT), Frankliniella occidentalis, is one of the most destructive pests of vegetables, fruits and ornamental crops worldwide, causing extensive damage by direct feeding of the crop and transmitting economically important viruses. Despite the successes of biocontrol agents to control WFT, more efficient and cost-effective ways must be found to encourage grower adoption of integrated pest management. A sustainable fungal treatment was developed to preserve fungal inoculum in potting soil and reduce thrips populations. Combining cooked, oven-dried millet with BotaniGard® (a commercial form of Beauveria bassiana strain GHA) to potting soil increased spore production and persistence of the fungus in the soil. In treated pots with millet, spore concentrations were 3–4 times greater after 30 days compared with spore yields at 10 days. The number of WFT adults was significantly lower in the marigold pots treated with GHA mix + millet than untreated controls, 12% and 10% in treated pots and 70% and 68% in untreated pots in sterile and non-sterile soil, respectively. Incorporation of millet in the potting mix enhanced the effect of the fungal treatments by providing a nutritive substrate on which the fungus could become established. This method is relatively inexpensive and easy for growers to use in greenhouses because granular formulations of B. bassiana are not commercially available.

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As a promising high-value crop for small- to mid-sized farms, saffron (Crocus sativus L.) contains valuable bioactive components such as crocins, picrocrocin, and safranal, which were suggested to have potential activity to treat cancers, digestive inflammatory disorders, and Alzheimer’s disease. However, the concentrations of these bioactive components can greatly depend on environmental factors during growth and on postharvest handling. In this work, a new analytical method has been established to measure the relative amounts of these bioactive compounds, using mild extraction conditions in combination with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. We applied our NMR-based analytical technique to establish how the concentrations of crocins, picrocrocin, and safranal in Vermont-grown saffron are impacted by different dehydration methods. Our results indicate that saffron samples dried at a high temperature (100 °C) contain more safranal and crocins and that picrocrocin converts into safranal at an elevated temperature. Density functional theory calculations provide a new mechanism for this conversion, indicating that enzymes are not required for this process. Our NMR-based extraction and analysis method can be applied to other medicinal plants in the future to help optimize growth and postharvest drying/storage conditions.

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