Cultivar Selection and Pest Control Techniques on Organic White Cabbage Yield

Abstract

In Romania, as in many other countries, white cabbage is one of the most important vegetable crop species. The experiment was performed in the NE of the country during 2008-2009 in order to measure the impact of cultivar choice and pest control techniques on organic white cabbage [Brassica oleracea (L.) var. capitata f. alba (D.C.)]. This experiment included early, summer and autumn crops. The early crop compared four cultivars, the summer crop two cultivars, and the autumn crop three cultivars. The effect of various common organic pest control techniques was also measured. These techniques included: treatments with extract from neem (Azadirachta indica), potassium soap, Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki toxins, application of a parasitic wasp (Trichogramma evanescens) and covering the crop with an agrotextile. Data were collected regarding the effect of cultivar selection and pest control technique on common local cabbage pests: cabbage flea beetle (Phyllotreta atra), cabbage fly (Delia brassicae), cabbage moth (Mamestra brassicae) and cabbage butterfly (Pieris brassicae). The highest yields for each respective growing season were obtained using the following combinations: Flavius agrotextile (early crop), Copenhagen Market agrotextile + 4 lha-1 azadirachtin + 12104 wasps/ha (summer crop) and Buzau 4 lha-1 azadirachtin (autumn crop).

Advances and Trends in Organic Fruit and Vegetable Farming Research

“…For example, the use of exclusion nets in an organic apple orchard kept the damage caused by codling moths below 0.1% (Sauphanor et al 2012). Likewise, covering organic white cabbages with an agrotextile in combination with common organic pest control techniques also resulted in higher yield (Stoleru et al 2012). Sticky-tape barriers may reduce the pest population (Drummond et al 2012) but are not selective to injurious insects.…”

“…The development and testing of biopesticides and lures also contributed to pest management control for organic fruit and vegetable crops (Rajapakse and Ratnasekera 2007;Michereff-Filho et al 2008;Aselage and Johnson 2009;Efrom et al 2011;Wearing et al 2011;Arroyo et al 2012;Bisotto-de-Oliveira et al 2012;Stoleru et al 2012;Attia et al 2013). For organic Japanese plum, sulfur was shown to be effective against powdery mildew, red spider, and plum gall nut; potassium soap and natural pyrethrins maintained aphid populations at moderate levels; and entomopathogenic nematodes controlled flatheaded rootborer (Arroyo et al 2012).…”

Pest Control in Organic Systems

“…Recent research on the outside cabbage crop in the temperate climate highlighted, Timpurie de Vidra cultivar (cv) of early cabbage is most resistant to the cabbage fly (8.5% degree of attack) in comparison with the Golden acre cv., where the degree of attack was 14.2%, during two study years [21].…”

Utilization of locally available binders for densification of rice husk for biofuel production

“…Permeability tests. The water penetration test was carried out by placing the samples in a water bath beaker at room temperature (~22 °C) for 30 seconds and then the rate of absorption or permeability was calculated as a ratio of the weight of the soaked pellet with respect to the original weight [BAKARI and NGADI, 2013, BONEA et al, 2017, PENTEA et al, 2016, STOLERU et al, 2012 .…”

“…The strong peak around 1650 cm -1 indicated the C=O stretching of a carbonyl group in the sub-Saharan rice husks [BAGIU et al, 2012;BUTNARIU and CORADINI, 2012] . The strong peak at around 1025 cm -1 indicated the strong presence alcohols [BUTNARIU et al, 2012, STOLERU et al, 2012 , carboxylic acids, ethers and esters [LAMBERT et al, 2011] . Also, the secondary peak around 1100-1217 cm -1 indicated silica presence in the form of cellulose-silicates [NDAZI et al, 2007] which the proximate analysis ash content confirmed.…”