research greenhouses

Research involving the use of plants takes place within different organizations.

Examples are:

• Universities and colleges
• research departments of (manufacturing) companies, such as seed companies, breeders
• research stations

Researchers ask a high demand for the plant’s characteristics. The plants must grow rapidly and in good health. Little or no account is taken of the fact that growth conditions in a greenhouse is often not optimal, especially in winter when the staff has little experience. The plants are often by researchers 'tortured' to see the effect of certain conditions. Those plants may be more susceptible to diseases and pests which can quickly spread.

Compared to the situation in a commercial greenhouse, plants in a research greenhouses are keep often much longer.  There are often 'old' species or varieties of plants that lack certain resistances. Due to lack of space, plants with different growth conditions or different susceptibilities to pests and diseases are often put together, which results in particular situation that ENTOCARE can help with.

Using chemicals to combat pests and diseases in research greenhouses difficult for several reasons:

chemicals have a direct or indirect influence on the experiments,
the plants can be sensitive to the chemicals,
the chemicals in the same greenhouse or on nearby greenhouses may have undesirable side effects,
the greenhouse may remain closed to researchers and nursing staff during and after treatment for some time.

Application of a biological control program doesn’t have these disadvantages. In many research greenhouses already worked with biological control for this reason. To do this successfully, a number of points must be taken into account. For instance, natural enemies must be introduced very early or even preventatively, especially in crops that are known to have pest problems. Introductions should be repeated regularly to prevent pest outbreaks. Scouting must be done regularly, in order to monitor the progress of the pest and the beneficials after which decisions are taken on how to adjust the biological control plan. Dosage the natural enemies is generally higher than in commercial greenhouses.

An important condition for the success of biological control in research greenhouses is a good contact between researcher and the staff/scout. When it is clear what the researcher exactly wants, the biological control plan can taken into account the specific demands. However, if a researcher indicates that his experiments suffered from the presence of a pests, it can always be decided, during the consultancy, to correct the situation by spraying pesticides. For many pesticides, the side effect on long and short terms on natural enemies is known.

ENTOCARE has extensive experience with application of biological control in greenhouses and research. ENTOCARE can provide expert advice on the strategy at the start and during a biological control program. It is important to recognize possible after-effects of chemical agents that are used in an earlier stages in order to wisely introduce the beneficials. It also allows, when necessary, to start using natural enemies preventively. The best time to start with a biological control is the spring.