Title : Western Flower Thrips In Strawberries Project Leader : David Parker, Senior Agent, Cherokee and Spartanburg Counties

dprkr@clemson.edu PO Box 700, Gaffney, S.C. 29342 864-489-3141 (Cherokee) 864-596-2993 (Spartanburg) Cooperators : Strawberry Hills Farms Gramling Brothers Farm Cash Farms J.W. Billings Farm Dr. Clyde Gorsuch, Clemson University Dr. Barclay Poling, NCSU Dr. Ken Sorenson, NCSU Problem : Commercial strawberry production is becoming a major agricultural industry in the Piedmont of S.C. As with any food crop, the appearance of the fruit is of utmost importance for consumer acceptance. Additionally, the consumer is very concerned with the amount of agricultural chemicals used on the crop. Conversely, the grower is producing a very cash intensive crop and needs to maximize marketable yield. Thrips have become an increasing problem for strawberry producers. Thrips feed on strawberry blossoms and cause the stigmas and anthers to wither prematurely, but not before fertilization has occurred. This damage can result in malformed fruit, sometimes called catfacing, that is unacceptable to the consumer. Also, thrips damage can cause uneven ripening and reduced yields, both problems that reduce the bottom line profit for strawberry producers. This project was designed to help producers moniter thrips movement into strawberry fields, establish treatment thresholds, and better time spray applications. Methods : Strawberry fields were scouted on a weekly basis, beginning at bloom, and continuing through harvest. Yellow sticky cards were placed around field borders to monitor thrips counts as the thrips moved from surrounding areas into the strawberry fields. A total of 100 blossoms per field were inspected for thrips on each scouting trip . Treatment thresholds are 10 thrips per blossom during the bloom period and 1 thrips per 2 berries once fruit is present. Growers generally follow either a very aggressive program of treating fields with a general insecticide as a preventive or a threshold based program, treating only when damaging numbers of thrips are present. Summary : Two years of data have been collected. This data will be presented to strawberry growers at a production meeting to be held in early winter of 2004. Thrips numbers were very low in 2003 compared to 2002. The general feeling is that extremely wet weather kept thrips numbers to below normal levels. The data indicates that thrips numbers increase slowly but steadily, then reach a peak around mid strawberry season and continue at high levels throughout harvest. The sticky cards are very useful in

monitoring numbers of thrips moving to the fields but are not as reliable when looking for hot spots in the field. Blossom counts must be made to have a complete picture of the thrips levels across the field. Growers became more comfortable with the scouting program and began to rely on the results for their spray programs, as opposed to spraying on a calendar basis. The amount of sprays were significantly reduced on all farms.