Monitoring
Throughout the growing season it is important to keep accurate records of weather, crop development and management practices. It is also helpful to include an evaluation of the incidence and levels of pest infestations.

Regional weather information does not always reflect the microclimate of the field. Agro Engineering, in cooperation with individual clients, has established several weather stations throughout the San Luis Valley to better monitor weather data for our consultants and our clients. This information helps us provide daily, field-specific crop evapotranspiration reports for irrigation scheduling. To view station locations and weather summaries at these stations, click the weather tab at the top of this page. Please contact your consultant if you would like ET data specific for your fields.

Aerial photography is useful for soil mapping and quickly assessing the status of general plant health over large areas. Agro Engineering has developed a multi-spectral digital aerial photography program for growers. This enables us to produce and deliver images to the grower within days of the flight or sooner. We are also able to produce a crop health image, which is extremely sensitive to crop vigor. For more information about our aerial photography services, click here or email Kelley Thompson.

Knowing what happened last year can make many management decisions easier. Keep a record of weekly monitoring reports; weed surveys; chemical applications, including the names of materials, rates, dates and methods of application; laboratory reports; aerial photographs and reports; agronomic information, including planting and harvest dates, yields and grade out; and disease reports. Also keep a file of local weather data and charts of accumulated growing degree-days if they are used to make pest control decisions.

Threshold Level Guidelines
Threshold level guidelines indicate when management actions are needed to avoid losses due to pests and other stresses. Guidelines are based on specific sampling techniques, history of a field or region, stage of development, observed symptoms or damage, weather conditions and other observations.

Management Methods
The most economical and effective way to deal with pest problems is to avoid them.

Seed Quality & Certification
A large number of pests can be transmitted in infected seed pieces, including potato viruses, bacterial ring rot, blackleg, late blight, scab, wilt diseases, and root-knot nematodes. This makes seed quality an important factor to consider when planning any pest management program. While certified seed is not guaranteed to be disease free, it is certified to have shown no more than certain low percentages of pest and disease symptoms during inspections conducted by a seed certification program.

Extra precautions are taken to reduce the incidence and spread of pests in fields where seed potatoes are grown. Most seed potatoes are grown in isolated, cool, short-season areas where pest populations are low and symptoms of virus diseases are more pronounced, making identification of infected plants easier.

Biological Control
The potential role of natural enemies in controlling pests is important to assess in the early stages of an IPM program. Beneficial insects offer inexpensive, effective, self-perpetuating and non-disruptive control of pests. Keep in mind that the use of insecticides reduces the populations of many natural enemies in the field.

Resistant Cultivars
The breeding of disease-resistant cultivars is one of the most effective tools for the management of pests.

Cultural Practices

Pesticides