Ornamental Pepper 'Black Pearl' as Banker Plant
Friday, 09 October 2009 14:54
To prepare for thrips management in spring crops, it’s time to begin growing ornamental pepper plants ‘Black Pearl’ as banker and indicator plants. The plants need to be growing for about 2 months before spring bedding plants are started and planted in 6” pots in early December.
The following information was adapted from Greenhouse TPM/IPM Weekly Report, Oct. 10, 2008, Maryland Cooperative Extension,Central Maryland Research and Education Center.
The predaceous minute pirate bug, Orius insidious is expensive to purchase. Orius is a beneficial generalist predator that feeds upon adult and larval thrips. It will also feed on other small insects such as aphids, and spider mites. Orius is not effective under short days. A pollen food source helps them establish in the greenhouse.
So, the idea is to rear them on pollen producing pepper plants and place plants throughout the greenhouse to distribute the minute pirate bugs throughout the greenhouse. Pepper plants are magnets for thrips and serve as banker plants and indicator plants for early detection. Minute pirate bugs are released at a rate of 60-80 per pepper plant. The minute pirate bugs will lay eggs on the pepper plants in the same area where thrips lay eggs, usually in or near flowers. One pepper plant covers around 1,000 sq. ft. of growing area. As long as the pepper plants are in flower and producing pollen, the minute pirate bugs will reproduce on them. The adults will fan out across the greenhouse and kill 1st and 2nd instar thrips larvae and adult thrips. Only one release of minute pirate bugs onto the banker plants is necessary. Peppers need to be removed about once a month from the pepper plants to keep them flowering, in order for the process to work. Some growers have mentioned that keeping peppers picked off the plants is tedious and time consuming. For information on growing ‘Black Pearl’ ornamental pepper from seed see Grower Facts from PanAmerican Seed.
Leanne Pundt, UConn and Tina Smith, UMass Extension
