Mulch materials with seedling growing conditions determine the level of Tuta absoluta (Meyrick 1917) infestation in tomato crop Tiwari Sundar3, Kafle Lekhnath*, Dhoj GC Yubak1, Gautam Bishnu3, Sharma Sheela2 Department of Tropical Agriculture and International Co-Operation, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Taiwan 1Food and Agriculture Organization, Regional Office, Bangkok, Thailand 2National Entomology Research Centre, Nepal Agriculture Research Council, Khumaltar, Lalitpur 3Department of Entomology, Faculty of Agriculture, Agriculture and Forestry University, Bharatpur, Chitwan - 44200, Nepal *Corresponding author's E-mail : kafle@mail.npust.edu.tw
Online published on 20 December, 2024. Abstract A study was conducted to evaluate the effect of various mulch materials with various seedling-growning conditions to reduce Tuta infestations in tomato crops. The results showed that seedlings grown in plastic tunnels and transplanted in open field areas with mulch materials were more resilient to T. absoluta infestation compared to the seedlings grown in open areas with no mulch materials. Similarly, seedlings grown inside the plastic tunnels had the lowest leaf and fruit infestations compared to the seedlings grown in openfield conditions. Leaf infestation was much lower (9-12%) in all mulching fields in both seedlings grown conditions compared to no-mulch fields (18-30%). However, the highest yield (110.0 mt/ha) was recorded in black plastic mulch with seedlings grown inside the plastic tunnel followed by straw mulch (103.30 mt/ha) and white plastic mulch (93.3 mt/ha) fields in the same seedling growing conditions. The lowest yield was recorded in no-mulch fields with seedlings grown in open areas (55.0 mt/ha). Top Keywords Agroecology, Integrated pest management, Mulching, Tomato leaf miner, White plastic. Top |