February 2, 1999

Vegetable Recommends' Extensively Revised

by J. Zakour and L. McCandless

GENEVA, NY: Nearly five years of labor will yield results this spring when growers from all over the Northeast start using a 1999 edition of Cornell University's "Integrated Crop and Pest Management Recommendations for Commercial Vegetable Production" that has been extensively revised. The publication represents a significant change in direction for the 11-volume 'pest recommends' series because it includes options of benefit to both the environment and the bottom line in addition to the pesticides useful in pest management.

"In the original 'Recommends' it was hard to find certain integrated pest management (IPM) information," said Curtis H. Petzoldt, associate director of the New York IPM Program, who was primarily responsible for funding the project and establishing the format. "Our goal for the new version was to make the IPM information as readily available as pesticide information while still maintaining an easy-to-follow format. We think we succeeded!"

The 1999 version will be released at the annual New York State Vegetable Conference in Syracuse, February 9-11, and replaces two previous Cornell Cooperative Extension publications: "Vegetable Production Handbook" and the "1998 Pest Management Recommendations for Commercial Vegetable and Potato Production."

The 305-page soft-cover manual represents the cooperative efforts of two other Cornell faculty in addition to Petzoldt: horticultural scientist Stephen Reiners and entomologist Michael P. Hoffmann. They were assisted by freelance editors Christine Schoenfeld and Elizabeth Spittler.

Cooperative Extension educator, Lee Stivers, who has been using a pre-release version of the book, finds it very useful. "The '1999 Recommends' is a vast improvement over previous editions," Stivers said. "The layout is well-designed, is very user-friendly, and, for the first time in years-maybe ever!-all control strategies, not just chemical pesticides, are shown together for each pest. Faced with an insect, disease or weed problem, a grower can now locate it in the book and easily read about why he is seeing the problem, what he can do about it, and ways to avoid the problem in the future."

Reiners, who edited a similar publication while working at Rutgers, was appointed editor of the annual 'vegetable recommends' update soon after his arrival at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in 1994. After hearing from county agents, regional specialists, and growers about how unhappy they were with the book's format, he met with a vegetable industry working group to extensively revise the publication. They decided to look at the entire vegetable production system from variety selection to pest control.

Cultural information, which had been removed from previous editions of the book, was put back into the recommendations for 1999. To make the book easier to use and combine both integrated pest and crop management information, each pest was listed in a separate table that includes information about symptoms, thresholds, resistant varieties, biological control options, etc., as well as recommendations for pesticides that are labeled and legal in New York State.

The format had been previously designed by Petzoldt. He was also responsible for generating funds to finance the project with a two-year grant from the Northeast-IPM program. The IPM grant will also finance the creation of a Worldwide Web version that will accomplish additional informational links. The site will link full-color photos of insects and diseases and allow users to identify pests they find in their fields. There will also be links to biological control sites. The web version is expected to be on-line by the middle of 1999 at http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/recommends/

Reiners acknowledges the efforts of many people at Cornell in authoring the new publication. "Curt Petzoldt was instrumental in finding the funding for the project as well as all aspects of reformatting," he said. "In addition to serving as one of the principal investigators for the NE-IPM grant, Mike Hoffmann coordinated the entomology changes. Tom Zitter did the same for disease control, and Robin Bellinder coordinated weed control changes. Geneva faculty Helene Dillard, George Abawi, Chuck Eckenrode, and Tony Shelton all spent many hours updating their sections."

Reiners considers the publication "a great example of Cornell listening to suggestions from their stakeholders and responding to their needs." The book is priced at $12.95 for the general public. To purchase it or any of the other updated pesticide recommendations for the 11 'commodities' in the 'Pesticide Recommendation' series-Field Crops, Florist Crops, Grapes, Perennial Herbs, Pest Management for the Home, Small Fruits, Tree Fruits, Trees and Shrubs, Turfgrass, Vegetables, and Vertebrates-contact the Cornell University Resource Center, #7 Cornell Business & Technology Park, Ithaca, NY 14850; email pee3@cornell.edu, or phone 607-255-2080.

Note to Editors: A 300 ppi version of the cover is available by clicking on the above version. If you would prefer a hard copy, contact Rob Way at 315-787-2357 or rfw2@cornell.edu.

Contact: Linda McCandless, Communications Services
Telephone: (315) 787-2417
e-mail: llm3@cornell.edu

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