Just as important, it is a commercial-scale demonstration site where growers see how well this system works and learn ways to institute it. The project compares and contrasts conventional and alternative pest management for processing apples. The apple processing industry is very important in West Virginia, representing 6080 percent of the crop production. Processing fruit can sustain more blemishes than fresh-market fruit, so it has potential for greater pesticide savings. Processed apples are of special concern from a food safety standpoint because children and infants consume large quantities of apple juice and applesauce.
Project results so far are interesting and encouraging.
The 12-acre orchard is split into two replicated treatments. One half is managed conventionally, including use of several pesticides found on the Food Quality Protection Act registration review list. During the summer, they are replaced with horticultural oil, Bacillus thuringiensis , and calcium chloride. Pests are monitored throughout the season in both treatments, and fruit damage is assessed by the USDA Federal Inspection Service at a local processing plant. Some important secondary pests, such as spirea aphid, spotted tentiform leafminer, white apple leafhopper, rose leafhopper, and European red mite, are less abundant and less damaging in the alternative treatment, partly because of improved biological control.