Barreda Castro, Carlos D.

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    The use of companion crops to attract natural enemies for aphid management in organic tropical “calabaza” production
    (2023-05-10) Barreda Castro, Carlos D.; Segarra Carmona, Alejandro E.; College of Agricultural Sciences; Martínez Cález, Edda L.; Armstrong Ramírez, Arístides M.; Department of Crops and Agro-Environmental Sciences; Méndez Cruz, Lourdes
    To determine the effectiveness of companion crops for aphid management with natural enemies, 10 different companion crops were used as treatments in two organic plantings with tropical calabaza Cucurbita moschata (Duchesne ex Poir.) ‘Taina Dorada’ genotype as the main crop. Companion crops were also analyzed to see if they enhanced calabaza yield outcome. Experiments were carried out during two different planting seasons at the Agricultural Experimental Station of the University of Puerto Rico at Isabela. The first planting was in the fall season from October to December 2021 and the second planting was in the spring season from March to May 2022. Calabaza leaves were sampled for aphids by direct observation and companion crops were sampled for aphid predators with sweep-net and yellow sticky traps. The aphids found were Aphis gossypii (Glover) and Myzus persicae (Sulzer). Natural enemies found were two coccinellids species, Cycloneda sanguinea (L.) and Coelophora inaequalis (F.), and chrysopid species Plesiochrysa brasiliensis (Schneider).