Agrobio-technological Methods for Potato Protection from Potato Tuber Moth in the Central Zone of Krasnodar Krai
The purpose of our long-term research work (2009-2017) was the study of biological features and the nature of harmfulness of potato tuber moth (Phthorimaea operculella Zell.) and the development of effective methods to control it both under field conditions and in storage facilities. The studies were carried out in the central zone of Krasnodar Krai on potato crops with a total area of more than 30 hectares with poorly leached, low humic, super-thick chernozem. The screening of biological preparations was done under laboratory and field conditions. The greatest harm to 80% of tuber damage Ph. operculella Zell. caused in storehouses, while in the field no more than 10% of the plants were damaged. Under field conditions, entomophages of potato tuber moth from the order Hymenoptera (families Braconidae, Elasmidae, and Ichneumonidae), which reduce the population of potato tuber moth by 17.0%, are revealed. Correct crop rotations, early potato harvesting (prior to the beginning of the third generation of the pest, with small population of it on the crop), and also preventive treatment of tubers with biological preparations (lepidocide, SC, bitoxybacillin, WP) prior to storage ensured the safety of 91% tubers in the storehouse. The techniques, we proposed, provided a low number of Ph. operculella Zell. (no more than 2 males per pheromone trap on average per season) with the almost complete absence of damage to plants and potato tubers in the agrobiocenosis of the All-Russian Research Institute of Biological Plant Protection for 5 years (2013-2017) after the experiments.