IPM Success Story:
IPM
Researcher Helps with Solution to
Hot Pepper Virus in Jamaica
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It has been called “the
king of Capsicums” and the “Prince of Peppers.”
The scotch bonnet pepper of Jamaica is so hot
that just handling the seeds requires wearing
gloves to prevent being burned. This pungency
has made the peppers highly prized. Aficionados
claim that the peppers have a “smoky-fruity”
flavor—that is, if you can get beyond the
burning sensation! In Jamaica, scotch bonnet
peppers are the most profitable of any export
crop and provide employment and income for 3,000
people. |
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Yet, scotch peppers could
be much more profitable were it not for a highly
destructive virus that attacks 70 percent of the
crop. Under the IPM CRSP program, Virginia Tech
plant pathologist Sue Tolin has researched the
Tobacco Etch Virus—the invisible culprit—for six
years. She has learned that combating the pest
is not an easy thing.
In addition to reducing yield, TEV
deforms the peppers and mottles the leaves, making them
unmarketable. The leaf mottling, or “etching” is what
gives the virus its name. TEV is spread by aphids, and
aphids appear in great numbers after rains. Weeds
increase, and aphids come to feed on the weeds, bringing
with them the virus that then hops onto the pepper
plants.
The traditional method of treating the virus was to
spray it with insecticides, which besides having a
negative effect on the environment, did not stop the
problem.
What Tolin found was that the
solution lies in a combination of methods. Farmers need
to protect seedlings with aphid-impermeable netting
before transplanting; they need to use stylet oil—a
biodegradable fungicide and insecticide; and they need
to remove weeds within or adjacent to pepper fields, and
to destroy old pepper fields that may harbor TEV.
What’s more,
researchers need to share their findings; and port and
packing house inspectors as well as import
administrators need to understand the latest in
research.
Tolin hopes that her findings will
not only help with the production of healthy pepper
crops in Jamaica, but will also contribute to an
understanding of aphids and TEV in general. What she
learns about aphids in Jamaica can be applied in the
United States and in other places where peppers are
grown. |
