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Ipmpipe and Innovative Disease Diagnostic Tools for Onion Growers

Objective

<p>The long-term goal is to optimize sound pest management decision-making in onion by the development and deployment of a sustainable online information management platform called the Onion ipmPIPE (Onion integrated pest management Pest Information Platform for Extension and Education). </p>
<p>Objective 1: ipmPIPE Network and Operations to (a) Validate scouting protocols for priority pests of onion system; (b) Provide management tools to stakeholders that relate descriptive stages of plant growth to weather, pest and disease thresholds with timely management strategies; (c) Enhance management resources to include an image gallery to aid in-field and laboratory identification of key diseases and pests which will be linked to a wiki-information tool that will provide additional background information on biology and management; (d) Add economic monitoring of specialty crop markets to help stakeholders make more timely and informed decisions for crop production and pest management; and (e) Assess the adoption level of these tools and resources used by growers, advisors and other key stakeholders. </p>
<p>Objective 2: Innovative Pathogen Diagnostic Development and Validation to (f) Develop and enhance a DNA macroarray detection method for bacterial disease complexes, viruses, and fungal disease organisms affecting onions in the field and early storage; and (g) Validate the macroarray as a detection tool that is specific for the target organisms emphasized in this proposal (does not cross-react with non-target organisms). </p>
<p>Objective 3: Incorporation of Disease Risk Decisions with Economic Justification to (h) Implement and validate Risk Assessment Models for thrips, Iris yellow spot virus), bacterial diseases and foliar fungal diseases; and (i) Provide a real-time price discovery tool for specialty crop commodities will help onion stakeholders make more timely decisions in relation to disease and pest management options and strategies. Outputs will include a measure of information technology usage as determined by the number of user hits on the Onion websites. Hits per year will be analyzed to evaluate the effectiveness and preference of different formats. Usage of features such as the image gallery, wiki pages and crop marketing resources will also be tracked to measure their effectiveness. Positive results for pest detection will help determine significant local foci of pest incidence which will be used to improve pest management timelines and efficacy. New and improved pest diagnostic techniques will be promoted and validated by the virus, bacterial, and fungal disease laboratories working with onion specialists across the U.S. They will also act as repositories for virus, bacterial and fungal isolates, respectively, under appropriate PPQ permits.</p>

More information

<p>NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY:<br/> The long-term goal is to develop, fully deploy, and evaluate a sustainable online information management platform called the Onion ipmPIPE (Onion integrated pest management Pest Information Platform for Extension and Education) to optimize sound pest management decision-making in onions. The mission is to invest resources into aspects of production of bulb onions for fresh market and storage to the ipmPIPE infrastructure in response to the needs of onion stakeholders across the U.S. Focus areas include: a) efforts to identify and address threats from pests and diseases; b) efforts to improve production efficiency, productivity and profitability; c) new innovations in technology; d) methods to detect, monitor, control and respond to potential food safety hazards; and e) investment in ipmPIPE resources and expansion. Trans-disciplinary and
outreach approaches include economic resources and tools that empower specialists and stakeholders to make more timely and justified specialty crop production and pest management decisions. Anticipated Outcomes of the Onion ipmPIPE include: (a)It will develop linked information platforms where specialty crop stakeholders can check what pests have been identified in their area, get assistance with pest diagnostics, link to pest images, and finally, access information on the pest, life cycles, host range, and IPM tactics. (b)It will extend the single pest/crop Information Technology platform approach to become a diverse crop and pest platform which would address the range of pest problems faced by onion producers. (c)It will address a broad range of important pathogens in onion, and will validate a real-time risk management tool to be used by public stakeholders, extension, research, and
industry. Models for disease movement and development will also be accessed. (d)It will develop and validate innovative disease diagnostic technologies that will improve the accuracy and timeliness of market-supported IPM strategies. (e)It will enhance detection systems for important viral, fungal and bacterial diseases in formats that can be used on broad scales to compile epidemiological data. (f)It will improve the management strategies of specialty crop stakeholders by enabling them to focus on locally developing disease problems while being alerted of other enhanced risk situations on regional formats, improving IPM practices of producers, limiting the amounts of pesticides applied, promoting integration of control options into management strategies, and educating specialty crop stakeholders about pest problems. (g) It will reduce redundancy of onion pest alert systems operated in
individual onion-producing states and regions. (h) It will promote greater communication and collaboration among onion researchers, extension personnel, and industry participants on a national level. (i) The Onion ipmPIPE platform will serve as a role model for other specialty crop systems.
<p>APPROACH: <br/>This project will incorporate data collection efforts that have been initiated recently with the creation of the regional W1008 research and extension project. W1008 provides organizational structure for information sharing from onion research and extension projects funded by other sources in participating states. Inclusion and testing of the pathogen macroarray will expand the innovative diagnostic tools and coverage for priority diseases of onion caused by fungal and bacterial pathogens and their complexes. The Onion ipmPIPE will link with weather impact management tools and recommendation systems already successfully adopted for other ipmPIPE projects. Onion Sentinel Monitoring will involve multiple fields, experiment station sites and/or survey transects in representative onion production areas with input on locations sought from growers and crop
consultants. This will require regular field visits during key growth periods of the onion crop throughout the long growing season of 16-20 weeks. State disease and insect pest reports will be submitted biweekly, and compiled for timely state/regional/national reporting to growers online at the Onion ipmPIPE web site. Expert Labs will coordinate the following activities on behalf of the Onion ipmPIPE network and industry: (a) Repository for archival of representative isolates and diversity of the pathogen and/or pest group. (b) Provide expertise for the coordination of protocols to sample for specific onion pathogens and/or pests for the ipmPIPE network, as well as individual participants in the ipmPIPE or from the onion industry. (c)Contribute expertise to the development of appropriate outreach materials such as diagnostic profiles, description of pathogen or pest biology, and summary
of pest management tactics that can be distributed via ipmPIPE resources such as web sites. Each Risk Assessment Model contains key factors related to the biology of the pest, conditions favoring pest survival and pathogen infection, recent weather events and forecasts (temperature and moisture), crop history, irrigation or rainfall conditions, varietal susceptibility, and stage of crop development. This information will include crop status (growth stage), pest reports and IPM recommendations by state specialists, as well as relevant weather parameters. The Onion ipmPIPE then provides links to and explanation of IPM strategies that may include the timely application of labeled fungicides. Similar links are available in state reports and other regional resource links on the ipmPIPE network and other IPM websites. Short-term metrics will include: increased knowledge of pathogen and pest
incidence, increased knowledge of Onion ipmPIPE tools (i.e., image galleries, wiki pages, etc.) for assisting with diagnostics and management decisions. Medium-term metrics will include: increase in use of the Onion ipmPIPE for pest diagnostics, monitoring, and management decisions. Long-term metrics include: environmental impacts associated with the number of pesticide applications (insecticides and fungicides) and/or the use of less toxic products; and the economic impact associated with these management decisions.</p><p>
PROGRESS: <br/>2012/09 TO 2013/08 <br/>Target Audience: The target audience included onion growers, processors, crop consultants, field representatives of onion seed and chemical companies, State Department of Agriculture field inspectors, Extension faculty, in addition to graduate and undergraduate students involved with production and pest management of onions and other allium crops in Colorado, Idaho, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, Utah, Washington and other onion producing states in the U.S. The project has also served to connect onion researchers at private companies, USDA-ARS and Universities in and around major onion production regions in the United States, further encouraging communication and information dissemination. Presentations have been made to state, regional and national meetings by project PIs; examples include the Great Lakes Fruit, Vegetable and Farm
Market Expo in Grand Rapids, MI. Changes/Problems: Delays were encountered in developing fungal and bacterial macroarrays. We anticipate having a preliminary DNA macroarray available by 2014 for the priority bulb rot pathogens for in vitro and in vivo testing. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Collaboration and training were initiated with various organizations including the Colorado Onion Association, New Mexico Dry Onion Commission, Michigan Onion Committee, Utah Onion Association, National Onion Association, and Regional W1008 Research and Extension Committee members throughout the United States. Additional contacts included numerous Colorado, Idaho, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, Utah, Washington and other onion growers in all major onion growing counties of the U.S., inspectors with state departments of agriculture, extension
agents, field consultants with seed companies, pesticide companies, pesticide applicators, and crop consulting companies. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Additional links have been made to other educational resources including extension biweekly newsletter on project reports and weather patterns by production region, fact sheets, narrated videos on diseases, and pest management guidelines. These educational resources and progress have been shared with growers and other stakeholders at numerous commodity meetings and field days in all participating states. The survey data will help refine an approach to reach more onion growers with the website. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? During its third year, the Onion ipmPIPE project has continued to evolve in its scope and interactivity with state, regional, and
national stakeholders and organizations involved with the production, pest management (emphasis upon IPM strategies including selection of disease resistant varieties, planting clean seed, suitable crop rotation, scouting and confirmation of economic threats from disease organisms and insect pests, and timely application of pesticides as needed) and marketing of allium crops such as onion and garlic. This has involved reports, web site updates, predictive modeling, and conference calls every two weeks during the course of each growing season. We anticipate having a preliminary DNA macroarray available by 2014 for the priority bulb rot pathogens for in vitro and in vivo testing.<br/>
PROGRESS: <br/>2011/09/01 TO 2012/08/31 <br/>OUTPUTS: The long-term goal is to optimize sound pest management decision-making in onion by the development and deployment of a sustainable online information management platform called the Onion ipmPIPE (Onion integrated pest management Pest Information Platform for Extension and Education). Objective 1: ipmPIPE Network and Operations to (a) Validate scouting protocols for priority pests of onion system; (b) Provide management tools to stakeholders that relate descriptive stages of plant growth to weather, pest and disease thresholds with timely management strategies; (c) Enhance management resources to include an image gallery to aid in-field and laboratory identification of key diseases and pests which will be linked to a wiki-information tool that will provide additional background information on biology and management; (d)
Add economic monitoring of specialty crop markets to help stakeholders make more timely and informed decisions for crop production and pest management; and (e) Assess the adoption level of these tools and resources used by growers, advisors and other key stakeholders. Objective 2: Innovative Pathogen Diagnostic Development and Validation to (f) Develop and enhance a DNA macroarray detection method for disease organisms affecting onions in the field and early storage; and (g) Validate the macroarray as a detection tool. Objective 3: Incorporation of Disease Risk Decisions with Economic Justification to (h) Implement and validate Risk Assessment Models for pests and diseases; and (i) Provide a real-time price discovery tool to help onion stakeholders make more timely decisions in relation to disease and pest management options and strategies. Outputs will include a measure of information
technology usage as determined by the number of user hits on the Onion websites. Hits per year will be analyzed to evaluate the effectiveness and preference of different formats. Usage of features such as the image gallery, wiki pages and crop marketing resources will also be tracked to measure their effectiveness. Positive results for pest detection will help determine significant local foci of pest incidence which will be used to improve pest management time lines and efficacy. New and improved pest diagnostic techniques will be promoted and validated by the virus, bacterial, and fungal disease laboratories working with onion specialists across the U.S. They will also act as repositories for virus, bacterial and fungal isolates, respectively, under appropriate PPQ permits. The development of a DNA macroarray for the detection of fungal, bacterial and yeast pathogens of onion bulbs
began by requesting bacterial and fungal isolates of different taxa associated with onion. A total of 341 bacterial and 190 fungal isolates were obtained from 13 states. An onion grower survey was designed and administered to 1300 onion growers to assess their use of the website and to facilitate subsequent impact assessment. More than 300 responses were received and entered into a computer program for analysis. A randomized control trial was designed to test the impacts of newsletter alerts to draw grower attention to the ipmPIPE website. PARTICIPANTS: Individuals who worked on this project included the following: D. Alston, J. Alwang, M. Bartolo, T. Blunt, B. Bunn, C. Cramer, W. Cranshaw, J. Davidson, M. Derie, K. Douce, D. Drost, L. J. du Toit, T. Gourd, B. Gugino, B. Hammon, J. Hardin, M. Hausbeck, G. Jiblian, G. Lafferty, J. LaForest, M. McMillan, S. K. Mohan, J. Morrice, B. Nault,
C. Nischwitz, G. Norton, H. Pappu, R. Sampangi, B. Schroeder, H. Schwartz, W. Secor, S. Szostek, N. Tisserat, M. Uchanski, J. VanKirk, T. Waters, C. Wohleb & Stakeholders. Stakeholders who produce, store, pack and ship onions in the USA are the target audience for this research endeavor. Greater than 66% of USA storage onions are produced, stored and packed in the western United States, so a majority of the target audience is in the western USA. This project relies on extensive stakeholder participation in university (e.g., CSU, NMSU, WSU) Onion Cultivar and Storage Demonstration Trials to provide valuable opportunities for stakeholder assessment and feedback on progress towards timely pest management strategies and a functional macroarray for storage rot pathogens. Individuals that worked on the project included all principal investigators, their research and extension associates,
technicians, graduate students and undergraduate students. Collaboration and training were initiated with various organizations including the Colorado Onion Association, New Mexico Dry Onion Commission, Michigan Onion Committee, Utah Onion Association, National Onion Association, and Regional W1008 Research and Extension Committee members throughout the United States. Additional contacts included numerous Colorado, Idaho, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, Utah, Washington and other onion growers in all major onion growing counties of the U.S., inspectors with state departments of agriculture, extension agents, field consultants with seed companies, pesticide companies, pesticide applicators, and crop consulting companies. TARGET AUDIENCES: The target audience included onion growers, processors, crop consultants, field representatives of onion seed and chemical companies, State Department
of Agriculture field inspectors, Extension faculty, in addition to graduate and undergraduate students involved with production and pest management of onions and other allium crops in Colorado, Idaho, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, Utah, Washington and other onion producing states in the U.S. The project has also served to connect onion researchers at private companies, USDA-ARS and Universities in and around major onion production regions in the United States, further encouraging communication and information dissemination. Presentations have been made to state, regional and national meetings by project PIs; examples include the Great Lakes Fruit, Vegetable and Farm Market Expo in Grand Rapids, MI. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: During its first year, the Onion ipmPIPE project has evolved in its scope and interactivity with state, regional, and national stakeholders and organizations involved
with the production, pest management (emphasis upon IPM strategies including selection of disease resistant varieties, planting clean seed, suitable crop rotation, scouting and confirmation of economic threats from disease organisms and insect pests, and timely application of pesticides as needed) and marketing of allium crops such as onion and garlic. This has involved reports, web site updates, predictive modeling, and conference calls every two weeks during the course of each growing season. We anticipate having a preliminary DNA macroarray available by end of summer 2012 for the priority bulb rot pathogens for in vitro and in vivo testing.
<br/>PROGRESS: <br/>2010/09/01 TO 2011/08/31 <br/>OUTPUTS: The long-term goal is to optimize sound pest management decision-making in onion by the development and deployment of a sustainable online information management platform called the Onion ipmPIPE (Onion integrated pest management Pest Information Platform for Extension and Education). Objective 1: ipmPIPE Network and Operations to (a) Validate scouting protocols for priority pests of onion system; (b) Provide management tools to stakeholders that relate descriptive stages of plant growth to weather, pest and disease thresholds with timely management strategies; (c) Enhance management resources to include an image gallery to aid in-field and laboratory identification of key diseases and pests which will be linked to a wiki-information tool that will provide additional background information on biology and management; (d)
Add economic monitoring of specialty crop markets to help stakeholders make more timely and informed decisions for crop production and pest management; and (e) Assess the adoption level of these tools and resources used by growers, advisors and other key stakeholders. Objective 2: Innovative Pathogen Diagnostic Development and Validation to (f) Develop and enhance a DNA macroarray detection method for bacterial disease complexes, viruses, and fungal disease organisms affecting onions in the field and early storage; and (g) Validate the macroarray as a detection tool that is specific for the target organisms emphasized in this proposal and does not cross-react with non-target organisms. Objective 3: Incorporation of Disease Risk Decisions with Economic Justification to (h) Implement and validate Risk Assessment Models for thrips, Iris yellow spot virus, bacterial diseases and foliar
fungal diseases; and (i) Provide a real-time price discovery tool for specialty crop commodities to help onion stakeholders make more timely decisions in relation to disease and pest management options and strategies. Outputs will include a measure of information technology usage as determined by the number of user hits on the Onion websites. Hits per year will be analyzed to evaluate the effectiveness and preference of different formats. Usage of features such as the image gallery, wiki pages and crop marketing resources will also be tracked to measure their effectiveness. Positive results for pest detection will help determine significant local foci of pest incidence which will be used to improve pest management time lines and efficacy. New and improved pest diagnostic techniques will be promoted and validated by the virus, bacterial, and fungal disease laboratories working with onion
specialists across the U.S. They will also act as repositories for virus, bacterial and fungal isolates, respectively, under appropriate PPQ permits. PARTICIPANTS: Individuals that worked on the project included all principal investigators, their research and extension associates, technicians, graduate students and undergraduate students. Collaboration and training were initiated with various organizations including the Colorado Onion Association, National Onion Association, and Regional W1008 Research and Extension Committee members throughout the United States. Additional contacts included numerous Colorado and other onion growers in all major onion growing counties of the U.S., field consultants with seed companies, pesticide companies, pesticide applicators, and crop consulting companies. TARGET AUDIENCES: The target audience included onion growers, processors, crop consultants,
field representatives of onion seed and chemical companies, in addition to graduate and undergraduate students. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.</p>

Investigators
Tisserat, Ned; Schwartz, Howard; Cranshaw, Whitney
Institution
Colorado State University
Start date
2010
End date
2015
Project number
COL0-2010-01193
Accession number
222164
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