Tackling vine weevil and weeds in container-grown hardy nursery stock production

In terms of vine weevil control, the loss of thiacloprid (Exemptor) as a growing media treatment, and concerns over the future approval of insecticides for adult vine weevil control, will mean protecting container-grown nursery stock species susceptible to this pest will be very challenging in the future. Similarly, with the demise of crop protection options and increased costs of hand weeding, weed control strategies can be difficult to plan and implement in current production

In December 2020, AHDB committed to funding an HNS Demonstration Project aiming to demonstrate how UK growers should approach the adoption of Integrated Pest Management programmes for both vine weevil and weed control. Selchuk Kurtev, who brings his expertise in hardy nursery stock as a grower, consultant and IPM Manager for a crop protection manufacturer, was appointed as project manager. “It is a really well-timed demonstration project for the two biggest problems in HNS. The fact that we are focusing on demonstrating the learnings from crucial independent research projects funded by AHDB (including HNS 195: Improving vine weevil control in HNS, and HNS 198: Improving weed control in hardy nursery stock, projects) is very exciting. We are not talking about fully replicated trials, we are talking about practical planning and implementation of IPM programmes,” says Selchuk.

The project will have three areas of focus in terms of vine weevil and weed control strategies. The first area concerns devising an easy self-audit checklist for growers to utilise in a simple format which will highlight the strengths and weaknesses of their current approach to achieving successful control. The second area will bring more clarity about how currently approved crop protection options for vine weevil and weed control can fit with various production departments – propagation, young plants and finished crops. This area will also look to obtain anecdotal evidence of potentially new options based on grower experiences and Selchuks’ own work with the UK and EU hardy nursery stock industries. Finally, the last stage will demonstrate the results of planning and implementing IPM programmes and show what an holistic approach to vine weevil and weed control can look like.

The project is set to run for 10 months starting from December 2020, and it is anticipated to end with a knowledge transfer event to showcase the deliverables to industry and continuation beyond this. The project is hosted by James Coles & Sons (Nurseries) Limited and “it is a project that was long overdue for us and the whole industry which brings the results of many years scientific research to our doorsteps and we can finally obtain practical advice to help us become more sustainable”, says Production Director, Mark Cade.