Ornamental plant production and the landscape management industry are both booming and blooming in Georgia's rapidly growing metropolitan areas.
Participants in the IPM pilot program
examine plants for pest and beneficial
insects with Kris Braman, project leader.
 

Industry advisory groups, in conjunction with a University of Georgia interdisciplinary research and extension team, saw a need to improve understanding and implementation of IPM strategies by growers, homeowners, and people employed in commercial landscape management.
    Programs and related research of this landscape management research project, developed with the help of both providers and consumers, are located at the 60- acre Georgia Station Research and Education Garden in Griffin, Ga.
 

Project Objective Is Management Practices

The objective of the project is to develop management practices for the landscape management industry, including integration of IPM programs into landscape management and cultural practices. By locating the project in the research garden, ongoing research is immediately available to industry professionals and to consumers, making real-life application easier.
    From 1996 through 1998, more than 37,000 people visited the research garden or attended industry or consumer programs, including the community seminar series, trade shows, and community festivals. These programs reached a wide audience, including production and maintenance employees in the landscape industry, educators and students from kindergarten through high school, Master Gardeners, garden club members, and the general community.
    Visitors saw results of different pest management programs applied to 20 mini-landscapes. They also saw the impact of key landscape pests on typically used plant materials when a landscape is maintained using:

• traditional cover sprays
• targeted pest management
• pest-resistant plants.

Cultural factors such as the effect of sun versus shade on plant-pest combinations and landscape quality were demonstrated for key pests such as azalea lace bugs and two-lined spittlebugs.
    A two-year pilot IPM program was developed, and commercial, institutional, municipal, and residential landscape professionals were invited to participate. Their involvement in the research process was critical to the program's success. An eight- member interdisciplinary research and Extension team conducted workshops, served as an information resource, and, with a research associate in entomology, provided biweekly, on-site training at the properties where the landscape professionals worked.
    Ten participants became confident enough in the aesthetic product of an IPM program to stop practicing routine protective spraying. Their shift toward use of biorational products provided good results and permitted increased incorporation of beneficial insects and mites into pest management strategies.
 

Statewide Workshops Held

These 10 landscape management professionals then helped conduct two-day workshops statewide. These traveling workshops, like the research garden programs, enabled landscape professionals across the state to learn how to use research results for better IPM.
    A 150-page landscape IPM notebook was developed for workshop use that emphasizes biologically based pest management and includes the latest research information on insect, weed, and disease management strategies. The notebook is already in its second printing. The workshops combined use of these notebooks, outdoor scouting activities, and classroom training, and they became standing-room- only events.
    In response to feedback from workshop participants, the following were added to the program:

• IPM fax alerts
• more in-depth, hands-on training in biological control
• Web pages (under development).

Jean Williams-Woodward, project leader, identifies diseases of woody plants during IPM workshops.
 

Project leader Beverly Sparks discusses fire ant management during an IPM workshop.
 

Supported by Southern Region Integrated Pest Management, Sustainable Agriculture Research and Educational Agriculture in Concert with the Environment, the Horticultural Research Institute, and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Pollution Prevention Assistance Division.

For more information contact:

Paul Guillebeau   Department of Entomology   University of Georgia   Athens, GA 30602   (706)542-9031

William R. Lambert   Assistant Dean for Extension   109 Lonner Hall   University of Georgia   Athens, GA 30602