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Plants
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Biological Control and Bioprotection Strategies Against Pest and Plant Diseases...
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Biological Control and Bioprotection Strategies Against Pest and Plant Diseases in Agricultural Crops

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Protection and Biotic Interactions".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2024 | Viewed by 1063

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Carlos Agustí-Brisach

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Agroforestal Pathology Research Group, Department of Agronomy, ETSIAM, University of Cordoba, 14071 Cordoba, Spain
Interests: biocontrol; etiology; epidemiology; fungi; integrated pest management; Mediterranean fruit crops; phytopathology; plant–pathogen–environment interactions; fungal trunk and vascular diseases
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Eugenio Llorens

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Grupo de Bioquímica y Biotecnología, Departamento de Ciencias Agrarias y del Medio Natural, Universitat Jaume I de Castellón, Avenida de Vicent Sos Baynat, s/n, 12071 Castellón de la Plana, Spain
Interests: plant microbiology; plant–microbe interaction; plant protection; induced resistance; plant physiology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

There is no doubt that the use of biological control and bioprotection strategies to prevent pest and plant diseases in agriculture is one of the major challenges of our society in reducing the use of chemicals. Indeed, giving new insights into the use and optimization of these strategies for crop protection by the scientific community are essential to continue in the framework of the ‘Farm to Fork’ strategy. According to the new scientific trends in environmentally friendly control measures, in this Special Issue we are going to consider biological control sensu stricto for the use of beneficial microorganisms, and the term bioprotection for the use of the remaining natural solutions such as organic amendments, biostimulants, plant extracts, or resistance host inducers, among others. To this end, the present Special Issue of Plants will bring together a collection of research papers on crop protection and targeted reviews of biocontrol sensu lato, including studies about potential environmentally friendly strategies to prevent pest and plant diseases in agricultural crops.

Dr. Carlos Agustí-Brisach
Dr. Eugenio Llorens
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • biological control agents
  • biostimulation
  • entomology
  • plant extracts
  • plant pathology
  • resistance host inducers
  • sustainable agriculture

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

19 pages, 5272 KiB  
Article
Biological Control of Three Major Cucumber and Pepper Pests: Whiteflies, Thrips, and Spider Mites, in High Plastic Tunnels Using Two Local Phytoseiid Mites
by Yusuf Abou Jawdah, Nour Ezzeddine, Aya Fardoun, Samer Kharroubi, Hana Sobh, Hagop S. Atamian, Margaret Skinner and Bruce Parker
Plants 2024, 13(6), 889; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13060889 - 20 Mar 2024
Viewed by 796
Abstract
To enhance food security, food safety, and environmental health, a bio-based integrated pest management (BIPM) strategy was evaluated at two coastal locations in Lebanon as an alternative to toxic pesticide sprays in commercial high-arched plastic tunnels common in many countries. The evaluation occurred [...] Read more.
To enhance food security, food safety, and environmental health, a bio-based integrated pest management (BIPM) strategy was evaluated at two coastal locations in Lebanon as an alternative to toxic pesticide sprays in commercial high-arched plastic tunnels common in many countries. The evaluation occurred during two cucumber and pepper cropping seasons: spring and fall. At each site, two commercial tunnels were used; farmers’ conventional practices were applied in one tunnel, while the BIPM approach was followed in the second tunnel. In the farmers’ practices, a total of 14 sprays of insecticide/acaricide mixtures were applied during the spring growing season, and 6 sprays were applied during the fall. In the BIPM tunnels, hotspot releases of local strains of Amblyseius swirskii and Phytoseiulus persimilis were applied. By the end of the spring season, the number of whitefly nymphs (WFNs)/leaf and thrips/leaf in the pesticide treatment were 4.8 and 0.06, respectively, compared to 0.1 and 0.33, respectively, in the BIPM treatment. Similarly, at the end of the fall season, the WFNs reached 19.7/leaf in the pesticide control as compared to 1.2/leaf in the BIPM treatment, proving the efficacy of A. swirskii. Farmers using conventional acaricides during both cropping seasons failed to control Tetranychus urticae, the two-spotted spider mite (TSSM). However, hotspot releases of P. persimilis were successful in controlling TSSM. By the end of June, the number of TSSMs reached 7.8/leaf in the BIPM treatment compared to 53/leaf in the pesticide treatment. Likewise, in December, TSSM numbers reached 9/leaf in the BIPM treatment compared to 40/leaf in the pesticide treatment. Preliminary observations of pepper showed that both predatory mites (A. swirskii and P. persimilis) gave similar or better efficacy against the three pests. The two local predatory phytoseiid mites seem to be effective in controlling these three major pests and to be adapted to local environmental conditions. A rate of increase of 0.86 was observed for P. persimilis and 0.22 for A. swirskii, in June, when maximum temperatures were close to 40 °C. This also shows a compatibility between the two predators. In conclusion, our BIPM approach was efficient under a Mediterranean climate in arched plastic tunnels with relatively poor aeration. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biological Control and Bioprotection Strategies Against Pest and Plant Diseases in Agricultural Crops)
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