Without pest management the related damage would lead, on the average, to quality and yield losses of up to 100 % every other year. In Germany, about a million Euros per year are spent on the deployment of pesticides for hops aphid control. The treatment is by and large preventive, since there is, as yet, no scientifically proven control threshold. The Hops Research Center of the Bavarian State Agricultural Institute (Bayerische Landesanstalt für Landwirtschaft) has now developed a control concept that optimizes, and reduces as much as possible, the use of pesticides for hops aphids.
The scientists have determined under which conditions a certain number of aphids can be tolerated without negative qualitative and quantitative effects on the harvest. In the largest contiguous hops-producing region in the world, Bavaria’s Hallertau, 60 experimental hops gardens were treated with three different pesticide types annually, and examined regularly for Aphid infestation.
The new control concept for aphid infestation with the hops specialty crop consists of these important strategies: aphid-tolerant and aphid-resistant varieties can manage safely each year without any use of pesticides. With varieties subject to moderate or strong aphid infestation, only one treatment should take place (to the extent possible), but with a highly effective pesticide.
Project Operation:
Bayerische Landesanstalt für Landwirtschaft – Institut für Pflanzenbau und Pflanzenzüchtung
Hopfenforschungszentrum
Hüll 5 1/3
85283 Wolnzach
Telefon 08442|9257-0
www.lfl.bayern.de/ipz/hopfen/poststelle@LfL.bayern.de
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