Control of Pickleworm and Melonworm on Cantaloupe With Foliar Applied Insecticides, 2014 *

Pickleworm is a destructive pest of squash, cucumber, and cantaloupe in south Florida, feeding first on flowers, then boring into fruit and reducing yield. Melonworm may defoliate plants, destroy flowers, and also damage fruit. For this trial, greenhouse-raised seedlings were transplanted on 6 Mar 2014 into raised beds covered with black polyethylene mulch at the Southwest Florida Research and Education Center in Immokalee, FL. Two beds on 12-ft centers and 430 ft long were used, each provided with two drip lines emitting at 8-inch intervals and fumigated on 19 Feb with 300 lb/acre PicClor 60EC. Plants were spaced at 24 inches and received 50% of the required fertilizer incorporated as a 10-2-10 bottom mix at bedding on 12 Feb with additional fertilizer provided by daily application of 7-2-7 liquid by drip. The RCB design used had four replications and five treatments plus an untreated check. Each plot contained 12 plants plus three buffer plants between plots. Foliar treatments were applied with a high-clearance sprayer operating at 180 psi and 2.3 mph with delivery through overhead booms, each equipped with five brown Albuz® ATR 80 hollow cone nozzles and applying at a total rate of 50 gpa on 25 Apr and 1, 7, and 13 May ( Table 1 ). A weekly rotation of Previcur Flex (1.2 pts/acre) and Quadris Opti (3.2 pts/acre) was applied for disease control. All ripe fruit from the 12 plants per plot were removed and evaluated on 14, 16, 19, and 23 May. Evaluation included surface and internal feeding damage by pickleworm and melonworm. Marketable and culled fruit were counted by category on each harvest date. Data were subjected to ANOVA and means separated using LSD ( P  = 0.05).

Melonworm predominated early in the season and pickleworm later on. All products tested significantly decreased the number of damaged fruit collected when compared with the untreated check. Less damaged fruit was found from plants sprayed four times with 1.5 oz/acre of Belt or 7.75 oz/acre Volium Express compared with the Radiant – Avaunt rotation. Number and weight of marketable fruit was increased compared with the check with all treatments except the Radiant – Avaunt rotation.

No phytotoxicity was observed.

Author notes