Hi; I’d like to find out and share experiences in dealing with the Colorado potato beetle.
We at Marric Gardens https://www.facebook.com/flowersandveggies/
have been growing mostly fingerling potators for over 5 years, each year increasing the size of the crop starting with `2 bags of seed 5 years ago, and now planting about 600 kg of seed potatos. The main concern is those beetles. We have been using diatomatious earth that is OMRI approved, (never use synthetic chemicals) The results, ie. protection from beetles varies a lot from year to year and possibly soil type, plant health, or other unknown factors.
I am investigating other protections such as neem oil or spinosad, but I percieve the costs per acre are going to go up a notch for these products.
Before jumping to other products, I would like to gather comments from anybody who grows potatoes for the organic market about experiences with various products, how to mix the products, how to apply the products, dilution factors, adjuviants, coverage of active ingredient per acre, etc.
For background, i have started with diatomatious earth powder with a little hand pump duster from Earthway, to using a portable air compressor and a sandblasting kit to dust the powder, I now mix the powder in a 1000 L tank as a slurry sprayed on the rows every few days using a tractor mounted boom sprayer I have designed.
I would like to generate a discussion from experienced growers about dealing with those beetles.
Comments please, Thank you.
We only plant about a bushel of seed potatoes every year and we are not selling this crop, so this may not be helpful. However, we haven’t seen any colorado potato beetles since we delayed our planting date until after the first full moon in June, or June 15 (whichever is first). We apparently miss the life cycle of the beetle with this method. However, if you are growing for selling purposes, this might not be a good strategy since you need an early crop in that case. This did solve our problem, since we did have quite a few before then.
Thank you. We bought our farm 20 years ago and there had never been potatoes grown here. The nearest farm that grows potatoes is 5 miles away. So, when started planting about 5 years ago, the beetles showed up right away in our first year. I moved to a different field and the beetles found those potatoes right away. Have no idea why what you say works, as I see beetles seem to be everywhere. But I guess I’ll try your advice next year.