The effort to try and mitigate the impacts of impatiens necrotic spot virus (INSV) has been a tremendous undertaking in recent years. VP of Environmental Science and Resources at Braga Fresh and member of the INSV Task Force, Eric Morgan said they have had to adopt a variety of approaches to address the problem.
“2022 was a bloodbath. It was pretty horrible for us across the board, with continual crop losses. In some cases what we actually did was move product to more edge areas. Trying to be out of the heart of the Salinas Valley,” Morgan explained. “We had a real hot spot on our home ranch and were losing everything.”
The following season was not quite as severe, with no catastrophic losses experienced in 2023. Morgan said it has been quite a challenge in both conventional and organic production. The materials for managing thrips appear to be losing their efficacy. While incidence levels have been low this season, Morgan noted that they are not out of the woods yet. Several mitigation strategies have been implemented by growers to hopefully avoid another year like 2022.
“We do have some varieties that we started evaluating last year. Some growers are using those varieties that are more resistant to [INSV]. My understanding is they grow pretty rapidly; a more vigorous growth can kind of grow past it to some degree,” said Morgan. “So, there has been some development on the breeding side that’s been helpful.”
Listen to the report below.
Brian German
Ag News Director / AgNet West