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IPM

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fruit@peacefulvalleyorchards.com
150 Pittstown Road
Pittstown, NJ 08867
Ph: 908-730-7748 or

908-713-1705






















Peacefull Valley uses IPM...

What is Integrated Pest Management?

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a sustainable approach to managing pests by combining biological, cultural, physical, and chemical tools in a way that minimizes economic, health, and environmental risks. The IPM approach uses knowledge of pest, crop, and environmental conditions to select the best combination of management strategies

How do we Implement IPM practices?

  • Crop Monitoring
    Crop inspections are done on a weekly basis to detect and estimate pest activity.
  • Pheromone trapping
    Pheromones are synthetically made chemicals that mimic the scent used by female insects to attract males. The traps are checked on a weekly basis. Once the insect reaches a certain threshold then we know it is time to treat the pest. A threshold is the point of pest injury at which the economic loss from that injury is equal to the cost of control.
  • Biological Control
    This is the use of natural enemies (such as ladybugs, lacewings...) to suppress pest populations. When natural enemies are found we encourage the build up of their populations.
  • Cultural Management
    Nutrition
    is very important in maintaining healthy crops. If plants start out unhealthy that will make them extremely susceptible to pest damage. To avoid unhealthy crops we take regular soil and leaf tissue samples. This helps us determine the nutrition requirements that our crops need or do not need. Regular pruning of our fruit trees is another example of how we keep our orchard healthy.  
  • One of the most important cultural practices is Site Selection. We need to select sites that best suit the crop we are planting. For instance, most crops require a well drained soil with proper air circulation.

    Alternate hosts
    need to be eliminated. An alternate host is something that is going to compete with your crop for water and nutrients. They may also attract pests that could be harmful to your crops. Weeds are an example of an alternate host.
    Before planting any crop we take careful consideration in what varieties of fruits and vegetables that we chose.

    What are the advantages of IPM? Pest populations are recognized before they become a problem Overuse of chemicals and fertilizers are avoided Better beneficial populations lead to increased biological control Reduced dependence on chemicals leads to a more sustainable agriculture.
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