Reducing residues in strawberries through integrated pest and disease management in commercial UK production systems

Abstract: This five year UK government and industry funded project developed alternative, sustainable, methods for managing Botrytis, powdery mildew, aphids, blossom weevil and capsid bugs in strawberry so reducing (by > 50%) chemical pesticide use and eliminating the occurrence of reportable pesticide residues on harvested fruit. Methods were developed for the individual pests and diseases in the first three years of the project and were combined with existing non-chemical methods for other pests and diseases in an overall Integrated Pest and Disease Management (IPDM) system in the final two years. The refined IPDM system tested over five sites in tunnel crops of June bearer and everbearer crops showed that yield and fruit quality could be maintained under low to moderated pest and disease pressure and pesticide residues could be reduced by between 50 and 100%.