The hidden world: Ground predation and its impact on the yield of organic cucurbit crops

Organic control measures in muskmelon production are part of an integrated pest management approach and include floating row covers, generalist predators and ground cover. These are used in Kentucky, allowing for a reduction in insecticide use and diminished virus incidence while increasing yield. Current row covers consist of a fabric that retains heat and must be removed at anthesis and kept off until the end of the season. As a result, a new farming regime was tested for longer season insect exclusion. In addition, ground cover treatments, consisting of mulch or bare ground were tested for their effect on predator abundance and biological control services. Muskmelon yield was higher in plots with the modified regime when the ground cover was mulch. Furthermore, there is a strong temporal effect on insect abundance across treatments, but there does not seem to be a treatment effect for either row cover or ground cover type. There are strong trends across various natural enemy groups, showing higher abundance in the modified treatments. This has implications for biological control in a sustainable pest management regime in melon crops.