EFFECT OF SOLARIZATION AND COVER CROPPING ON PESTS, BENEFICIALS AND PEPPER YIELD

Management practices that maintain soil health are becoming increasingly popular, and non-chemical alternatives to methyl bromide are gradually being pursued. Objectives of this research were to examine effects of non-chemical pest management strategies on several key soil-borne pests and beneficial soil organisms, and to compare these treatments with methyl bromide fumigation. A field experiment was conducted in 2003 and 2004. Soil treatments carried out in summer months included methyl bromide (MB) fumigation, solarization on raised bed (SB) and flat bed (SF) for 6 weeks, cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) cover cropping for 3 months (CP), combination of raised bed solarization and cowpea cover cropping (SCP), and a weed fallow throughout the summer as a control (C). At termination of summer treatment, all treated plots were planted to pepper (Capsicum annuum) under metalized mulch with drip irrigation. In both years, cowpea or solarization treatments alone were not as effective as methyl bromide for root-knot nematode suppression at the end of the pepper crop. However, the combination of solarization and cowpea cover crop matched the root-knot nematode suppression performance of methyl bromide fumigation, and suppressed the populatio