Seasonal Occurrences and Organic Agricultural Materials’ Control Effect of Pseudococcus comstocki on ‘Muscat of Alexandria’ Organic Vineyard in Korea
This study was carried out to investigate the damage patterns, the occurrence and migration time of Pseudococcus comstocki and in order to improve the control effect of organic agricultural materials (OAMs). The experiment was carried out at Okcheon’s organic vineyard (2,500 ㎡, sandy loam, manure) where planted 8~9 year old ‘Muscat of Alexandria’ vines. The comstock mealybug’s migration to grape clusters occurred from the middle of July, and produced eggs in the grape clusters from the end of July, and the density of the comstock mealybug was highest at 0.6/㎠ in late August. The number and fruit damage of comstock mealybug in eco-friendly vineyards were higher than in conventional culture vineyard. And the marketability of green variety grape was more damaged from comstock mealybug than the black variety grape. Toxicities of 8 OAMs were evaluated to comstock mealybug at the recommended concentration. As a results, Lightyellow sophora and Derris extracts exhibited strong insecticidal activity with 100% mortality. When the Lightyellow sophora extract was uniformly distributed on the vine from early-July to mid-July, fruit damage reduction rate was 96.2% and 84.6%, respectively. So commercial grapes could be harvested. Therefore, it was considered to be effective to reduce fruit damage by controlling in early - late July (the green stage) when the comstock mealybug migrated to grape clusters in the vine greenhouse. In the future, it will be necessary to study the effect of external exposure time and momentum on the control of OAMs.