The differential susceptibility of the two spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae and its predator, Phytoseiulus persimilis against extracts of Gleditsia japonica var. koraiensis, Camellia sinensis, Cinnamomum cassia, Lantana camara and their mixtures was evaluated. The plant extracts tested were much less toxic to P. persimilis than to T. urticae. The plant extracts tested had little effect on the survival of P. persimilis adult females. Moreover, reproduction of P. persimilis adult females and eclosion of eggs deposited by treated predators were not seriously affected. The treatments of the plant extracts tested showed no serious toxic effect on P. persimilis eggs and exhibited 84∼100% hatchability. The treatments with mixtures 3 and 1 were effective against the adult females of T. urticae and yielded 76.0% and 72.7% adulticidal activity at 7 days after treatment, respectively. The treatment of mixture 2 revealed 63.3% adulticidal activity. Generally, the acaricidal activity of the individual treatment of each plant extract was lower than the mixtures. The adult females of T. urticae treated with mixtures 3 and 1 produced only 29.5∼31.3% as many eggs as the control females did. All the plant extracts tested exhibited no noticeable toxic effect to the eggs of T. urticae. These results suggest that mixtures 3 and 1 might be used for the control of T. urticae, and expected to be promising candidates for use in integrated mite management program with P. persimilis.

This study was carried out in order to evaluate the growth promotion effects on tomato crops and to assess the mineral nutrient concentrations of farm-made liquid fertilizers used in organic cultivation in South Korea. We hope that this study will help to develop of a standardized manufacturing technique for these organic liquid fertilizers. We collected 62 farm-made liquid fertilizers made from various raw materials including fish, seaweed, food scraps, plant and crop by-products, and other materials. Two groups of tomato seedlings were treated at different times, one at 20 days and the other at 40 days after sowing. We used both foliar and soil applications. These seedlings were treated using liquid fertilizers at various dilution rates (x1000, x500 and x100). When foliar application was used, seedlings after 20 days had a 20-30% increase in shoot fresh weight with 47-48 fertilizers and seedlings after 40 days had a 20-30% increase in shoot fresh weight with 17-32 fertilizers. When soil application was used, seedlings after 20 days had the same increase in shoot fresh weight with 30-31 fertilizers and seedlings after 40 days also saw the same increase with 6-7 fertilizers. Therefore, our studies showed that application of liquid fertilizers to seedlings 20 days after sowing was most effective and that foliar treatment was more effective than soil treatments. We also observed that the higher the concentrations of fertilizer, particularly when applied twice rather than just once, the higher the rates of growth, which promoted shoot fresh weight more than plant height. Our results imply that mineral nutrients in liquid fertilizers seem to be the probable cause for the growth promotion observed in this study. However, more study is required to determine exactly which mineral nutrients are most effective.

The acaricidal activity of extracts of Gleditsia japonica var. koraiensis, Camellia sinensis, Cinnamomum cassia, Lantana camara and their mixtures against the tea red spider mite, Tetranychus kanzawai was evaluated. Treatments with mixtures 3 and 1 were effective against the adult females of T. kanzawai and yielded 82.0% and 77.3% adulticidal activities at 7 days after treatment, respectively. Treatment with mixture 2 revealed 68.0% adulticidal activity. Generally, the acaricidal activity of the single treatment of each plant extract was lower than the mixtures. The adult females of T. kanzawai treated with mixtures 3 and 1 produced only 24.0~29.6% as many eggs as control females did. The residue of the plant extracts tested had low adulticidal activity (16.7~31.3% at 7 days after treatment). All the plant extracts tested exhibited no remarkable toxic effect to the eggs of T. kanzawai. Treatments of mixtures 3 and 1 were effective against nymphs of T. kanzawai and led to emergence rates of 16.7 and 22.0%, respectively. These results suggest that mixtures 3 and 1 might be used for the control of T. kanzawai in tea fields.