Research Projects

Research Organisation Partners

• Slovenian Institute for Hop Growing and Brewing
• Scientific Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts

Abstract

During the 36-month applicative project, whose content will be directly related to the 2nd goal of the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development, we intend to study in four work packages the effectiveness of the simultaneous use of environmentally friendly methods of controlling selected economically important insect pests, which are increasingly difficult to control due to the small number of permitted synthetic insecticides or their absence, insecticide resistance, climate change and other causes. In the present project we want to investigate the effectiveness of companion plants (intercrops and trap crops) and cover plants in combination with biological control agents (entomopathogenic nematodes and fungi) or biotechnical methods (coloured sticky boards and pyramidal traps with attractants) for controlling important pests of potato, onion and cabbage. Thus, the main purpose of the research of the project team consisting of members of three domestic research organizations with extensive research experience in the fields of plant protection, analytical chemistry and plant ecology, is to determine the most appropriate combinations of different environmentally acceptable methods for controlling wireworms in potato tubers, onion fly and onion thrips in onion and cabbage flea beetles, cabbage stink bugs and onion thrips on cabbage. In all cases, these are harmful insects, the control of which poses a great challenge to domestic producers using existing production methods, which they often cannot cope with. Two-year field experiments will be carried out at the Laboratory Field of the Biotechnical Faculty in Ljubljana, where these pests have been appearing in large numbers for more than 20 years. The study, which will build on a number of previous studies by the current project leader and its collaborators examining the effectiveness of non-chemical or alternative methods of plant pest control using these methods alone, will use standard methods to determine the extent of pest damage and yield evaluation. An important added value of the present project will be the chemical (HPLC) analyzes of cultivated plants in the experiment, the results of which will be important for determining interactions between glucosinolate content in cabbage and the extent of damage caused by different cabbage pests, between allicin content in onion and the extent of damage caused by onion fly and onion thrips, and between the content of a-solanine and a-chahonine in potato tubers and the number of holes caused by wireworms. In all cases, these are plant substances that have recently received a lot of attention in the field of natural resistance of plants to harmful organisms. The results obtained in the laboratory (chemical analysis) and outdoors (field experiments) will be analysed with appropriate statistical tools and presented in professional and scientific journals and at national and international conferences. We expect that in the future, the methods of pest control that are proven to be the most effective in our research will find their place in the systems of protection of stored products and/or protection of field crops and vegetables in the open. 

The phases of the project and their realization

WORK PACKAGE 1: PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND COORDINATION (BF Leading Partner, all partners involved)

1.1 Project management and meetings with partners

1.2 Periodical and annual reports

1.3 Financial and administrative management of the project

WORK PACKAGE 2: FIELD TRIALS ON INVESTIGATION OF SYNERGISM BETWEEN ENVIRONMENTALLY ACCEPTABLE CONTROL METHODS (EACM) AGAINST PLANT PESTS (BF Leading partner, SRC-BIJH)

2.1 Investigation of synergism between EACM against wireworms in potato

2.2 Investigation of synergism between EACM against onion fly and onion thrips in onion

2.3 Investigation of synergism between EACM against cabbage pests – cabbage stink bugs, cabbage flea beetles and onion thrips

WORK PACKAGE 3: CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF PLANTS (BF - Leading Partner, SIHRB)

3.1  Chemical analysis of potato tubers

3.2 Chemical analysis of onion

3.3 Chemical analysis of cabbage and trap crops

WORK PACKAGE 4: ANALYSIS OF RESULTS OBTAINED IN FIELD EXPERIMENTS AND LABORATORY ANALYSIS ALONG WITH DISSEMINATION (BF, all partners)

4.1 Preparation of a review article on the synergism between alternative methods in plant protection

4.2 Analysis of the results obtained under laboratory and field conditions

4.3 Publication of results in professional and scientific journals and participation in symposia

4.4. Other ways of disseminating results