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THE EFFECT OF COMPANIONATE PLANTING ON LEPIDOPTERAN PESTS OF CABBAGE1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 May 2012

M.A. Latheef  and
R.D. Irwin
M.A. Latheef
Affiliation:
Cooperative Research, Virginia State University, Petersburg, Virginia 23803
R.D. Irwin
Affiliation:
Cooperative Research, Virginia State University, Petersburg, Virginia 23803
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Extract

Companionate planting is one of many insect control strategies propounded by organic growers. A variety of herbs are purported to possess repellent properties to many insect pests of vegetables (Rodale 1975; Yepsen 1976; Hill 1976; Anonymous 1977a). According to Atsatt and O'Dowd (1976), repellent plants are members of plant defense guilds which prevent herbivores from locating their hosts. Perrin and Phillips (1978) reviewed the elements of natural pest control characteristic of mixed cropping systems and outlined suggestions for transferring these elements to “agronomically acceptable” monocultures. However, very little work has been done to substantiate these claims and field evidence of the protective properties of companionate plants is, therefore, warranted. This becomes all the more important because of the dramatic increase in home gardening recently in North America. It is estimated that 33 million home and community gardens were grown in the United States during 1976 and 1977 (Anonymous 1977b). Here we describe the results of field experiments in which we sought to quantify the effect of companionate plants against major lepidopteran pests of cabbage in southside Virginia.

Type
Articles
Information
The Canadian Entomologist , Volume 111 , Issue 7 , July 1979 , pp. 863 - 864
Copyright
Copyright © Entomological Society of Canada 1979

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