Article from
VSCNews, Vegetable and Specialty Crop News
by Jaci Schreckengost
Pest Research for Florida Olives
While the possibility of olives becoming a commercial crop in
Florida grows, research to determine what pests and diseases may affect
the plants has increased.
Ornamental olive trees have been grown
around Florida for over 100 years. However, olives as a commercial crop
is relatively new.
Eleanor Phillips, an entomology and
nematology graduate student at the University of Florida (UF), works in
Jennifer Gillett-Kaufman’s lab. Phillips is researching the types of
insects that are present on olive plants.
The plants
Phillips is currently working on, with the support of four Florida
growers, are approximately three to five years old, which she points
out is very young for olive trees.
Three of the pests that
currently affect olive crops in Florida are hornworms, olive shootworms
and black scale, says Phillips. Hornworms and olive shootworms can both
damage the leaves of olive trees. She says olive shootworms create webs
to roll the leaves together, which damages the plant.
While
these pests can cause difficulties for olive growers, Phillips says
that there is typically a presence of positive and negative insects to
create a balance in the olive plants. This balance has a positive
impact on the crop, by allowing growers to worry less about certain
insects they may see.
She advises that the best management
practice is constantly monitoring the plant to see what insects are
there and to see what effects they are having on the crop.
Phillips is also monitoring for the olive fruit fly using special traps. This fruit fly is not found in Florida yet, and she is hopeful it will not become established.
According
to the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Science’s website on olive
fruit flies, larvae feed on the crop, making it unmarketable for
growers.
Phillips is in the Doctor of Plant Medicine program at
UF, which she says helps her get a full grasp on the health of the
plant to understand how and why it is affected.
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