Investigator: Jeffrey Moyer, Rodale Institute Experimental Farm, Kutztown, PA
Project location: Kutztown, Pennsylvania

Summary
Rodale Institute is conducting on-farm and on-station trials to test cutworm control treatments that are permitted under National Organic Program (NOP) regulations. Financial support from the Organic Farming Research Foundation is complementing an on-going project funded by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program. Collectively, Rodale Institute, OFRF, a group of leading organic farmers, and Pennsylvania State University (PSU) are partnering to further develop a farming method called “Biological No-Till” which utilizes various cover crops to suppress weeds instead of herbicides.

Preliminary research in 2006 showed that organic no-till planted corn can be quite successful, but that cutworms can also cause significant crop damage. On-farm and on-station trials will evaluate the effectiveness of adjusted planting dates to avoid cutworm damage, application of various materials such as diatomaceous earth, Bt, Spinosad biological insecticide, Beauveria bassiana, as well as biological control with entomopathogenic nematodes. The goal of this project is to develop practices and recommendations that will help farmers avoid cutworm problems through timing, or, if they anticipate a problem, to put some measure in place to mitigate the damage.

Specific objectives are to:

1. Conduct on-farm and on-station trials to identify effective management strategies for cutworm in organic no-till planted corn;
2. Implement a multi-tiered dissemination plan to share relevant findings with farmers, researchers, educators and other stakeholders.

A final report describing the results of this project is expected in July 2011.