A Closer Look: Microclimates and Disease Risk at the Canopy-Level

Environmental sensors in a field

Description: Plasticulture growers use row covers to promote floral bud initiation in late fall, as well as for frost or freeze protection in spring. Growers in colder climates use row covers to protect their strawberry crop over longer periods, from December into March, as well as during cold snaps throughout flowering. Current IPM tools are typically not designed to monitor environmental variables at the canopy-level. Understanding environmental conditions within plant canopies, with or without row covers, is valuable for risk management throughout the production period.

Authors

  • Mengjun Hu, Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture, University of Maryland
  • John Lea-Cox, Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture, University of Maryland
  • Jayesh Samtani, Virginia Cooperative Extension
  • Roy Flanagan III, Virginia Cooperative Extension
  • Chuck Johnson, Virginia Cooperative Extension

Publication date: April 2022

Online publication link: A Closer Look: Microclimates and Disease Risk at the Canopy-Level