Organic Management of Swede Midge

NYS IPM Type: Vegetables IPM Fact SheetSwede midge (Contarinia nasturtii) is a small (1/16” long) invasive fly that is a serious pest of Brassica (cruciferous) vegetable crops, including broccoli, cabbage, and kale. The insect was named for one of its hosts in Europe, the “swede,” a type of forage turnip. Management of swede midge is particularly challenging because of its small size, hidden feeding behavior, low damage threshold, and life cycle consisting of multiple overlapping generations during the growing season. Small-scale organic growers with insufficient space for crop rotation to break the swede midge life cycle are especially at risk for economic losses from this pest

‘Rambling Rose’: A Pink-fruited Cherry Tomato for Hanging Basket Production

Several determinate and dwarf tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) cultivars have been developed for retail sales in hanging baskets and containers to be marketed before or at first fruit ripening (Augustine et al., 1981; Crill et al., 1973; Scott and Harbaugh, 1995). Until recently, the cultivar ‘Tumbler’ has been the preferred cultivar among growers in the northeastern United States, but the hybrid seed has been available in limited quantities from suppliers, hindering commercial production of this cultivar (R. Sideman, personal observation). ‘Tumbling Tom Red’ and ‘Tumbling Tom Yellow’ are marketed as replacements for ‘Tumbler’, but in our experiments and in commercial growers’ sites, both cultivars consistently exhibit a moderate percentage of off-type plants that exhibit dense and distorted leaves and a low percentage of blossoms successfully setting fruit. ‘Rambling Rose’ is a cherry tomato with pink fruit and a determinate, prostrate growth habit suitable for production in large (30 cm) hanging baskets. ‘Rambling Rose’ is open-pollinated and has a similar growth habit and yield compared with the red cultivars ‘Tumbler’, ‘Tumbling Tom’, ‘Terenzo’, and other cultivars developed for hanging basket production and retail plant sales