b"CANADIAN POTATO COUNCILChristine Noronhas research group has found that using buckwheat as a rotation crop can help reduce wireworm damage. PHOTO: CHRISTINE NORONHAworking the soil every year and planting a new crop every year. So, they wanted to also plant other crops that would put organic matter into the soil. They wanted to grow mixtures of crops like sorghum, peas, pearl millet and others, so we studied the use of wireworm suppressive crops in these mixes, Noronha explains.In greenhouse studies, Noronhas team found growers need only plant 25 per cent of buckwheat in a crop mix for it to suppress wireworm populations in the soil.The group also tested if sorghum sudan grass can be used to suppress wireworms. The crop was tested against barley and buckwheat. The first-year sorghum sudan grass was planted in a trial on Prince Edward Island it was found there was some wireworm suppression, but the following year there wasnt as much suppression happening. At another trial in London, Ont. it was found sorghum sudan grass reduced wireworm numbers by about 50 per cent.Some of the growers didn't want to use buckwheat because they were worried that it would become a weed in their field the following year, Noronha adds. Our weed scientists studied this aspect and he figured it out that terminating the crop at the appropriate time by plowing or mowing it reduced the chance of it becoming a weed the following year.There has also been pheromone research done by the team. Noronha explains before this research project they only had pheromones for three of the European species of wireworms. The team was able to discover and identify the main species of wireworms across Western Canada and Ontario. Once the VISIT OUR BOOTH AT THE CANADIAN SPUD CONGRESS pheromones are identified bait traps can be used to identify the species and how large wireworm populations are in fields.16SPUDSMART.COM Fall 2022"