Abstract
In organic agronomic cropping systems, the use of synthetic insecticides and transgenic varieties are prohibited and producers rely mainly on biological control, tillage, crop rotation, and other cultural practices to manage pests. We measured damage to organic corn (Zea mays L.) from multiple invertebrate pests, including slugs (Gastropoda: Mollusca), European corn borer (Ostrinia nubilalis Hübner), corn earworm (Helicoverpa zea Boddie), and fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda Smith), early and late in the growing season in four cropping systems that varied in tillage frequency and intensity and in winter cover crop species. Specific management tactics included two cover crop mixtures preceding corn, the use of a roller-crimper or tillage to terminate cover crops preceding corn, and the establishment of interseeded cover crops after corn emergence. Prevalence of early-season damage was high, but severity of damage was very low and unrelated to corn yield. The proportion of corn plants affected by chewing pests early in the season was lower in plots in which tillage compared to a roller-crimper was used to terminate cover crops. Cropping system did not affect the numbers of late-season caterpillar pests or corn yield. Predation by natural enemies appeared to effectively maintain damage from chewing pests below yield-damaging levels. These results support the inclusion of winter and interseeded cover crops in organic agronomic crop rotations to gain environmental benefits without increasing risks of damage by insect pests.
Abstract from the paper’s OpenAlex record, shown for indexing and research. Copyright remains with the authors or the publisher. Read at the source ↗
The text the model read, with the source record’s inline markup (italics, sub- and superscripts) rendered and its character entities decoded; quote offsets refer to the raw text.
Claims 8
Claim · model-written summary
Early-season pest damage prevalence was high but severity was very low.
- Taxon
- Corn
Zea mays subsp. mayst0 - Outcome
- Prevalence of early-season damagee0
- Direction
- highe0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Prevalence of early-season damage was high, but severity of damage was very low and unrelated to corn yield.”
t0“Corn”
Claim · model-written summary
Severity of early-season damage was very low.
- Taxon
- CornZea mays subsp. mayst0
- Outcome
- severity of damagee0
- Direction
- very lowe0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Prevalence of early-season damage was high, but severity of damage was very low and unrelated to corn yield.”
t0“Corn”
Claim · model-written summary
Early-season damage severity was unrelated to corn yield.
- Taxon
- cornZea mays subsp. mayse0
- Outcome
- corn yielde0
- Qualifier
- unrelatede0
- Comparator
- severity of damagee0
Not reportedOrgan / stageDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Prevalence of early-season damage was high, but severity of damage was very low and unrelated to corn yield.”
Claim · model-written summary
Tillage termination reduced the proportion of corn plants affected by early chewing pests compared with roller-crimper termination.
- Taxon
- cornZea mays subsp. mayse0
- Treatment
- tillagee0
- Interactor
- chewing pestse0pest
- Outcome
- proportion of corn plants affected by chewing pestse0
- Direction
- lowere0
- Comparator
- a roller-crimpere0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“The proportion of corn plants affected by chewing pests early in the season was lower in plots in which tillage compared to a roller-crimper was used to terminate cover crops.”
Claim · model-written summary
Cropping system did not affect late-season caterpillar numbers.
- Taxon
- CornZea mays subsp. mayst0
- Treatment
- Cropping systeme0
- Interactor
- caterpillar pestse0pest
- Outcome
- numbers of late-season caterpillar pestse0
- Direction
- did not affecte0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Cropping system did not affect the numbers of late-season caterpillar pests or corn yield.”
t0“Corn”
Claim · model-written summary
Cropping system did not affect corn yield.
- Taxon
- cornZea mays subsp. mayse0
- Treatment
- Cropping systeme0
- Outcome
- corn yielde0
- Direction
- did not affecte0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Cropping system did not affect the numbers of late-season caterpillar pests or corn yield.”
Claim · model-written summary
Natural-enemy predation appeared to keep chewing-pest damage below yield-damaging levels.
- Taxon
- CornZea mays subsp. mayst0
- Interactor
- chewing pestse0pest
- Second interactor
- natural enemiese0biocontrol_agent
- Outcome
- damage from chewing pestse0
- Direction
- belowe0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Predation by natural enemies appeared to effectively maintain damage from chewing pests below yield-damaging levels.”
t0“Corn”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors support winter and interseeded cover crops in organic rotations without added insect-pest damage risk.
- Taxon
- CornZea mays subsp. mayst0
- Interactor
- insect pestse0pest
- Outcome
- inclusion of winter and interseeded cover crops in organic agronomic crop rotationse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“These results support the inclusion of winter and interseeded cover crops in organic agronomic crop rotations to gain environmental benefits without increasing risks of damage by insect pests.”
t0“Corn”
The same questions in other papers
cultivation system · pest · Zea mays (maize)Positive and negative results
1 paper in the same direction as this paper · 2 in the opposite direction
- positive
- positive
- no effect
tillage · pest · Zea mays (maize)Positive and negative results
27 papers in the same direction as this paper · 19 in the opposite direction · 2 reporting no difference from an alternative
- negative
- negative
- negative
45 papers more in this group
See all 49 papers →cultivation system · yield · Zea mays (maize)Positive and negative results
44 papers in the same direction as this paper · 110 in the opposite direction
- positive
- positive
- positive
151 papers more in this group
See all 155 papers →Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.