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Spain's Radical Plan: 20–30 Day Crop Shutdown to Kill Thrips · Hydroponics Daily

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  Hello, hello, hello. Welcome back to Hydroponics Daily, your go-to podcast for
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  everything soilless cultivation.
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  I'm your host, Dr. Russell Sharp, the founder of Utrema Limited,
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  and we manufacture interesting fertilizers, novel biostimulants,
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  and organic biopesticides.
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  Now, today's subject I think is really interesting. It's a real doozy,
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  and that is about extreme measures for controlling pest and disease and when growers come together.
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  Country or a regional level to try
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  and eliminate or vastly reduce a pest that
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  is becoming out of hand and take some
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  extreme measures that in the short term cause extreme
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  financial pain whether it's possible and
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  whether they can actually do it or not now the first time
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  i ever came across this is actually not hydroponics it
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  was field crops it was oilseed
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  rape and or canola i
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  think it's called in north america and in the
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  uk it was thought that if you stopped growing
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  it on one side of
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  the pennines which is the the hills or
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  we might call them mountains that separate one side the
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  east from the west in the uk in england if everyone
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  stopped growing it on the east for one year then you could continue going
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  on the west and then flip it every other the year and this by
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  having the crop limited to one side
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  of the range of hills you could
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  stop the flea beetle that was ravaging the
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  crop now we got rid of neonicotinoids seed dressing and insecticide and this
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  meant that flea beetle got out of hand and so rapeseed now is nowhere near as
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  common as it was say 10 years ago 10 years ago it was everywhere the yellow
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  flowers now far far less rape is grown,
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  much more beans and shorter rotations,
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  just going from wheat to something else, maize, something like that.
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  So you thought that if all the farmers got together and decided...
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  Right we're on the east of the penhounds we're not going to grow it this year we'll grow next year
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  but the problem is is getting all those farmers together to agree
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  that voluntarily because there's always going to
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  be one farmer who would go the other way and say sod you
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  i'm not going to do it and then all the flea
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  beetles would just be on his farm and
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  then that would infect the crop the next year so you but if
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  you if they were to come together and do this they could potentially eliminate pretty
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  much flea beetle from the population certainly nowhere near
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  as bad as it is but this sort of concept has
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  come up again this week and it's specifically in hydroponics
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  and in almeria which is the
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  if you don't know almeria it is the part of spain where vast
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  quantities of the protected crops
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  cucumbers tomatoes peppers are grown for europe
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  and it produces a vast
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  quantity of these and a serious amount
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  of proportion i don't know what the proportion is but it's really high and it's
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  a i always call it like a refugee camp for
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  plants because it's not glass houses it's polytunnels
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  and mesh tents it's with wooden
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  sticks and a lot of them some of them are a
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  bit more high tech than that but they grow in basically.
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  Glow the crop in crushed up rock
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  from the mountain range and they have a big problem
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  with a number of different pests they've got a big problem with nematodes but
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  the one they're talking about that i've read about this week is thrips
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  particularly this species thrips parvisipinus
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  have i said that right parvisipinus yes that is the name of it which affects
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  peppers and aubergines cucumbers courgettes melons and watermelons which all
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  grow down in almeria down in the what part spain is it it's classed as.
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  Oh God, it's gone out of my head. And a Lucia. There's a song about that,
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  isn't there? I'm not going to sing it.
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  But yeah, so the idea here is that they're not just going to split up who grows
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  these melons and cucumbers and courgettes and aubergines.
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  They're going to have a complete biological shutdown where nobody grows crops
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  apart from ornamental plants, which are not affected.
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  And they're just going to stop growing oil crops to eliminate thrips because
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  they're going to have a break.
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  They're no longer going to have a green bridge, as it's called,
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  that allows them to go from one plant to the other.
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  So during the shutdown period, the greenhouses will be entirely cleared of crops and plant residue.
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  Because remember, the eggs can be inside the leaves and the pupa can survive
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  on plant debris and in the soil.
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  And during this period soil solarization is
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  recommended whenever it's technically and economically feasible
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  this is where you put black polythene down and it
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  just heats the soil up to the point where the thrips
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  and other pest diseases will just be destroyed because
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  they can't keep up with extreme heat imagine andalusia in
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  the middle of summer with a black polythene bag on you you
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  wouldn't survive very long under a black polythene bag i've been
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  to some almaria greenhouses in the winter and
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  have been inside and have to get go out because it was
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  just too extreme in the extreme humidity and heat
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  so in the summer under a plat building bag nothing
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  is surviving the shutdown should occur at
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  the end of the growing season with specific dates adjusted based on
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  production area and i'll go into the dates that have been proposed and it
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  has to last for at least 20 consecutive days
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  so not a season so they're not losing a whole season's crop but
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  they are losing 20 days of production and the different areas it's mainly going
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  to it's going to start from may to first of may to may 25th in one region and
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  then in the nijar region it's going to be up to july the 10th july the 30th
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  so each one's going to have 30 days.
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  So the spokesman said, we recognise that implementing this measure might lead
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  to economic harm for some growers and companies.
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  Nonetheless, the current phytosanitary situation is severe enough to justify
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  extraordinary actions which could be supported by targeted aid programmes.
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  So perhaps the Spanish government or the European Union will come in to help these growers.
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  I did read once that, or heard once, that Almería is the richest part of Spain, blah.
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  From you know when i've been it doesn't appear to be
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  very rich certainly not the moroccans living in the pesticide sheds
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  who you know have to
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  tend the crop it doesn't seem very rich but
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  um there's certainly nicer parts of spain but that doesn't necessarily
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  bring in more money so maybe these growers
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  don't need the grant and they should just suck it up and stop
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  growing for 20 days as a collective as a cooperative in addition
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  to this they've also notified noticed the the need
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  for the use of biological control the
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  use of mites and also interestingly having a few other plant species in and
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  around the greenhouses to provide biodiversity so that they can support beneficial
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  insects and organisms that's interesting normally seen as weeds that harbor
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  the pest and disease but they think this could be a good reason.
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  So could this be used in other hydroponic crops? Could
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  growers in regions suffering major pest and disease or problems stop cultivation
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  for a number of weeks or could they coordinate to wipe it out of a region and
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  grow one crop or one type of crop one year and then switch to the other in another year?
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  If you think about things like legal cannabis You could have certain cities
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  where they stopped growing for a month or two to get rid of red spider mite
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  or not, that wouldn't work, would it?
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  To get rid of, say, powdery mildew, where everyone decided to use fresh materials
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  and all that potentially. I don't think that would work, would it?
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  I don't think you could coordinate that. What else could you do?
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  Hops potentially to get rid of verticillium wilts
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  but you would have to store the you'd have
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  to find something else to do with the land that would
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  be difficult so yeah it's a strange one if you can think of an area where a
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  specific crop where you could if you stop growing you could potentially wipe
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  out a pest disease if everyone coordinated their action that would be really
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  interesting trying to think of a very very specific pest disease that only grows on one crop.
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  Answers on a postcard, please, or an email.
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  That's been Hydroponics Daily for today. Oh, one more thing.
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  Should have the hydroponic...
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  Top trumps cards ready to give
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  out to grow shops in the uk very soon
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  in the next week or so so i'll be sending packs out of
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  those to grow shops that that stock our
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  products liquid gold as it's called in the uk it's called gold
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  leaf in the us if you're after a pack.
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  And you're not in the uk then let me know and i will
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  try and get some printed in your country uh
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  or we'll get a shop in the uk who ships
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  out regularly to um send
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  one any out with any orders that you might have so places like
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  the hydro bros in london they often
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  ship out product to people in
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  other countries and so you could potentially if you ask them
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  for a pack of the hydroponic headaches
• 9:29
  top trumps if you know what top trumps are it's basically a
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  card game that you play that's fun and you can learn all about pest
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  and disease and weeds pest disease and problems
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  of hydroponic crops as you play it so
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  yeah that was really interesting i'll share some
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  links and you can have a look at the video of people playing it when
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  when we finally get the hard copies printed which is exciting
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  so that's more to come next week that's been
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  hydroponics daily for today if you found this interesting please do
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  lose an episode we're coming into december now we've nearly completed a whole
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  year of daily podcasts i hope you've enjoyed it as much as i've enjoyed.
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  Recording them and if you are interested in novel technology then do check out
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  utreema.co.uk because everything on there is unique to us some really interesting technology and
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  dust things in your plants that nobody else's products do and you can't say
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  that for any other hydroponic brand every other nutrient brand will have very
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  very similar products a b cal mag ph up ph down boosts and things like this
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  we've got a lot of different products all right check them out all right i'll
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  see you tomorrow that's been hydroponic daily for today goodbye.