Occurrence of arthropod pests associated with<i>Brassica carinata</i>and impact of defoliation on yield

Brassica carinata has the potential to become an economical biofuel winter crop in Southeast U.S. An IPM program is needed provide management recommendations for B. region. This study serves as first steps developing tactics documenting pest occurrence, position within canopy, and impact of defoliation on yield. The was performed Jay, FL, during 2017–2018 2018–2019 winter/spring seasons. Pest species were documented by plant inspection 16 genotypes carinata, presence insect pests three canopy zones (upper, medium, lower canopy) documented. evaluated artificial defoliation. Five levels (2017–2018 season: 0%, 5%, 25%, 50%, 100%; 75%, 90%, 100%) artificially applied vegetative, flowering, pod formation stages commercial cultivar “Avanza64.” During season, two experiments performed, a one-time event continuous plants hand harvested average number pods per plants, seeds pod, thousand seed weight, yield estimated correlated with levels. Results indicated following associated carinata: Microtheca ochroloma Stål (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), Plutela xylostella larvae, Pieris rapae L. (Lepidoptera: Pieridae), Diabrotica undecimpunctata Barber Lipaphis pseudobrassicae Davis (Hemiptera: Aphididae), Leptoglossus phyllopus Coreidae), Chloridea virescens F. Noctuidae). distribution not uniform. Different did affect or oil content seeds. negatively impacted vegetative flowering stages.