Cultural Methods for Greenhouse Pest and Disease Management

Abstract

Cultural control measures can be broadly divided into (a) general agricultural practices that can affect pest and disease incidence (e.g. greenhouse climate control, fertilization, irrigation as well as crop density, training and pruning practices) (b) practices that are solely or mainly used for pest and disease control (e.g. sanitation and insect screens), and (c) practices used for both agricultural and crop protection purposes (e.g. choice of crop cultivar and growing medium, grafting, crop rotation and composting). In this book chapter we describe the ways in which cultural control measures can influence pests and their natural enemies, diseases and their antagonists, and (induced) crop resistance. We discuss how this knowledge can be used to optimize integrated pest and disease management, with special reference to current developments, such as the shift from curative towards preventative pest and disease management, as well as developments in greenhouse energy saving practices and technologies used for sensing, monitoring and decision making.