Leafminer Control in Cantaloupes

Abstract

Cantaloupe leaf damage from leafminer activity was minimal to non-existent when evaluated at 6 days after treatment (DAT) following each of the first four weekly application dates. At 13 DAT-4, the number of mined leaves increased tremendously over the previous observation date. The untreated cantaloupes showed an increase from 30.8 to 81.8 mined leaves compared to the previous week. Agri-mek and the alternation treatment of Trigard, Success7, and Agri-mek applied on cantaloupes showed the fewest number of mined leaves at about 22 mined leaves. Trigard and Success treated cantaloupes had increased number of mined leaves ranging from 44 to 56.8. Agri-mek and the alternation treatment consistently had the fewest number of mined leaves during the course of the test period. Trigard and Success treatments performed similarly and reduced the number of mined leaves relative to the untreated cantaloupes. Success at the higher rate appeared to be slightly more active by showing numerically fewer mined leaves than the lower rate of application. Success treated melons yielded nearly twice as much compared to the other treatments and the untreated. Success treated melons also offered a higher number of marketable fruit at better than 80% compared to about 60% for the other treatments. Less stickiness was observed on the Success treated cantaloupes. There appeared to be an effect from Success applications on whitefly to reduce the honeydew stickiness.