Monitoring for Fruit Damage in Processing Tomatoes: Use of a Dynamic Sequential Sampling Plan

1 June 1983

journal article
research article
Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Environmental Entomology

Vol. 12 (3) , 835-839
https://doi.org/10.1093/ee/12.3.835

Abstract

The cost-reliability of two binomial sampling procedures for monitoring tomato fruitworm (TFW), Heliothis zea (Boddie), and beet armyworm (BAW), Spodoptera exigua (Hübner), fruit damage in processing tomatoes are compared. The random procedure which entails sampling 30 fruit at each of several sites in a field when compared with sampling all fruit on single plants at several sites overestimated TFW and BAW damage by 62% but proved more cost reliable when corrected for the bias. A dynamic threshold is developed taking into account the earliness or lateness of the crop and the associated likeliness of increased damage later in the season. A binomial sequential sampling program which utilizes these thresholds is presented which allows for the fruit damage status to be rapidly and reliably estimated.

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