Effect of Cabbage Maggot Damage on Yield and Quality of Hybrid Cabbage Seed12

31 May 1978

journal article
research article
Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Journal of Economic Entomology

Vol. 71 (3) , 528-530
https://doi.org/10.1093/jee/71.3.528

Abstract

Yields and percent germination of seed harvested from insecticide-treated and untreated blocks of hybrid cabbage were compared in 7 field experiments over a 5-yr period to determine the effect of Hylemya brassicae (Bouché) on hybrid seed production in western Washington. Plant mortality averaged 8% and ranged from 1–28% in maggot-infested blocks. Seed yield was significantly lower in untreated blocks. Maggots that attacked seedlings after they were transplanted in Aug. and Sept. caused the plant mortality and reductions in seed yields. A spring generation of cabbage maggots which infested plants during the seed production year caused no mortality and did not lower yields. Neither generation of cabbage maggots decreased seed germination.