1. Symphylans and Salinity: Management of the Greenhouse Maureen Copeland Summer, 2003 Penn State AgroEcology Internship

2. Problems at Sonnewald Farm Plants suffering in Old Greenhouse during 2002 Thought to be caused by symphylans

3. Symphylans: Overview Food: Organic matter (e.g. plant roots, sprouting seeds) Migrate vertically through the soil; found in depths up to one meter deep

4. Organic Matter % Organic Matter New Greenhouse18.8 Old Greenhouse14.7 Outside Garden13.9 “Typical farm”1-8

5. Hypothesis Lower organic matter will reduce the symphylan population- less food Lower salinity will improve plant growth & provide a better habitat for predators, reducing symph population

6. The Treatments Control (greenhouse soil) Intermediate soil (1:1 greenhouse to outside soil) Most diluted soil (2:1 ratio) Low salinity

7. 1:1 Low Saline 2:1 Control Low Saline Control 2:1 Low Saline 1:1 2:1 1:1 Control Plot Setup Replicate 1Replicate 2Replicate 3

8. What I did Set aside one bed in the Old Greenhouse for experiment Planted with Ermosa lettuce in each plot after taking initial soil samples Took 2 types of samples on 3 days – June 16, July 13, and July 30

9. Methods Symph bait – use beet slices under a container for 24 hours to collect soil arthropods From: http://www.seedswestgardenseeds.com/beetsindex.html

10. Methods Berlese Funnel: take small soil samples and place in a funnel with light on top – Light drives organisms downward into vial of alcohol

11. Results One symph found in all the samples taken – Where did they go?

12. Most diluted soil= more organisms? 2:1= 2parts outside soil : 1 part greenhouse soil 1:1= 1part outside soil : 1 part greenhouse soil

13. More Results Average weight of lettuce (lbs) Control0.32 Low Salinity0.35 Intermediate soil (1:1)0.47 Most diluted soil (2:1)0.48 Difference between control and most diluted soil is significantly different

14. Further considerations Temperature: – Earlier samples- higher abundance Leaching out salts: leach out nutrients? Low OM is still high compared to “typical farms”

15. Interpretations Possible that symphs migrated downward during warmer summer season – Supported by evidence that deep soil samples had more symphs than any other samples Does not explain some things…

16. Are Symphylans really the problem? This season- pepper plants in new greenhouse are struggling – no symphs found Measured EC

17. EC & Salinity Average ECSalinity Healthy Peppers1.230.85 Average Peppers1.882.51 Unhealthy Peppers1.943.89

18. Salinity & Bugs Salt level appears to be affecting diversity of soil dwelling organisms # of different species found in bait samples Good Peppers 14 Bad Peppers4 From: http://www.laters.com/insects/springta.htm

19. How does high salinity occur? Manure inputs: – Compost with manure had higher level of salts than plant-only compost Manure compost= 1.47mmhos/cm Plant-based compost= 0.29mmhos/cm Lack of rain: salts are not leached

20. What this means Possible that symphs were causing some of last years damage. However… More likely that combination of high salinity & symphylans stressed greenhouse crops