The southeastern states accounted for ~43% of fresh-market production of watermelon, tomato, cucumber, squash, green bean, bell pepper, and eggplant according to a recent census of agriculture

The sweetpotato whitefly (bemisia tabaci) and whitefly-transmitted viruses are serious threats to vegetable production in this region. The introduction and resurgence of several destructive whitefly-transmitted viruses affected many different vegetables in the southeastern U.S. Starting in the mid-2000S. The long-term goal of our project is to develop a disease and pest management strategy that utilizes a risk prediction model to provide a pre-planting (=preseason) assessment of the risk of whitefly-transmitted viruses for vegetable growers. This will be accomplished via overarching objectives that seek to: 1) characterize viruses and whiteflies across space and time in production fields and select neighboring fallow fields, irrigation ditches, forest stands, and hedgerows to gain an understanding of the intricacies of epidemic dynamics and to identify "hot spots" and reservoirs for both virus and whitefly; 2) address gaps in knowledge of virus and whitefly biology, and quantification of key steps in whitefly acquisition and transmission processes for predominant viruses; and 3) develop a risk prediction model that utilizes weather data, site-specific factors, and user inputs of key management decisions (e.g., planting date, cultivar choice, insecticide selection) to predict the season's risk of virus infection. By using the model before planting, growers will be able to better strategize their vegetable production plan by altering their inputs until a satisfactory level of risk is achieved. Further, we plan to incorporate the risk prediction model into a web-based platform with smartphone access to allow rapid and effective dissemination of regional risk predictions. This will foster the devleopment of an areawide pest management approach for controlling whitefly transmitted viruses of vegetables which will, in turn, lead to more sustainable and continuously available vegetables for U.S. Consumers.