Show I 1 curly top vi aims ru 8 control sought IL tomato curly top was to eo prevalent in 1958 and resulted in the death of so many plants that all utah tomato growers suffered losses so 50 heavy that tomato production tor for the state was less than 20 percent of normal according to dr orson S cannon head of botany and plant pathology at utah state university curly top Is a disease caused by a virus which JW hi transmitted to susceptible plants by the sugar beet leathor per this insect has breeding grounds on the chev 4 deserts I 1 of utah and the ho southwest work on curly top ton control has been conducted in utah for man many Y years it is now POS able to tell whether much or little curly top will occur in a given year by the number of leafhoppers leaf hoppers in the desert breeding grounds in potatoes this virus seems to be much more prevalent in the escalante valley due to its close proximity to the desert regions in southern utah the snore varieties are being eliminated from this area howard dorst entomologist with the USDA stationed sit at US indicated that experiments have been conducted using insecticides to kill the leafhopper leat hopper before it can transmit the virus insecticide for control of leafhopper on tomatoes have shown promise but as yet are not registered the most successful experiment as far as sugar beets are concerned has been the devel oprea of varieties of plants with good horticulture characteristics acte that are curly top resistant |