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Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a sustainable approach to managing pests that combines multiple approaches including prevention, avoidance, pest monitoring and suppression in a manner that minimizes public health, economic, and environmental risk. IPM serves as a framework to provide an effective, comprehensive, low-risk approach to protect people and resources from pests.

The University of California Statewide IPM Program (UC IPM) helps residents, growers, land managers, community leaders, and other professional pest managers prevent and solve pest problems with the least unintended impacts on people and their surroundings.

Nutrient management is critical to successful vegetable production. Given the high value and exacting market standards for size, appearance, and postharvest quality for vegetable crops, fertilizer management practices have focused on optimizing production across a wide range of field conditions. While effective in producing good crops, these practices are not necessarily reflective of input costs or environmental protection. As growers face increasingly stringent regulations designed to minimize nutrient losses to the environment, a new look at fertilization practices is warranted.

Michael Cahn, Thomas Lockhart, and Laura Murphy

With this guide in hand, you'll learn about the characteristics of selected fertilizers commonly used for fertigation, long- and short-duration strategies, how to calculate injection rates, frequency considerations, how to apply fertilizers uniformly, mixing considerations, injection devices, and how to prevent backflow. You'll also learn about nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium distribution around drip lines and how and why to inject gypsum.