From weeds to natural enemies: Implications of weed cultivation and bio-pesticides for organic onion production

Weed management is challenging for vegetable crops highly sensitive to weed competition, such as onions. Thrips (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) are major insect pests of onion, causing damage through feeding, and vector bacterial pathogens causing rot. Both thrips and their associated pathogens are known to survive on many weed species in onion growing regions. Combining weeding with bio-pesticides may synergistically manage thrips and disease by reducing disease prevalence and indirectly increasing onion yield. However, disturbances from weeding may negatively impact natural enemies. We estimate the effects of organic weed management and bio-pesticides on weed density, thrips and natural enemy activity, disease severity, and yield. The experiment was a randomized complete block design, with four replications of each weeding (control, tine-weeded 2x, tine-weeded 4x, and hand-weeded) and bio-pesticide (control, OxiDate 2.0, Serenade) combination. Arthropods were monitored using yellow sticky c..., , , # From weeds to natural enemies: implications of weed cultivation and bio-pesticides for organic onion production

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.q2bvq83st](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.q2bvq83st)

## Description of the data and file structure

Three datasets are provided in in relation to the manuscript: Two datasets for overall data for 2019/2020: 'onion19.dat.csv' for data collected in 2019, and 'onion20.dat.csv' for 2020. The third dataset is for specific yield data for 2019: '2019weedyielddis2.csv'

-Columns present the following are represented in the onion#.dat.csv files:

plot- plot number

year-year of study

cultivation- cultivation treatment as specified in the manuscript

bactericide - bactericide treatment as specified in the manuscript

onS,LSC, HT, CEP,WR= weed categories sampled as specified in the manuscript

medium, jumbo, colossal= mass of sizes of onions by plot, then later this was converted to kg/ha

Ncenterrrot,Nsrskin=scoring for disease observed, and TotOn = t...