Vegetable Crops Edition
Seasonal updates and alerts on insects, diseases, and weeds impacting vegetable crops. New Jersey Commercial Vegetable Production Recommendations updates between annual publication issues are included.
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NJ Commercial Vegetable Production Recommendations
Rutgers Weather Forecasting - Meteorological Information important to commercial agriculture.
New Jersey Annual Vegetable Meeting: Hemp Session
Rutgers Online Pesticide Applicator Exam Portal is Open
To streamline NJ’s pesticide exam process, Rutgers Office of Continuing Professional Education has announced that the new online Pesticide Applicator Certification Exam Registration (PACER) system is available for your use immediately.
How the new system benefits YOU:
- Online Access: Web-based PACER application is accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
- No More Snail Mail: Upload your support documents online and eliminate the time and expense required to mail them.
- Quick Review Turnaround: Your application will be reviewed within 48 business hours and you will be notified of any problems or concerns with your documentation promptly via email.
- Immediate Exam Scheduling: Online exams are available 24/7. Once in-person exams resume, YOU choose your exam date and location when you register; no more waiting to hear which of your exam date and time choices were available.
- Fast Exam Results: See your exam grades within 7 business days of exam completion.
- More Exam Times and Locations: Due to COVID-19, all exams are currently being offered online. When restrictions are lifted, online exams will continue and in-person exams will resume. New facilities will be added around the state to give you more options for added convenience. In-person exams will be administered weekdays, evenings and on Saturdays to better accommodate your schedule.
- Manage Others’ Exams: Are you responsible for your organization’s employees? Now you can easily track and manage exam applications and scheduling for multiple people in PACER! Set up an account in PACER then provide us with the information listed below so we can upgrade your account to Business Manager. Send information to: pacer@njaes.rutgers.edu. (A commercial pesticide applicator business license number is required to establish a Business Manager account; a business license number begins with “9”).
- Business Manager Name; Business Manager Email Address
- Company Name; Company Address; Company Business License #
- Support: Responsive, courteous help desk support is available Monday through Friday, 8:00am-4:30pm. Phone: 848‐932‐9271, Option 7; Fax: 732‐932‐1187; E‐mail: pacer@njaes.rutgers.edu
Examination Fees are $115 per each Category exam and the Core exam; $50 for the Private licensing exam:
- Pay online via credit card or e-check, with no extra surcharge
- Purchase Orders will also be accepted via upload
- Exam payments are not refundable and online exams have minimum computer requirements detailed on the website
Please note that all exams are CLOSED book and the NJDEP no longer offers any pesticide certification exams.
The PACER website also has step-by-step instructions to create an account before registering for the exam, and user and hardware requirements to successfully complete the exam (Google Chrome internet browser, webcam, wired / Ethernet connection, ample bandwidth for Proctorio download and use, etc.). Also, make sure you choose a quiet and comfortable location to take your exams, as earphones or headphones are not permitted during the exam.
Please Visit the NJDEP website for information regarding pesticide licensing, policies, procedures, credits, and for payment and status of your license. For frequently asked questions regarding pesticide licensing please click here.
Visit PACER today!
Pepper Weevil Management and Research Priorities
Pepper Weevil Management and Research Priorities
March 3, 2021, 1:00 – 3:00 pm
Online Zoom Meeting
Pepper growers/agribusiness professionals/extension personnel are invited to attend a virtual meeting to discuss current pepper weevil management tactics and to set research priorities.
Since 2006, at least one farm each growing season has been infested with pepper weevil. So far, timely spraying after detection has occasionally been successful in eliminating weevils. Otherwise, insecticide applications have only suppressed weevil populations. Pheromone traps are useful in detecting weevils, but often fields are infested before the weevils are trapped. What else can be done? What are the priorities in attempting to manage weevils?
Please join the discussion to help develop tactics to reduce the impact of pepper weevil.
To register please go to https://go.rutgers.edu/3bm2r3xl
The registration deadline is March 1, 2021, and you must pre-register to get the zoom link.
USDA to Measure Financial Well-Being of Farmers and Ranchers
Initiated back in late December, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) will be spending these next several months gathering information about farm economics and production practices from farmers and ranchers across the United States, as the agency conducts the third and final phase of the 2020 Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS).
“ARMS is the only survey that measures the current financial well-being of producers and their households as a whole,” said King Whetstone, director of the NASS Northeastern Region. “The results of this survey will help inform decisions on local and federal policies and programs that affect farms and farm families.”
In an effort to obtain the most accurate data, NASS will reach out to more than 30,000 producers nationwide, between January and April in 2021. The survey asks producers to provide in-depth information about their operating revenues, production costs, and household characteristics.
The 2020 ARMS survey includes a version of the questionnaire focused on hog and pig production costs and returns. This year the survey also includes questions to help measure any impacts of COVID-19 on farms, farm and household finances, and off-farm employment. “In February, our interviewers will begin reaching out to those farmers who have not yet responded,” said Whetstone. “We appreciate their time and are here to help them with the questionnaire so that their information will continue supporting sound agricultural decision making.”
In addition to producing accurate information, NASS has strong safeguards in place to protect the confidentiality of all farmers who respond to its surveys. The agency will only publish data in an aggregate form, ensuring the confidentiality of all responses and that no individual respondent or operation can be identified.
Growers can complete the survey online, saving you time by allowing you to skip over questions that do not apply to you, by calculating totals automatically, and by providing drop-down menus for common answers. It also saves taxpayer dollars that would otherwise be spent on return postage and data entry.
To complete your survey online, you will need your unique Survey Code from the address label on the paper questionnaire or letter you received in the mail. You can save a partially completed survey by clicking “Save and Return Later.” Do not click the “Submit” button until you are sure you are finished with your survey.
The expense data gathered in ARMS will be published in the annual Farm Production Expenditures report in July 2021. That report and others are available by clicking here. More reports based on ARMS data and more information about ARMS are available online here. For more information, please call the NASS Northeastern Regional Field Office at (800) 498-1518.
NASS is the federal statistical agency responsible for producing official data about U.S. agriculture and is committed to providing timely, accurate and useful statistics in service to U.S. agriculture.
An update on the potato pathogen, Dickeya dianthicola
It has been nearly six years since Dickeya dianthicola was first reported in potato in New Jersey in 2015 and many other states up and down the East Coast in the spring and summer of 2016. Before then, this seed-borne pathogen had not been detected in potato fields in the mid-Atlantic region and elsewhere. Unfortunately, some potato growers suffered substantial economic losses during the 2015 and 2016 growing seasons. Organic potato producers who grew very small acreage were also affected by Dickeya dianthicola. Most of the commercial potato acreage in New Jersey and elsewhere was being planted with seed purchased from Maine or Canada. When a disease such as this is so widespread when it first occurs it suggests that contaminated seed is the likely inoculum source. Extension personnel from the region learned from visiting farms and talking with growers that occurrences were associated with specific seed lots. With knowledge of the probable origin of the pathogen, Extension personnel from the region developed best management guidelines for Dickeya dianthicola to help potato growers in the region minimize the potential for a Dickeya outbreak in their operation.
Since that time, along with Dickeya dianthicola, other seed-borne tuber rotting pathogens (Pectobacterium spp.) have routinely been found causing significant problems for potato growers in the region. Research on Dickeya and Pectobacterium has been ongoing in the US and other parts of the world where these pathogens occur with data and results related to the most recent outbreaks being published most recently. In a survey of soft rot bacteria collected from potato fields in New York state during the 2016 growing season, a majority of isolates collected were designated as D. dianthicola or P. parmentieri. Based on their dnaX sequence analysis, the authors determined that the D. dianthicola isolated from potato plants in New York formed a single clade, being genetically identical to each other and to D. dianthicola ME23 isolated in Maine in 2015 (Ma et al., 2018). More recent research by Ge et al (2020, Plant Dis. First Look) surveyed commercial potato fields in Maine as well as suspect Dickeya samples collected from potato seed pieces, tubers, or plants from potato fields in 11 other states from 2015 to 2019. A total of 1183 samples were collected. A total of 256 Dickeya dianthicola isolates were used to identify pathogen genotype (I, II, or III) and the “inoculum geography”. Of these, 231 (~90%) were Type I, 14 (~5%) were Type II, and 11 (~4%) were Type III. In Maine alone, 95% of the total isolates collected from commercial potato fields were Type I. “As such, it was suspected that the original contamination in other states initiated from Maine” since “Maine is the primary seed potato supplier to states in the Northeastern U.S.”. The only consistent genotype found in each year of the study from all states sampled from was Type I for which the authors hypothesized was “likely associated with Maine seed origination”. Not finding Dickeya dianthicola Type II and III in Maine in each year of the study may reflect the fact these types were rare compared to Type I thus a larger sample size was needed to confirm they likely were not present those years. Additionally, while most occurrences of Dickeya dianthicola in potato production fields were associated with seed originated from Maine, there were occurrences associated with seed from Wisconsin and Canada. It is possible Type II and III are principally associated with those seed. Seed source was not determined for the samples.
Greenhouse Sanitation Important for Disease Management
Proper greenhouse sanitation is important for healthy, disease-free vegetable transplant production.
Efforts need to be made to keep transplant production greenhouses free of unnecessary plant debris and weeds which may harbor insect pests and disease. Efforts need to be taken throughout the transplant production season to minimize potential problems.
- All equipment, benches, flats, plug trays and floors should be properly cleaned and then disinfested prior to use.
- Any weeds in or around the greenhouse structure should be removed prior to any production.
- Any transplant brought into the greenhouse from an outside source needs to be certified ‘clean’, as well as, visually inspected for potential insects and diseases once it reaches your location.
Remember, disinfestants, such as Clorox, Green-Shield, or hydrogen dioxide products (Zerotol – for commercial greenhouses, garden centers and Oxidate – commercial greenhouse and field), kill only what they come into direct contact with so thorough coverage and/or soaking is necessary. The labels do not specify time intervals for specific uses, only to state that surfaces be ‘thoroughly wetted’. Therefore, labels need to be followed precisely for different use patterns (i.e., disinfesting flats vs. floors or benches) to ensure proper dilution ratios. Hydrogen dioxide products work best when diluted with water containing little or no organic matter and in water with a neutral pH.