Archives for August 2023

August 9, 2023

Vegetable IPM Update 8/09/23

Sweet Corn

 Fall armyworm (FAW) infestations in whorl stage plantings are increasingly reaching threshold levels, and although they are not found in every field, FAW damage is in all corn growing areas at this time.  In scouted fields, some infestations in whorl corn are in excess of 20%, and are likely much higher in the southern coastal areas.   Growers are advised to check whorl and seedling stage corn plantings weekly for signs of FAW.  Consider treating if infestation rates exceed 10%.  This pest is capable of significant injury to sweet corn plants, resulting in severe stunting and failure to produce viable ears.  Note that growers of Attribute II type genetically engineered corn are unlikely to see damage from FAW.

Infested plantNewly hatched FAW larvae cause holes and scratches on leaves that are similar to European corn borer (ECB) feeding, except that they tend to be more concentrated and always lead down into the whorl  (see photos at left).  As the larvae grow, the feeding becomes more destructive, with large ragged holes and obvious droppings deposited in the whorl (see photo at right).  Infested plant

We will provide updates on new FAW appearances and severity as reports come in.  FAW are resistant to synthetic pyrethroids.  Effective sprays should include IRAC grp. 5 (spinosyns) or IRAC grp. 28 (diamides).  The carbamate (IRAC grp. 1A) Lannate is also still effective.  Sufficient water should be used in the applications to allow the solution to penetrate the layer of droppings that may have formed above the caterpillar.

 

European corn borer (ECB) moth activity remains extremely low in areas where blacklight traps are operating in the northern and central counties.  Many plantings exhibiting no ECB injury at all.  We will report on ECB activity should numbers rebound to potentially damaging levels during the second flight.  In recent years, this later flight has not required targeted control in sweet corn.

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Filed Under: Organic Production, Vegetable Crops
August 7, 2023

Hackettstown Livestock Auction Results for July 25, 2023

This auction sells: lambs, sheep, goats, calves, beef cattle, pigs, rabbits, and all types of heavy fowl. Auctions are held every Tuesday with the first sale beginning at 10:00 am and ending with the last sale at 5:30 pm. Hay, straw, grain, and firewood are also for sale.

Hackettstown Livestock Auction

Farm Fresh Eggs available for purchase by the case (30 doz.) or by the flat (2&1/2 doz.) in the main office Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday. Also available some Monday’s and Friday’s but please call office first (908)-852-0444.

Livestock auction sheet

Filed Under: Field, Forage & Livestock
August 4, 2023

Bilingual Labeling: Parts of Pesticide Labels Will be Required to Also Be In Spanish

EPA Seeks Public Comments to Ensure Information on Bilingual (Spanish) Pesticide Labels Reaches the Hands of America’s Farmworkers [Posted to EPA OPP Update August 3, 2023]. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is seeking public comments on how to make bilingual pesticide labeling accessible to farmworkers. As part of the Pesticide Registration Improvement Act of […]
Filed Under: Christmas Trees, Field, Forage & Livestock, Fruit, Landscape, Nursery, & Turf, Vegetable Crops
August 2, 2023

Vegetable IPM Update 8/02/23

Sweet Corn

Occurrences of Fall armyworm (FAW) injury are becoming more common, with infestations discovered as far north as Warren County this week.  Some infestations in whorl corn are in excess of 20%.  It is likely that economic infestations are present in much of southern New Jersey now, and could occur anywhere.  Growers are advised to check whorl and seedling stage corn plantings weekly for signs of FAW.  Consider treating if infestation rates exceed 10%.  This pest is capable of significant injury to sweet corn plants, resulting in severe stunting and failure to produce viable ears.

Newly hatched FAW larvae cause holes and scratches on leaves that are similar to European corn borer (ECB) feeding, except that they tend to be more concentrated and always lead down into the whorl  (see photos at left).  As the larvae grow, the feeding becomes more destructive, with large ragged holes and obvious droppings deposited in the whorl (see photo at right). 

We will provide updates on new FAW appearances and severity as reports come in.  FAW are resistant to synthetic pyrethroids.  Effective sprays should include IRAC grp. 5 (spinosyns) or IRAC grp. 28 (diamides).  The carbamate (IRAC grp. 1A) Lannate is also still effective.  Sufficient water should be used in the applications to allow the solution to penetrate the layer of droppings that may have formed above the caterpillar.

 

European corn borer (ECB) moth activity remains extremely low in areas where blacklight traps are operating in the northern and central counties.  Many plantings exhibiting no ECB injury at all.  We will report on ECB activity should numbers rebound to potentially damaging levels during the second flight.  In recent years, this later flight has not required targeted control in sweet corn.

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Filed Under: Organic Production, Vegetable Crops
August 2, 2023 and

Rutgers Tree Fruit IPM Report for August 02, 2023

Peach:

Oriental Fruit Moth: A biofix point for OFM was set on 4/10 in both northern and southern counties.  All timings for first generation OFM have past. Third generation timings are updated below:

OFM 2nd Generation Timing
Insecticide Type
County/Region Degree Days by  7/25 base 45 Conventional

2100-2200

2350-2450

 Diamide

2025-2150

2375-2450
Gloucester – Southern 2226 1st – past

2nd – past

 1st – past

2nd – past
Middlesex – Northern 1719 1st – past

2nd – past

 1st – past

2nd – past

Brown Rot: Brown rot is now appearing in ripening fruit in all regions. Most rotting fruit is the result of fruit that is damaged due to cracking from excessive rain or split pits. Highly effective rot materials such as DMI’s (FRAC group 3) and Strobilurins (FRAC group 11) should be applied beginning 3 – 4 weeks prior to harvest. See the NJ Commercial Tree Fruit Production Guide for more information.

Scale Insects: Second generation crawler emergence has started for both San Jose and White Peach scale and will last well into August. White Peach scale has a third generation in September and San Jose scale may have a third generation in October. Esteem and Centaur are both good scale materials. Esteem and Centaur should be applied at the start of crawler emergence. These materials should only need one application. Other options include: Assail, Belay, Actara (Group 4A): Closer (Group 4C); Sivanto (Group 4D) and the bioinsecticide Venerate. These products may need more than one application, typically 2 applications bracketing peak crawler emergence which should occur between the first and third week of August. Only Venerate has a 0 day PHI, making it useful for blocks near or at harvest. Diazinon is also still labelled for peach and apple: for San Jose Scale, it is labeled at a rate of 1#/100 with a 21 day PHI for both peach and apple; for White Peach Scale it is labeled at a rate of 1.5-2#/100 for post-harvest application only. The label requires 14 days between applications. These products may need more than one application, typically 2 applications bracketing peak crawler emergence which should occur between the first and third week of August.

 

Apples and Pears:

Diseases: Now that primary scab has ended, the focus turns toward summer diseases such as fruit rots (esp. Bitter rot), and sooty blotch and fly speck. Bitter rot control has been difficult at best in recent years even where management programs have been rigorous. Research has suggested products such as Merivon, Luna Sensation and Inspire Super may be effective, and longtime reliable broad spectrum fungicides such as captan and ziram should provide control. Experience has suggested that the addition of phosphorous acid products such as Prophyt or Rampart to captan sprays may improve control. Observations are that these products improve control of other summer diseases such as sooty blotch and flyspeck, and may help suppress scab infections where present. Bitter Rot symptoms are now appearing in southern counties.

Codling Moth (CM): The first generation codling moth timings have ended. Additional applications should be made if trap captures exceed 5 moths/trap. Trap captures continue and increased slightly in most southern county orchards this week. A biofix was set for CM on April 17th in both northern and southern counties. Codling moth trap captures have increased this past week, however most are below threshold.

Scale Insects: See peach section above.

Tree Fruit Trap Captures – Southern Counties

STLM TABM-A CM BMSB OFM-A DWB OFM-P TABM-P LPTB PTB
4/15/2023 433 20 1
4/23/2023 423 1 13 8 4
4/30/2023 417 7 15 4 1 0
5/06/2023 9 2 3 1 0 0
5/13/2023 18 2 7 2 3 0 6 6
5/20/2023 5 18 6 0 51 0 13 67
5/27/2023 1 11 4 0 17 0 11 49
6/03/23 3 8 2 1 24 0 13 65
6/10/2023 21 14 5 0 55 0 6 54 0
6/17/2023 10 11 5 0 57 0 8 46 4
6/24/2023 15 5 2 0 57 0 6 47 2
7/1/2023 342 3 0 0 69 0 3 37 6
7/8/2023 463 0 0 0 26 0 0 35 6
7/15/2023 456 0 0 0 0 50 0 0 37 5
7/22/2023 25 0 1 0 0 57 0 0 38 3
7/29/2023 136 0 1 0 0 48 0 0 22 3

Tree Fruit Trap Captures – Northern Counties

STLM TABM-A CM BMSB OFM-A DWB OFM-P TABM-P LPTB PTB
4/8/2023 10
4/15/2023 20 3
4/30/2023 28 11 6
5/06/2023 22 2 19 9
5/13/2023 34 1 3 2 5 0
5/20/2023 31 6 7 1 6 0
5/27/23 16 18 4 1 17 3 11
6/03/23 12 26 2 0 17 2 12
6/10/2023 21 14 5 0 55 0 54
6/17/2023 63 53 2 1 15 1 6
6/24/2023 134 52 3 1 0 11 3 8
7/1/2023 87 33 1 1 0 12 4 1 3
7/8/2023 296 37 1 1 0 30 0 0 1
7/15/2023 189 9 1 1 0 28 4 4 8

Phenology Table: Based on annual observations made in Gloucester County.

Pest Event or Growth Stage Approximate Date 2023 Observed Date
 Bud Swell (Redhaven)  March 23 +/- 15 Days March 7
1/4″ Green Tip Red Delicious March 31 +/- 13 Days March 27
Pink Peach (Redhaven) April 4 +/- 15 Days March 24
Tight Cluster Red Delicious April 9 +/- 13 Days April 7
Full Bloom Peach (Redhaven) April 9 +/- 14 Days April 4
Pink Apple (Red Delicious) April 14 +/- 12 Days April 11
Full Bloom Apple (Red Delicious) April 22 +/- 11 Days April 16
Petal Fall (Redhaven) April 22 +/- 10 Days April 15
Petal Fall (Red Delicious) April 27 +/- 13 Days  May 3
Shuck Split (Redhaven) April 30 +/- 11 Days April 21
Pit Hardening June 15 +/- 9 Days  June 11

 

 

 

Filed Under: Tree Fruit
August 2, 2023

Diazinon Shortage and Future Production

This article has been adapted from an article written by Dr. Christelle Guédot, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and published in the Cranberry Crop Management Journal – Volume 36 (August 02).

Every 15 years, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) performs registration reviews to reevaluate pesticides to assess environmental and occupational risk. In March 2023, the EPA announced that it would accelerate the review process of Diazinon and other pesticides that were due to conclude in 2026. As part of the review process of Diazinon, EPA reached an agreement with the pesticide registrants to develop voluntary mitigation measures by the registrants several years ahead of the normal registration review process to reduce occupational risk. This has led registrants to start implementing these measures this summer and resulted in the shortages observed this summer. For more information about this agreement between EPA and the registrants reached in April, please see https://www.epa.gov/pesticides/epa-reaches-agreement-early-mitigation-measures-initiative-organophosphate-pesticide.

While there was some uncertainty surrounding the supply and forecast of production of the different formulations of Diazinon from Adama and Loveland Products this summer, an official statement was received from Adama stating that they will continue to produce AG500 into 2024 and that they will cease production of Diazinon 50W. For AG500, new labels that will contain occupational risk mitigation measures and endangered species language are expected to be approved by the end of 2023 and should be in place through 2026 when the EPA will complete the registration review process. As for AG600, Loveland Products have informally indicated to the Cranberry Institute that they do not intend to produce Diazinon AG600 any longer. Once stocks of Diazinon 50W and AG600 run out, Diazinon will only be produced and available from Adama in the AG500 formulation. For more information about use pattern of Diazinon AG500, a link to the label can be found at https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/agrian-cg-fs1-production/pdfs/Diazinon_AG5001t_Label.pdf. It is expected that EPA will announce the notice of the agreed upon mitigation measures later this year and that an interim or final decision will be reached in 2026 under the regular review process timeline.

Filed Under: Cranberry, Fruit