Archives for May 2024

May 11, 2024

Diagnosing Spear Damage in Asparagus

Spear damage in asparagus can be caused by diseases such as Phytophthora spear and crown rot and purple spot. However, other environmental factors during the spring can damage spears as they emerge from the soil.

Freeze injury in asparagus

Fig 1a. Freeze injury in asparagus. (Photo by Tom Orton)

Freeze injury in Asparagus

Fig 1b. Freeze injury in Asparagus. Note the color of the interior of the spear. (Photo by Tom Orton)

 Freeze Injury – About 10 days ago temperatures dipped well below freezing for a night or two, and combined with the higher than normal temperature this spring, some asparagus fields that had already started to produce spears were hit with injury. Affected spears will be bent/distorted and begin to breakdown and rot (Fig. 1a).

Cutting frozen spears will show the discoloration of the spear caused by the freeze (Fig. 1b).

Fig. 2. Wind damage of asparagus spears. Notice how all spears are pointed in the same direction

 Wind – Periods of heavy winds during emergence will cause spears to bend. High winds can cause one side of the spear to dry out quicker than the other causing the spear to bend and point in the direction of the prevailing wind. An asparagus planting is suffering from wind damage if most of the bent spear heads in the bed are pointing in the same direction (Fig.2).

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Filed Under: Vegetable Crops Tagged With: , , ,
May 10, 2024

Webinar: Getting a Head Start and Keeping the Season Going

Register for the Free Informational Talk for Farmers, “Getting a Head Start and Keeping the Season Going,” on Tuesday, May 21, 2024, via Zoom from 6 to 7p.m.

For information, call 609-465-5115, ext. 3601 or email capemayag@njaes.rutgers.edu.

Register at: https://go.rutgers.edu/unt9odv2

Filed Under: Commercial Ag Updates, Fruit, vegetable, Vegetable Crops Tagged With: , ,
May 10, 2024

South Jersey Tree Fruit Twilight Meeting – II

When: May 21 (Tuesday) @ 5 pm

Where: Nichols Orchards: 628 Royal Ave., Franklinville, NJ 08322

Pesticide credits: 1A (5), PP2 (5), and 10 (5) [Read more…]

Filed Under: Blueberry, Cranberry, Fruit, Strawberry, Tree Fruit, Vegetable Crops, Wine Grape Tagged With: ,
May 10, 2024

Controlling Purple Spot on Asparagus Spears

Purple spot, caused the soil-borne fungus, Stemphylium vesicarium, can cause problems in cool, wet springs. Symptoms, just like its name, include numerous, sunken oval-shaped spots on spears during the harvest season and more importantly on ferns and stalks during the summer months as long as conditions are ideal for its development.

Twelve hours of wetness is needed for infection and the disease is exacerbated by wind-blown sand injury. Heavy purple spot infection during the summer will lead to premature defoliation which will decrease carbohydrate reserves for the next production season. With the season we had last year and the wet spring we’ve had thus far this year season, pressure due to purple spot may be high. Control of purple spot can be difficult because of management issues (i.e., the mowing and chopping up and leaving of old fern material in the field) and because fungicides can’t be applied during the harvest season. Growers who had pre-mature defoliation issues last year may expect problems this spring. Remember, controlling purple spot begins with preventative fungicide applications during summer and fall by reducing infections to ferns and stalks. Weekly scouting should be done in the spring and followed up with additional scouting and timely fungicide applications once fern stalks are full size. Apply and rotate azoxystrobin (FRAC group 11) at 6.2 to 15.5 fl oz 2.08F/A with chlorothalonil at 2.0 to 4.0 pt/A.

(Photo by M. Hausbeck, Michigan State University)

Filed Under: Vegetable Crops Tagged With:
May 9, 2024

Avoid Sunscald Injury in Transplants

Although the weather has been relatively wet these past few weeks, hotter than normal temperatures have already crept in, thus we need to be cautious about sunscald developing on the stems of transplants, especially those being set onto black plastic mulch. With a little planning ahead potential losses to sunscald injury can reduced significantly.

Sunscald

Sunscald injury on stems of newly transplanted pepper seedlings caused by stems laying against edges of black plastic mulch on hot, sunny days.

A transplant coming straight out of the greenhouse and directly into the field has not been exposed to much direct sunlight. Add that with black plastic mulch and you have a lot of heat aim directly at the tender tissue of the transplant. All transplants should have some time to harden-off outside the greenhouse before going into the field, a day or two, is better than none at all, the longer the better if time and space allow.

Sunscald typically appears as the slow bleaching out of the stem that will typically appear only on one side. Often this starts to appear right where the stem meets the black plastic mulch. In many cases if the stem is touching the mulch, the sunburn will start there and the transplant will begin to fall over as if the stem was broken.

When transplanting, make sure the holes in the plastic are wide enough to keep the stem from coming into contact with it. In some cases growers will fill in the transplant hole with soil to help keep the transplant upright before between-row herbicides are applied. ‘Leggy’ transplants that lay across plastic mulch and even those transplanted onto bare ground are prone to sunscald injury.

Filed Under: Vegetable Crops Tagged With: ,
May 8, 2024

IPM Update 5/08/24

Sweet Corn

IPM personnel have deployed black light and corn earworm (CEW) pheromone trap networks in central and northern New Jersey counties.  In areas from central Burlington County southward, grower cooperators have been provided with CEW pheromone traps and will be monitoring these traps on their own properties and reporting catch data to IPM personnel.  This is an effort to maintain a statewide reporting program for the most significant economic pest of sweet corn despite a shortage of professional staff this year.  The IPM program thanks these growers in the southern counties for their assistance in maintaining this necessary service.

Black light trap derived maps for European corn borer (ECB), CEW and brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) will not appear in the Plant and Pest Advisory, as there is no statewide blacklight trap network.  Data from existing black lights in the central and northern counties will appear in table format, with associated information on the relevance of the populations.  Provided that  data from the southern CEW pheromone traps is available on a regular basis, maps will be generated for this pest/trap type.   Limited collections from traps thus far have not contained any target pests.

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Filed Under: Organic Production, Vegetable Crops