Andy Wyenandt

Late blight has been found in a small tomato planting near Chester in Morris County. This is the third late blight report this growing season in New Jersey and the first since mid-August. Although the weather around NJ has been hot and dry the past few weeks, morning dews and fogs are slowly starting to roll in with Autumn around the corner. All tomato growers should scout their fields on a regular basis. Early-season plantings that have been abandoned need to remain on your radar screen, especially if they haven’t been mowed off or hit with gramoxone to kill all living plant material. To track late blight in the US please visit http://usablight.org/

• Downy mildew remains active on all cucurbit crops. All cucurbit growers should include downy as well as powdery mildew specific fungicides in their weekly maintenance sprays. Please remember different modes-of-Action (i.e., FRAC groups) to help manage fungicide resistance develop in both pathogens. To track the progress of CDM in the US please visit http://cdm.ipmpipe.org/
• There have been no new reports of late blight in New Jersey since 8/14. Remember as fall approaches and night temperatures become cooler and light fogs begin to develop conditions for late blight development improve. All abandoned tomato blocks/fields need to be disked under as soon as harvesting is done or sprayed with gramoxone to kill all living foliage. To track late blight in the US please visit http://usablight.org/
• Bacterial leaf spot remains active on pepper and tomato crops. Bacterial canker on tomato has also been reported.
• Pepper anthracnose has been reported. All pepper blocks/fields where anthracnose is present and harvesting is completed need to disked under and/or sprayed with gramoxone as soon as possible. Infected plant material left in the field will only serve as a source of inoculum for further spread of the disease.

Late blight has been found in a small tomato planting near Layton in Sussex County.

This is the second report this growing season in New Jersey and the first since early July. All tomato growers should scout their fields on a regular basis. The incoming hot, dry weather should help reduce any potential threat from late blight.

• Dickeya sp., an aggressive form of Black leg, has been confirmed on potato in New Jersey.
  Symptoms of Dickeya infection look similar to Black leg infection and can cause significant rot above ground (stems and foliage) and below ground (tubers). Very little information is available on Dickeya, since it is most likely a new pathogen on potato to the US. It has also been found in Europe in recent years.
• Bacterial leaf spot race 6 was confirmed on bell pepper near Vineland this past week. All bell and non-bell pepper varieties currently grown in New Jersey lack resistance to this race of the pathogen.
  All pepper growers need to scout on a regular basis and know what BLS resistance packages the varieties they grow carry. Bell pepper varieties such as Tomcat and 1819 carry resistance to races 1 to 5. Thus, if symptoms of BLS appear on either variety then race 6 is most likely present on the farm and any pepper that lacks resistance to race 6 has the potential to become infected.

• Bacterial leaf spot race 6 has been confirmed on bell pepper in the Vineland area. This has major implications since all widely-grown peppers (bell and non-bell) in New Jersey do not have resistance to this race. All bell peppers growers need to scout on a regular basis and know what BLS resistance packages are present in the varieties they are growing.
• There have been no new reports of late blight in New Jersey since 7/8 although it has been reported in other States in the region. To track late blight in the US please visit http://usablight.org/
• Cucurbit downy mildew has been reported on cucumber in New Jersey and on cucumber and butternut squash. All cucurbit growers should include downy as well as powdery mildew specific fungicides in their weekly maintenance sprays. To track the progress of CDM in the US please visit http://cdm.ipmpipe.org/.
• Basil downy mildew remains active across the region.
• Pepper anthracnose has been reported.