Buggy-whipping in corn is a common sight early in the growing season and later under certain environmental conditions. The cause of buggy whipping is the abnormal formation of waxy leaf layers causing leaves to unfurl improperly. Agrichemicals and environment can cause this. [Read more…]

There have been many situations where both fomesafen (active ingredient in Reflex) and glyphosate will complement each other for weed control. Syngenta has a premix of fomesafen plus glyphosate called Flexstar GT. Also, Reflex and glyphosate can be tankmixed, but there have been some situations of these two products not mixing well. The following is an article from Ken Smith from University of Arkansas entitled “Problem Solving Incompatible Tankmixes of Glyphosate and Reflex®”

Some growers have experienced cottage cheese spray mixtures when Reflex® and glyphosate were tankmixed in an effort to burn down existing weeds while applying Reflex® prior to cotton or soybean planting.

If a mistake is made and Reflex® and the potassium salt of glyphosate is mixed and found to be incompatible, it can likely be brought back into solution by adding household ammonia. Start with 1% ammonia and begin agitation. More ammonia may be added if needed.

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Date: June 10, 2014 5:30-8:45pm
Location: Donaldson Farms, 358 Allen Road, Hackettstown, NJ 07840.

Third Annual North Jersey Twilight Fruit Meeting Featuring Strawberries and Tree Fruit.
Meeting will be held rain or shine.
Please RSVP to Diana Boesch at (908) 788-1339.
Registration Donation: $10.00 – Payable at the Meeting.

Potato Disease Forecasting Report 6-6-14 – Click to Download

We will be tracking DSVs for Late blight development and calculating P-days for initiating the first early blight fungicide application.

The first late blight fungicide application is recommended once 18 DSVs accumulate from green row. Green row typically occurs around the first week in May in southern New Jersey. An early season application of a protectant fungicide such as mancozeb (Dithane, Manzate, Penncozeb) or Bravo (chlorothalonil) as soon the field is accessible is suggested. Please be vigilant and keep a look out for suspect late blight infections on young plants. No late blight has been reported in our region to date.

Remember the threshold for P-days is 300!  Once 300 P-days is reached for your location early blight fungicide applications should be initiated. Growers who are interested in using this model should chose the location above that is closest in proximity to their farming operation and should regularly check the Cornell NEWA website (http://newa.cornell.edu/) where this information is compiled from. Click on Pests Forecasts from the menu, select your weather station, and click on tomato diseases, set accumulation start date and a table of daily and total DSVs will be generated.

I was out late last week scouting some corn fields and checking some black cutworm moth monitoring traps. Fortunately, the number of black cutworm moths in the traps have been rather low. I did notice some very minimal black cutworm damage in one field. This does not mean growers should let their guard down. Pennsylvania and other northern states have been reporting large flights of black cutworm moths. It is recommended that growers continue to scout corn fields for damage. Remember many Bt hybrids are not that strong against black cutworm. This leaves scouting and rescue treatments as the most viable option for managing black cutworm.

I have observed a lot of emerged Palmer amaranth seedlings.

Early planted corn should be scouted at 4 weeks after planting to determine if a POST herbicide application is needed. A lot of no-till soybean fields need a burndown herbicide, and if Palmer amaranth is present in those fields, it makes things challenging. If the field was burned down earlier, and weeds have emerged since application, consider using Gramoxone (paraquat) to control emerged Palmer amaranth plants. Residual herbicides containing metribuzin or chlorimuron (unless the field has had history of poor control with ALS herbicides [Group 2]) will provide the greatest amount of help for burndown control of emerged Palmer amaranth in no-till soybean fields.