Most of New Jersey has been plagued by heavy rains and pop-up thunderstorms these past few weeks making conditions ideal for pathogens such as Phytophthora blight (P. capsici) on pepper, eggplant, tomato, and cucurbit crops. Unfortunately, Phytophthora blight can be found on most farms in the southern part of the state. Poor crop rotations with susceptible hosts only make matters worse. The pathogen has an increasing host range that also includes snap and lima beans, and all crops, other than a few resistant bell pepper cultivars, lack any resistance to the pathogen. [Read more…]
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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June 28, 2015 Andy Wyenandt
Preparing for Pepper Anthracnose
Heavy rain and wind can cause pepper anthracnose to flare up quickly!
Growers with peppers in fields with a history of pepper anthracnose should scout on a daily basis and initiate a fungicide program as soon as small fruit begin to develop. Pepper anthracnose can be very difficult to control once established. All bell and non-bell peppers are susceptible. Strip picking and removing all fruit from ‘hot spots’ when they first appear may help suppress spread of the pathogen.
Preventative fungicide applications should begin at flowering or fruit set. Use a heavy volume of water and make sure coverage is extremely good. Apply high rates of chlorothalonil or Manzate weekly and tank mix and/or rotate weekly with one of the following FRAC group 11 fungicides: Priaxor (fluxapyroxad + pyraclostrobin, 11), Quadris (azoxystrobin, 11), or Cabrio (pyracolostrobin, 11).
Please see the 2015 New Jersey Commercial Vegetable Production Recommendations Guide for more information.
Mature bell pepper fruit infected by pepper anthracnose.
June 28, 2015 Andy Wyenandt
Vegetable Disease Briefs – 6/28/15
- Phytophthora blight on pepper and cucurbit crops have been reported. The heavy rains that have been around lately have been ideal for P. capsici development. All growers need to scout on a regular basis and applied preventative fungicides on a regular basis as well as remain proactive by removing infected plants from field, making sure water is able to drain away from beds/fields, and cutting plastic to help dry out beds.
- A new, more aggressive form of Black leg has been reported in potato in southern New Jersey.
- Bacterial leaf spot is being reported on pepper and tomato.
- Basil downy mildew remains active. All basil growers should continue to scout and be proactive.
- Late blight has been reported on potato as far north as North Carolina near the Virginia border. There have been no reports of late blight in the region to date. To track late blight in the US please visit http://usablight.org/
- Cucurbit downy mildew has been reported on cucumber, butternut, acorn, and yellow summer squash as far north as central South Carolina and was reported on cucumber in Michigan this past week. To track the progress of CDM in the US please visit http://cdm.ipmpipe.org/. Fungicide maintenance programs should focus on cucurbit powdery mildew control until CDM is reported in the region.
June 26, 2015 Wes Kline
Audit Ready: Heads Up on Handwashing Stations, Well Water Sampling, & Traceability
Handwashing Stations
Auditors have noted that on handwashing stations some have a label which says “Not potable water.” If a grower is doing the USDA GAP or Harmonized audits, the water in handwashing stations must meet the “Microbial standard for drinking water.” If a label is on the wash station marked not potable, the grower is not in compliance. Check G-9 in the GAP or 2.2.5 in the Field Operations and Harvesting Harmonized Food Safety Standard for more details.
From Grower Self Audit for USDA GAP Audit General Questions G-1 to G-15:
G-9. All toilet/restroom facilities are clean and properly supplied with single use towels, toilet paper, and hand soap or anti-bacterial soap and potable water for hand washing.
G-9. All toilet/restroom facilities are clean and properly supplied with single use towels, toilet paper, and hand soap or anti-bacterial soap and potable water for hand washing.
June 24, 2015 Kris Holmstrom and Joe Ingerson-Mahar
Veg IPM Update: Week Ending 6/24/15
Sweet Corn
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Be sure to begin monitoring plantings for ECB feeding while they are still in the whorl stage. Consider treating when the number of infested plants in a 50 plant sample exceeds 12%. Feeding in the whorl stage will appear as numerous small holes (called “shot-hole”) on leaves, with damage present on consecutively younger leaves.
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June 23, 2015 Andy Wyenandt
The Weather of Late:
A Double-edged Sword
The weather has been a double-edged sword of late throughout most of the mid-Atlantic region. The extremely hot weather with temperatures at or above 90 these past few days have been good for slowing disease development down. At those temperatures, its even too hot for pathogens to develop!
Unfortunately, the weather has also brought with it a lot of wind and rain these past few days and weeks. We all know what this leads to. Remember that bacteria need a wound or natural opening to enter a plant and cause an infection. The heavy winds and driving rains that beat up plants also help create the wounds that allow this to occur so its not unlikely to see an uptick in bacterial problems across a number of crops, such as in the case of bacterial leaf spot in tomato and pepper, after the weather we’ve had this past week.
Growers need to be proactive with copper applications and/or disinfestant applications prior to and/or after such events. Growers should also avoid working in fields when foliage is wet, if possible. This is extremely important if a bacterial problem is already present in the field!
The wet weather, along with the high humidity and prolonged leaf wetness also makes nice for many fungal pathogens, both leaf and soil-borne. Phytophthora blight in cucurbits, pepper, eggplant and tomato; Early blight in tomato; Alternaria and Anthracnose in cucurbits; and downy mildews just to name a few are favored by our current weather conditions, especially after temperatures cool down after todays weather front passes through the region.
During these conditions, all growers need to remain diligent and keep up with their protectant fungicide programs as long as field conditions allow and be proactive instead of reactive. After today, we get a few hours of dry weather before potential rains return on Thursday night into Friday.
