
Severe hail damage on pepper transplants.
Rutgers Cooperative Extension
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Severe hail damage on pepper transplants.
Vegetable IPM Report 5-21-14 – Click to View | Download | Print
Maps for the Week
–Pepper Weevil Trap Catch Map
–European Corn Borer Population MapTopics for the Week
- Sweet Corn
- Cole Crops
- Peppers
- Tomatoes
- Pepper Weevil Report
- BMSB
Sweet corn that has emerged has been observed yellow or light green in color. The chlorosis may be uniform, or appear mottled on the plant, or only the newest leaf growing out of the whorl is yellow. Cold weather is responsible for the injury. Corn cannot make chlorophyll when the temperature fails to climb above 65 to 70 degrees for an extended period. Herbicides are not responsible for the problem. Varietal differences to cold tolerance exist. The corn will turn green when the weather turns warm.
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Pesticide Control Program (NJDEP) has announced that federal agricultural Worker Protection Standard (WPS) compliance farm inspections will be conducted mid-May through July. Be a prepared agricultural employer. Take the necessary actions this week to make sure your farm is in compliance to avoid citations.
Two outstanding farm employer resources on agricultural WPS compliance are:
1. EPA Ag Employer Quick Reference Guide (2005)
2. EPA website How to Comply with the Worker Protection Standard for Agricultural Pesticides: What Employers Need to Know
These are inspections by the US EPA, although NJDEP inspectors may accompany them. Approximately 20 to 30 inspections are slated to be conducted any time from May through July.
Vegetable IPM Report 5-14-14 – Click to View | Download | Print
Maps for the Week
–Pepper Weevil Trap Catch Map
–European Corn Borer Population MapTopics for the Week
- Sweet Corn
- Cole Crops
- BMSB
- Pepper Weevil Update
Now that the weather is beginning to cooperate and temperatures are warming up, 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 injury on stems of newly transplanted pepper seedlings caused by stems laying against edges of black plastic mulch on hot, sunny days.
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.
Check out the Plant & Pest Advisory Organic Farm Advisory section which contains recommendations grounded in replicated trials and experience. These articles aim to support NJ commercial growers using organic methods.