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
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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NJ Commercial Vegetable Production Recommendations
Rutgers Weather Forecasting - Meteorological Information important to commercial agriculture.
Veg IPM Update: Week Ending 5/21/14
Yellow Sweet Corn
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.
Pesticide Worker Protection Inspection Warning
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.
Veg IPM Update: Week Ending 5/14/14
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
Sunscald Injury in Transplants
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.
Small Farm Post-Harvest Practices Workshop
Date: Tuesday, May 20, 2 PM to 4:30 PM
Location: Webinar presentation @ Rutgers Cooperative Extension Office of Mercer County, 930 Spruce Street, Trenton, NJ
Followed by on-farm portion @ Z Food Farm, 3501 Princeton Pike, Lawrence, NJ
Improving post-harvest practices can help minimize produce damage and maximize the amount of quality produce that can be sold at market. Evaluating current post-harvest practices and identifying low-cost improvements is an important part of farm planning, and should be done as early in the season as possible.
Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Mercer County and NOFA-NJ welcome Lee Stivers from Penn State Extension as she joins us remotely giving a presentation on post-harvest handling procedures for high-quality, marketable produce via webinar.
The webinar workshop portion will be followed by a farm tour of Z Food Farm’s post-harvest handling set-up. Z Food Farm is a small certified organic farm located in Lawrenceville, NJ.
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