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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Rutgers Weather Forecasting - Meteorological Information important to commercial agriculture.
EPA Requests Comment on Modernizing Pesticide Label System to Improve Safety and Accessibility
2024 New Jersey Agricultural Convention and Trade Show
The 2024 Annual New Jersey Agricultural Convention and Trade Show will be held Tuesday to Thursday, February 6-8 at Harrah’s Resort and Waterfront Conference Center 777 Harrah’s Blvd. in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The convention is hosted in cooperation with the Vegetable Growers Association of NJ, the NJ Department of Agriculture, and Rutgers Cooperative Extension. The VGANJ is working with Rutgers Cooperative Extension and others to bring new offerings to the 2024 convention. Look for new activities in the trade show area, new vendors and traditional vendors from the past, and new participation from the Garden State Wine Growers Association. VGANJ is currently accepting exhibitor booth registrations. To find out more about purchasing a booth space see https://vganj.com/exhibitors.
What is new for 2024? On Tuesday during the mid-day break, participants at the convention can pre-sign up and participate in a free “Lunch and Learn” program where exhibitors will discuss their products and services. Registration is required for the free “Lunch and Learn” program, complimentary lunch will be provided, and space is limited. Attendees are also encouraged to participate in the Tuesday evening social and charity auction to bid on some fantastic items from our supporters. The charity auction will benefit Shriners Hospital and will be held on the trade show floor. Tickets will be available for the Wednesday, February 7th NJ Agricultural Society’s luncheon and everyone at the convention is welcome to sign up and buy tickets to attend. Also, on Wednesday evening, the annual VGANJ/NJDA Awards Dinner and Banquet will be held. This year VGANJ will be presenting their 2024 Vegetable Growers of the Year award to Angelo and Leonard Grasso Farms of Mullica Hill, NJ at the Wednesday dinner banquet. In addition, the NJ Department of Agriculture will be honoring their awardees at the dinner. More to come on these awards. Tickets for scheduled meals and events can be purchased through Nancy Wood at the NJ Department of Agriculture. Email Nancy at Nancy.Wood@ag.nj.gov or see Nancy at registration.
All information for the NJ Agricultural Convention and Trade Show can be found on the VGANJ website at https://vganj.com. To register for attending the educational sessions and trade show, to make hotel reservations, and view the Rutgers educational program, scroll to the bottom of the VGANJ webpage or click the “convention” tab at the top of the page. To help VGANJ meet their room reservations commitment please use the hotel room block for the convention on the VGANJ website through this link https://book.passkey.com/go/SH02VG4 or call the hotel at 888-516-2215 and use group code SH02VG4. Attendees can register for all 3 days by purchasing a VGANJ membership or they can purchase one-day passes on the VGANJ website or when arriving at the convention. Everyone is encouraged to pre-register for the event.
The Rutgers Educational Program at the convention this year has the theme of “Pathways to Grow Farm Viability” and covers a wide range of topics including soil health, hemp production, basic wine grape production, tree fruit establishment, vegetable topics, high tunnel production, nursery and ornamentals, strawberry production, transition to organics, blueberry production, food safety, retail marketing, new agricultural technology, pest problems among many other topics. On Thursday, February 8 a half-day session on Worker Protection Safety Respiratory Protection Training with Fit Testing for Respirators will be hosted and licensed applicators can receive 8 core credits. Additionally, there is an all-day Farm Food Safety workshop on Thursday for a fee that can be paid online. Pre-Registration is required for both Thursday workshops and both have limited seating – so register early. See the Thursday Workshop section of the program for workshop registration links and more information. Or use this link for the Food Safety Workshop registration https://go.rutgers.edu/mhqc3m5u or register for the Respirator Training Workshop at https://go.rutgers.edu/pesticideworkshop.
In addition to the Rutgers educational sessions the NJ State Board of Agriculture will be hosting their annual delegates convention. For more information regarding the NJ State Board of Agriculture Delegates Convention see https://www.nj.gov/agriculture/conventions/. Everyone is welcome to attend the NJ State Board of Agriculture delegates sessions to learn more about agricultural issues. The delegates and NJ SBOA meet on Wednesday and Thursday of the convention. Each county board of agriculture, commodity organizations and other groups send delegates to this convention to vote on resolutions important to the agricultural industry. This event is hosted and organized by the NJ Department of Agriculture.
USDA Increases Minimum Annual Payment for Conservation Stewardship Program
Conservation programs with USDA have received unprecedented increases in funding and farmers should investigate programs to make improvements on their farm. One program in particular, is increasing the minimum annual payments to producers for the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) from $1,500 to $4,000 in fiscal year 2024. The increase addresses challenges faced by small farms making participation more financially beneficial for smaller operations. The new minimum payment is available for new and renewed CSP contracts.
CSP offers technical and financial assistance to help agricultural and forest producers take their conservation efforts to the next level. The program is designed to compensate agricultural and forest producers who agree to increase their level of conservation by adopting additional conservation activities and maintaining their baseline level of conservation.
Examples of CSP enhancements that are suitable for being adopted by smaller scale and urban
producers include:
- Planting multi-species cover crops
- Mulching with natural materials
- Establishing pollinator habitats
- Soil health crop rotation
Currently, an unprecedented amount of funding is available for CSP through the Inflation Reduction Act and Farm Bill. The Inflation Reduction Act provided $19.5 billion in additional funding for NRCS oversubscribed programs like CSP for five years. Inflation Reduction Act funds are available to help producers adopt climate-smart practices.
NRCS recently announced it increased the number of Climate-Smart Agricultural and Forestry Mitigation Activities eligible for Inflation Reduction Act funding for fiscal year 2024 through CSP, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), and the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP). To learn more, download the list of practices and a fact sheet.
NRCS accepts producer applications for its conservation programs year-round, but producers interested in this cycle of Inflation Reduction Act funding should apply as soon as possible. Producers interested in EQIP should apply by DATE or CSP should apply by DATE for consideration this year. Funding is provided through a competitive process and will include an opportunity to address the unmet demand from producers who have previously sought funding for climate-smart conservation activities.
For more information about assistance available, contact NRCS at your local USDA Service Center.
Rutgers Seminar on Novel Weed Control Technology – Oct. 16 at 3 pm
Department of Plant Biology – Fall 2023 Special Seminar
Please, contact Dr. Thierry Besançon if you plan to attend it in-person at the Rutgers P.E. Marucci Center (space limited) or if you want to receive the zoom link for attending the seminar online.
Webinar: 2024 NRCS Funding Opportunities
Monday, October 16 @ 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm EST
Join NRCS Soil Conservationist Kimberly Dalton and Natural Resource Specialist James Strehse for a webinar explaining 2024 NRCS Funding Opportunities.
REGISTER HERE
Whether you’re small or large scale, conventional or organic, there are NRCS practices that can apply to your operation. The presentation will include program information and guidance on how to apply with your local USDA service center.
Registration is through the NOFA-NJ website.
Vegetable IPM Update 10/04/23
Notes:
This edition of the Vegetable IPM Update will be the last regular one of the season. Should a pest situation arise that is important to the grower community, special posts will appear in the Plant and Pest Advisory.
Thank you and good luck to Dr. Joseph Ingerson-Mahar!
Joe has retired after nearly 35 years of service to Rutgers Integrated Pest Management, both in field and vegetable crops. In 1987, after receiving his B.S. and M.S. degrees at Michigan State University, and serving as a private crop consultant in Michigan, Joe came to Rutgers. Aside from receiving his PhD here and supervising field crops and vegetable IPM program activities, Joe taught many entomology classes for undergraduate students and has been heavily involved with various Master Gardener programs. His identification of the primary sources of pepper weevil infestations in southern New Jersey is high among his helpful accomplishments on behalf of growers in our state. We thank him and wish him the very best in this next phase!
Sweet Corn
Northern and central blacklight traps and all pheromone traps continue to catch corn earworm (CEW) moths, but numbers continue to fall. Pheromone trap information is available from all northern and central sites, with now very limited input from southern New Jersey. We will use a combination of pheromone and blacklight trap types to derive silk spray schedules by region. We are now only able to check many traps on a weekly basis, as our student help has returned to their studies. This can give some areas an artificially high or low appearance of activity. Green areas on the map (at right) indicate a 4 day schedule. Any remaining silking corn is at limited risk of CEW infestation at this time.
No blacklight trap catches of CEW for the week ending 10/04/23 are above 1/night, with many having gone all week with no CEW.
The highest nightly pheromone trap catches of CEW for the week ending 10/04/23 are as follows:
| Green Creek 6 | South Branch 3 | Snyder Farm (Hunterdon) 2 |
| Georgetown 4 | Califon 2 | Chester 1 |
| Allamuchy 3 | Farmingdale 2 | Dayton 1 |
| East Vineland 3 | Matawan 2 | Pennington 1 |
Silking Spray Schedules*:
South – 4 days
Central – 4 -5 days
North – 4-5 days
*These recommendations are based on regional catches. Adhere to tighter spray schedules if indicated by local trap catches. Synthetic pyrethroids alone should NOT be used for corn earworm (CEW) protection on silking corn, or for fall armyworm (FAW) management at any stage. Control with these materials is very inconsistent.
Cole Crops
Fall plantings are now impacted by diamondback moth larvae ((DBM) see photo at right), as well as imported cabbage worm (ICW), cross striped cabbage worm (CSCW) and beet armyworm (BAW). DBM can multiply quickly, and does not respond to chlorantraniliprole (Coragen) in many parts of the state. Effective materials continue to be IRAC 5 materials (spinosyns), and the IRAC 6 material, ememectin benzoate (Proclaim). Consultants and scouts report good efficacy with the IRAC 21A, tolfenpyrad (Torac) . Be sure to check the Cole Crops Section of the 2022-23 Commercial Guide for specifics, as PHI’s and crop labels vary. It is important to return to treated fields within 2-3 days to assess the efficacy of the insecticide applications. Effective materials should eliminate DBM larvae within 48 hours. BAW will not be controlled by pyrethroids. ICW and CSCW have not shown resistance to labeled materials in our area.
Pepper Weevil
Pepper weevil infestations appear to be down for NJ growers this year. As of this writing, only two farms are, or have been infested, both in the Vineland – East Vineland area. Given the time of year and cooling weather, pepper weevil will become less of a problem. Continue to look for small, aborted fruit, cutting them open to examine the interior for feeding damage or small grey-white grubs. Vydate (IRAC 1A) appears to be one of the better materials for trying to manage weevils, along with Actara (IRAC 4A). Never rely upon pyrethroids alone to manage weevils.
Beet Armyworm
Pheromone catches of beet armyworm have declined in southern NJ traps at this time. 
However, BAW larvae continue to appear in cole crop plantings in scouted cole crop plantings in central and northern counties. While numbers are not high in these areas, their presence points to possible higher infestations in southern parts of the state. This pest (photo at near left) has the ability to defoliate pepper plants and damage fruit, and can cause severe damage on other crops (see photo of chard at far left). BAW is resistant to pyrethroid insecticides, and other materials should be used in response to infestations. Effective materials include spinosyns (IRAC 5) and diamides (IRAC 28).
