- Cucurbit downy mildew has been reported on cucumber (6/16/21) and cantaloupe (6/22/21) in southern New Jersey. There have been no reports of CDM on other cucurbit hosts in the region to date. For more information on CDM and its control please click here. To track the progress of CDM please visit the CDM forecasting website.
- No reports of Late blight in the region. To track the progress of Late blight in the US please click here.
- Cucurbit powdery mildew has been reported on summer squash, butternut, and spaghetti squash as we are now headed into mid-summer. Please scout fields on a regular basis and initiate a preventative fungicide program if you haven’t already done so. For more information on CPM control please click here.
- Bacterial leaf spot (BLS) continues to be reported on bell and non-bell peppers in southern New Jersey. Rainfall is expected later in the week making conditions ideal for the spread of BLS. For more information on our continuing survey for BLS and copper resistance detection in tomato and pepper please click here.
- Now is the time to start thinking about pepper anthracnose control, especially on farms or fields with a history of the disease. For more information on preparing for pepper anthracnose please click here.
- Southern blight has been reported on tomato in central New Jersey.
- The 2020/2021 Commercial Vegetable Production Recommendations Guide is available for free online.
- For a quick review on managing fungicide resistance development using tank mixes and fungicide rotations, and information on FRAC group 4, FRAC group 7, and FRAC group 3 and FRAC group 11 fungicides please click on hyperlinks.
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.
July 6, 2021 Andy Wyenandt
Vegetable Disease Update – 7/6/21
June 30, 2021 Kris Holmstrom and Joe Ingerson-Mahar
Vegetable IPM Update 6/30/21
Sweet Corn
European corn borer (ECB) moth catches have dropped to nearly nothing around the state. Remaining infestations are in pre-tassel stage sweet corn. Whorl is largely un-infested with ECB at this time. ECB population maps will resume if second flight catches rise to high enough numbers.
The highest nightly trap catches of ECB for the week ending 6/30/21 are as follows:
| Asbury 1 |
| Downer 1 |
| Milltown 1 |
| Oldwick 1 |
June 30, 2021 Wes Kline
Available Food Safety Signs and Posters
We continue to get questions about what signage is required for an audit or the Produce Safety Rule and where to get them. Not all the signs listed below are, but handwashing and visitor signs need to be posted in English and in the language of the workers. For example, if you have a mixture of Spanish and Creole speakers, you will need signs in three languages.
The signs and posters listed below are available at the following locations – Rutgers Cooperative Extension office in Cumberland County (291 Morton Ave., Millville Tel. 856-451-2800 x 1) or Rutgers Cooperative Extension office in Mercer County (1440 Parkside Ave., Ewing, NJ 08638 Tel. 609-989-6830). If you would like any of the signs, please call the office to schedule a pick-up.
Please Wash Your Hands Often! (8.5x11inches) – English, Spanish, Creole, Chinese, Greek, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Vietnamese.
Please Put Used Toilet Paper in the Toilet (8.5×11 inches) – English and Spanish
Please Use Toilets Provided in the Field (8.5×11 inches) – English and Spanish
When Must Hands Be Washed (8.5×11 and 21.5×27.5 inches) – English and Spanish
Health and Safety Notice for Visitors (21.5×27.5 inches) – English and Spanish
Cleaning and Sanitizing Food Contact Surfaces (21.5×27.5 inches) – English and Spanish
Service Animals Covered by the ADA are Welcome Here (8.5×11 and 21.5×27.5 inches) – English and Spanish
Many of these signs can also be downloaded from our revised website onfarmfoodsafety.rutgers.edu starting July 1st.
June 30, 2021 Rick VanVranken
Don’t Let Your Guard Down With Farm Worker Health
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the critical and essential role of farm labor in getting food from farm to plate. However, health concerns should not stop with a negative COVID test or vaccine, especially if an employee or family member is exhibiting any of the ‘flu-like’ symptoms that are associated with corona virus.
From the Vermont Law School Center for Agriculture and Food Systems (CAFS) – “The CAFS launched the Food System Worker Law and Policy Project in 2021 with research focused on farmworkers, who—despite forming the backbone of a trillion-dollar industry in the U.S.—face a level of occupational risk unrivaled by most workers. From repeated exposure to pesticides and extreme heat, …. ” Their newly published “report titled “Essentially Unprotected: A Focus on Farmworker Health Laws and Policies Addressing Pesticide Exposure and Heat-Related illness,” … May 2021, provides an overview of the findings as well as policy recommendations that are urgently needed to protect farmworkers.”
Typically not seen until July, we’ve already had 3 heat waves beginning in May that expose workers to a number of potential health risks that may present very similar symptoms and can be equally health, and even life, threatening. Published studies from the Rutgers Institute of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences suggest growing numbers of people worldwide are at risk of heat stress and related complications, including farmers and ag laborers working in high heat and humid conditions. Last year, OSHA-NIOSH released a Heat Index App (in English and Spanish at the Apple App Store or Google Play) featuring:
- A visual indicator of the current heat index and associated risk levels specific to your current geographical location
- Precautionary recommendations specific to heat index-associated risk levels
- An interactive, hourly forecast of heat index values, risk level, and recommendations for planning outdoor work activities in advance
- Editable location, temperature, and humidity controls for calculation of variable conditions
- Signs and symptoms and first aid information for heat-related illnesses
For more information about safety while working in the heat, see OSHA’s heat illness webpage, including online guidance about using the heat index to protect workers.
In addition to heat stress, harvesting and other activities along field edges, including going into the woods instead of using a portable bathroom facilities, create a high risk for tick bites which can also carry a number of diseases, many as or more debilitating than Lyme disease. It is critical for your employees’ health and well-being to get proper diagnosis and treatment for all of these ailments. This table illustrates how many tick-born diseases, as well as heat stress, all have potential symptoms very similar to those of COVID-19. Each is linked to additional resources at the CDC. In many cases, it may be the ‘other symptoms’ that may be unique to each disease and assist a medical practitioner with correct identification and lead to better verification with further testing.
|
Disease > Symptoms v |
COVID-19 | Heat Stress | Lyme Disease | Ehrlichiosis | Babe- biosis | Powas-san | Rocky Mtn Spotted Fever |
| Vector* | Human | Black-legged Tick (a.k.a. Deer Tick) (I. scapularis) | Lone Star Tick (A. americanum) & Black-legged | Black-legged Tick | Ground hog(I. cookei), Squirrel (I. marxi) & Black-legged Ticks | American Dog Tick (D. variabilis) | |
| Fever or chills | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| Cough | X | X | |||||
| Shortness of breath/difficulty breathing | X | ||||||
| Fatigue | X | X | X | X | |||
| Muscle/body aches | X | X | X | X | X | X | |
| Headache | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| New loss of taste or smell | X | ||||||
| Sore throat | X | ||||||
| Congestion or runny nose | X | ||||||
| Nausea/vomiting | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| Diarrhea | X | X | |||||
| Rash | X | X | X | ||||
| Other symptoms | X | X | X | X | X | X | |
| Potentially Deadly/Disabling |
X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
*NOTE – main vector listed, but many tick born diseases may be vectored by other species of ticks, or different species causing same disease may be carried by different tick species.
June 29, 2021 Andy Wyenandt
Vegetable Disease Update – 6/29/21
- Cucurbit downy mildew has been reported on cucumber (6/16/21) and cantaloupe (6/22/21) in southern New Jersey. For more information on CDM and its control please click here. To track the progress of CDM please visit the CDM forecasting website.
- No reports of Late blight in the region. To track the progress of Late blight in the US please click here.
- Bacterial leaf spot (BLS) has been reported on bell and non-bell peppers in southern New Jersey.
- Southern blight has been reported on tomato in central New Jersey.
- Northern corn leaf blight has been confirmed in sweet corn last week in southern New Jersey.
- Basil downy mildew has been reported from multiple locations in southern New Jersey. All basil growers are encouraged to scout their plantings on a daily basis. For more information on controlling BDM please click here. To follow the progress of BDM in the US please click here.
- Rhizoctonia and Pythium root rot have been reported in pepper. For a review of identifying and controlling root rots please click here.
- The 2020/2021 Commercial Vegetable Production Recommendations Guide is available for free online.
- For a quick review on managing fungicide resistance development using tank mixes and fungicide rotations, and information on FRAC group 4, FRAC group 7, and FRAC group 3 and FRAC group 11 fungicides please click on hyperlinks.
June 26, 2021 Andy Wyenandt
NEWA Disease and Insect Forecasting System
The NEWA (Network for Environment and Weather Applications) website managed by the New York state Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program can be found at http://newa.cornell.edu/. The website is easy to use and offers weather data as well as insect and disease forecasting (e.g., P-days for Early blight and BlightCast for Late Blight in potato, and Tom-Cast DSV’s for Early blight, Septoria leaf spot and Anthracnose fruit rot in tomatoes. Just click on the map and scroll down to New Jersey and chose a weather station within the closest proximity to your operation. Once you choose a location a new webpage will appear with the different forecasting options to choose from. Clicking on the potato early blight will automatically generate daily and accumulative P-day values for you for that location. Remember once 300 P-days are accumulated, spray programs for early blight control should be initiated. Clicking on either tomato or potato Late blight will bring up a table which will provide daily rainfall, average temperature, hours above 90% RH and daily and accumulative DSV values for that location. One important thing to remember for the disease forecasting is to track the accumulation of DSV or P-day values based on when you transplanted tomatoes or when potatoes emerged on your farm.
To track the progress of Late blight in the US you may also visit http://usablight.org/
