Hudson Saratoga Farm Report

Vegetable Pest Status Report July 27, 2010

2010-08-03T16:06:00.000-07:00

Vegetable Pest Status Report July 27, 2010
By John Mishanec, IPM Vegetable Program

This will be the last Vegetable Pest Status Report. I am retiring as of July 30 because of the difficult financial situation with the NYS budget and cuts to the NYS IPM program. I would like to thank Cornell University and the Integrated Pest Management Program for giving me the opportunity to work with growers here in eastern NY for 26 plus years. And I would also like to thank the growers for making this job so meaningful. I feel I have made many good friends and learned a great deal from the people I worked with. Thank you all.

Late Blight Alert
Late blight has been found upstate for the first time and it is in Eastern NY. Late blight was found in a home garden in Norwich, NY. Norwich is about an hour and a half south west of Albany.

This is very close to most of the farms in the Hudson valley. LB has also been found on a commercial farm in Massachusetts as well as most of the states that encircle NY. It had been found on Long Island a week ago so what this says is you really need to get a protective fungicide spray on your tomatoes and potatoes. It is very important to get good coverage as any place a spore lands that is not protected, an infection will start.

Sweet Corn
The trap counts in Orange County decreased significantly while the counts increased in Albany County. Continue to spray any corn that is in silk as moths can live up to two weeks after they arrive. If the flight continues you will need to continue spraying. European corn borer has started to show up but not in high numbers here in eastern NY.

From NJ
Growers in NJ are having a problem with Altenaria leaf blight on melon crops. It starts out as small, yellow-brown spots with light green or yellowing developing along margins. Spots will expand into large brown dead areas with concentric rings. This is in the same family as early blight on tomatoes so look for the concentric rings to be sure. Again, protective fungicide sprays are needed to control this disease.

Options for informational newsletters.
Chuck Bornt and the Capital District Vegetable Program will probably be taking over my mailing list. It has not been settled for sure. In any case, I have put together a list of the various newsletters I get information from. Some are free and some have a small charge. I strongly recommend signing up for these newsletters as you can never have too much information to base your management decisions on.

UMass Extension Vegetable Notes is an eight-page newsletter for commercial vegetable growers, published weekly during the growing season and every six weeks during the winter months. When you subscribe to the UMass Extension Vegetable Notes Newsletter you will receive 4 to 5 issues published monthly during the winter and 18 to 20 weekly issues published during the growing season. Email edition The email edition is available at no charge. To subscribe to the email edition, send your request to umassvegetable@umext.umass.edu

Vermont Vegetable and Berry News
Anyone can sign up, just send Vern Grubinger an email and ask to receive his newsletter. Vern would like to know something about your farm (size, crops, location) just so he has an idea who's reading... Contact Vern at vernon.grubinger@uvm.edu

I highly recommend both the Long Island Fruit and Vegetable Newsletter and the New Jersey Plant + Pest Advisory. When NJ and Long Island have problems, those problems are not far from us here in Eastern NY and will probably arrive within a week. You will see attached application forms for both these newsletter to my email.

Orange County Cooperative Extension offers a number of newsletters. The Muck and Mineral newsletter can be send out via e-mail but there is a subscription charge. Go to this web site for information on signing up.
http://counties.cce.cornell.edu/orange/AgEnrollment09.pdf
--
John Mishanec
Area Vegetable IPM Educator
Cornell Cooperative Extension
126 State Street
2nd Floor
Albany, New York 12207
Phone 518-434-0016 518-434-0016
Fax 518-434-4247
E-mail jjm27@cornell.edu

Vegetable Pest Status Report July 14, 2010

2010-07-15T19:16:00.000-07:00

Vegetable Pest Status Report July 14, 2010
By John Mishanec, IPM Vegetable Program

General Conditions
There is a price for everything. Last summer, with all the wet weather, we had heavy disease pressure on crops. This summer, most areas of eastern NY have been experiencing very hot and dry weather. While good for keeping disease problems low, the hot weather is a boom for insects. The timing for leafhopper couldn’t have been better and there are leafhopper feeding on many crops. Also expect larger numbers of potato beetle, flea beetle, aphids and spider mites on crops. Go out and inspect your crops. It only takes a short time to get a good idea of what is happening in your fields.

After the experience of last summer, most growers are very fearful of late blight again this summer. The heat from the last two weeks has helped keep the disease from spreading but every new rain presents a new opportunity for more late blight. A lesson from last year is that protectants work! If you had good coverage, protectants (fungicides for conventional growers and copper for organic growers) worked well at suppressing the disease. A protectant needs to be on the crop before a high humidity period. With the dry weather, you can spread out your sprays but you still need to have the product on the crop in order for it to work. New growth is always exposing potential new areas for disease to get started on so you must weigh the rain-fall risk with the need for protecting your crop.

Sweet Corn
Last week, I put out Corn Ear Worm (CEW) traps in 5 locations here in eastern NY. They started catching CEW out on Long Island the week before and that is always a good indication they are heading our way. This week, we started catching CEW

In the two traps in Orange County, we caught 11 and 14 CEW. In Albany County, we caught 16. Up in southern Washington County we caught 1 CEW and in northern Washington Co we did not catch CEW. So, there are CEW as far north as southern Washington County but we can expect the numbers to increase as time passes.

CEW is the most dangerous pest of corn. The CEW adults lay their eggs on the silks and when the eggs hatch, they move directly into the ear. Early season, growers have IPM options of scouting, thresholds, etc. Once CEW arrives, you have you lose most options except going by your local trap counts. An average of 2 moths per night gives you a 5-6 day spray schedule. Conventional and organic growers can use Spintor/Entrust at low numbers. When the CEW really arrives and populations are very high, a harder chemical is needed.

Cucumber
Downy mildew is inching closer to eastern NY. It has been found on cucumbers in Ontario County. This is in the middle of the state. Prior to that, it was found out in the western most counties of NY. If it hasn’t hit us in the past couple days, it will soon be here. I would like to say growers should scout and if they find the disease then start spraying but with DM, it is most important to have a protectant spray on the crop before the disease arrives. Here is some good information from Meg McGrath.

Cucurbit Downy Mildew Status. Most findings have been on cucumber; this crop type is susceptible to all of the pathogen's 'pathotypes'. This year growers can sign up to receive customized text or e-mail alerts about outbreaks from the cucurbit downy mildew forecasting system at http://cdm.ipmpipe.org/. This can be used to also provide an indication of when crops in a specific area are at risk. It is not a replacement for diligent scouting however. When risk of downy mildew is low, a contact fungicide like Bravo is considered adequate protection. There are several targeted, mobile fungicides with different modes of action registered in NYS to use when risk is high: Ranman (FRAC Group 21), Forum (40), Revus (40), Presidio (43), Curzate (27), Tanos (27), Gavel (22), Previcur Flex (28), and phosphorus acid fungicides (33). Alternating among fungicides in different FRAC Groups (e.g. not alternating Forum with Revus) and tank-mixing them with a protectant fungicide (except for Gavel which contains mancozeb) is recommended for delaying resistance development and is often required to comply with the restrictions on most labels. Curzate and Tanos have some curative activity (up to 2 days when cool) but limited residual activity (about 3-5 days). It is critical to initiate treatment promptly because delaying fungicide application until after disease onset increases selection pressure for resistance development and greatly decreases the degree of control achieved. Apply fungicides every 5-7 days depending on conditions. Also use a short interval following Curzate and Tanos.

For more information go to Cornell Veg MD Online for pictures and other details

Tomato and Potato
We are back having rain again. I have read a number of places that said temps over 90 degrees will kill late blight. This is not true. Late blight just goes into dormancy when there are hot dry conditions. Sunlight UV will kill LB spores but when wet conditions return, the disease is fully able to spread again. That said, LB has been found all around NY and on Long Island. Everyone, both conventional and organic growers should have protectant on their susceptible tomatoes and potatoes. For conventional growers, go with the more inexpensive fungicides until LB is on your crop or confirmed locally. Organic growers should use copper. The copper rate is 2 lbs per acre.

For a complete listing of products available check the http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/recommends/

It is very important to go out and scout your tomatoes and potatoes. Look at the field before you enter and look for areas that may harbor humidity, for example - low spots, shady areas or rows along tree lines. These are the spots in the field where you will most likely find LB first. Look for large black spots the size of a quarter. Also look for black spots on the stems. In the morning, you will see a white halo around the spot. On the stems, the black area will be about a half inch above and below where a leaflet comes off the stem where a spore germinated.

If you find or suspect late blight on your farm, call your local Cooperative Extension office of call me at 518-434-0016 518-434-0016

Am beginning to see leaf hopper damage in many fields, especially potato but also in other crops. Hopper burn looks like a disease in that it is black around the margins of the leaf and spreads. Leaf hoppers jumps away quickly when you touch the plant. You can see a cloud of hoppers sometime when you walk through a field. Conventional growers have it easy as almost any product will control the insect. Organic growers only have Pyganic. It is also very expensive so you want to use it wisely. You will probably need to make more than one application to control the pest.

Vegetable MD online
The very best source for pictures and information about vegetable diseases is the Vegetable MD online site at Cornell. It has everything you will need to figure out what disease if affecting your particular crop. Check it out at - (http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/Home.htm)
--
John Mishanec
Area Vegetable IPM Educator
Cornell Cooperative Extension
126 State Street
2nd Floor
Albany, New York 12207
Phone 518-434-0016 518-434-0016
Fax 518-434-4247
E-mail jjm27@cornell.edu

Vegetable Pest Status Report June 30, 2010

2010-07-04T06:04:00.000-07:00

Vegetable Pest Status Report June 30, 2010
By John Mishanec, IPM Vegetable Program

General Conditions
Every summer is different. Conditions to the north are much more wet and humid than to the south. We have had some steady 2 day rains that would seem to indicate good conditions for disease development but then it gets pretty hot and dry and these are conditions that slow diseases down. Everything is growing well and we will see local sweet corn on the 4th of July. Disease problems are all around us so growers should take particular caution on their crops.

Cucumbers
Last week, I reported that downy mildew (DM) on cucumber had been reported in Canada and as expected, this week, cucumber DM has been found at a number of locations in western NY. We should start seeing it here in eastern NY in about 5 days to a week. Now is the time to protect your cucumbers. If you wait to make fungicide applications when you see the disease in your field, it is too late.

What follows is an overview of Cucumber DM conventional control options from Carol MacNeil of the Western NY Vegetable Program.

It is very important to keep on top of this disease for good management. Broad-spectrum contact protectant fungicides (Bravo, Maneb, Dithane, copper) will only provide some downy mildew control.

Mobile (systemic, translaminar) fungicides with an active ingredient that specifically targets oomycete fungi are recommended beginning when downy mildew is forecast to occur in the area or symptoms have just started to develop. Apply every 5-7 days depending on disease severity. Fungicide resistance is a concern with this pathogen and with these fungicides due to their specific mode of action; therefore, alternate among systemic fungicides in different chemical classes and tank-mix with protectant fungicides when the systemic is not formulated with a protectant. Fortunately several systemic fungicides are now available. Their efficacy was similar when compared in recent fungicide efficacy experiments.

Curzate (cymoxanil, FRAC Group 27 fungicide) is labeled for use at 3.2 oz/A on a 10-14 day schedule for a maximum of 9 applications. It has a 12 hr REI and 3 day PHI. Since this product reportedly has good curative activity (about 3 day kickback), it is a good product to use first after downy mildew is detected. However, it has poor residual activity (only 1-2 days), thus it is criti- cal to tank-mix it with a protectant fungicide and to fol- low-up with another systemic fungicide when disease pressure is high. Curzate should be used as soon as possible after rain if not applied before (2 hr rainfast- ness). Tanos is another fungicide with cymoxanil.

Forum (dimethomorph, Group 15), a new formulation replacing Acrobat, is labeled for use at 6 oz/A tank-mixed with protectant fungicide on a 5-10 day schedule for a maximum of 5 times with no more than 2 sequential applications. PHI is 0 days. REI is 12 hours. Tank- mix with protectant fungicide.

Gavel (mancozeb and zoxamide, Group 22) is labeled for use at 1.5–2.0 lb/A, every 7 to 10 days or when conditions are favorable for disease for a maximum of 8 applications. New phosphorus acid fungicides (Phostrol, ProPhyt,and Fosphite)(cyazofamid; Group 33) are more effective than Aliette. They have a 12 hr REI and can be applied to all cucurbits at 2.5-5 pt/A, on a 7-14 day interval up to 6-7 times/crop.

Previcur Flex (propamocarb, Group 28) is labeled for use at 1.2 pts/A on a 7-14 day schedule for a maximum of 6 pts. PHI is 2 days. REI is 12 hours. Recommended tank-mixed with protectant fungicide.

Ranman (cyazofamid; Group 21) is labeled for use at 2.1-2.75 fl oz/A on a 7-10 day schedule for a maximum of 6 applications (16.5 fl oz) with no more than 3 consecutive applications followed by at least 3 applications of fungicide in another FRAC group. It has a 12 hr REI and 0 day PHI. Recommended tank-mixed with protectant fungicide.

Tanos (cymoxanil, Group 27, plus famoxadone, Group 11) is labeled for use at 8 oz/A, tank-mixed with protectant fungicide, on a 5-7 day schedule for a maximum of 4 applications of Group 11 fungicides including Tanos. It has a 12 hr REI and 3 day PHI.

Forum, Ranman, Gavel, Tanos and phosphorus acid fungicides are also labeled for Phytophthora blight, which is caused by a pathogen related to the downy mildew fungus.

Fungicides with mefenoxam (Ridomil Gold Bravo, Ridomil Gold Copper, Group 4) are highly effective but more at-risk for resistance than fungicides mentioned above. Ridomil Gold Bravo applied at 2 lb/A - PHI is 5 days. REI is 48 hours.

QoI (aka strobilurin) fungicides (Group 11) are no longer recommended for downy mildew because resistant strains of the pathogen have been detected in the US. Although impact of resistance on efficacy is not known, there are several other effective, mobile fungi- cides. Tanos is one Group 11 fungicide that is still recommended because it contains an additional active ingredient, cymoxanil. Other Group 11 fungicides in- clude Amistar, Cabrio, Flint, and Pristine. When compared for managing pathogen strains without resistance to this group, Cabrio has been more effective than Amistar. Reason (fenamidone) has a federal label and could soon be registered in NY.

For more information go to Cornell Veg MD Online for pictures and other details:

Tomato and Potato
More and more late blight is being reported in the states around NY. So far, Long Island is the only confirmed site in NY state itself. For organic growers, it is especially important to get protectant copper on your crops in order to control the disease.

I had a request to list organic copper options that are NY legal. Checking the OMRI site gave me 26 listings. I then went to the NY PIMS site and typed in all 26. Sarah Johnston at Ag+Mkts found three more products on the DEC web site. In all, from our searches, we came up with 10 products legal in NY. There may be others legal in NY but this is what we were able to find. Now, looking at the OMRI list, it seem like some of the things listed should be legal in NY. But the problem is the companies need to apply for certification in NY and it cost money. So, even though you see things as being OMRI legal, if they are not certified in NY, it is not legal in NY. Also, organic growers should always check with their certifiers to make sure any product is OK to use. The recommended rate of copper for tomatoes and potatoes is 2 lbs. /Acre.

Basic Copper 53
Champ WG Concern®
Copper Soap Fungicide
Copper Sulfate Crystals
Cueva Fungicide Concentrate
Copper Sulfate Crystal Quimag Quimicos Aguila
Copper Sulfate Crystal
Nu Cop 50 WP
Bonide Liquid Copper Fungicide Concentrate
Bonide Liquid Copper Fungicide Ready to Use

Conventional growers have a much better situation for controlling late blight. Tom Zitter from Cornell says Bravo is as good as any product as a protectant. Once you see late blight on your farm, you can begin with the systemic fungicides. Ruth Hazzard from UMASS recommends including contact fungicides with systemic/translaminar fungicides. Rotate both contact fungicides and systemic fungicides. Avoid using systemic fungicides more than two times before rotating to another type of chemistry (mode of action, or FRAC group). Also adjust sprayers for best possible coverage.

For a complete listing of products available check the http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/recommends/

It is very important to go out and scout your tomatoes and potatoes. Look at the field before you enter and look for areas that may harbor humidity, for example - low spots, shady areas or rows along tree lines. These are the spots in the field where you will most likely find LB first. Look for large black spots the size of a quarter. Also look for black spots on the stems. In the morning, you will see a white halo around the spot. On the stems, the black area will be about a half inch above and below where a leaflet comes off the stem where a spore germinated.

If you find or suspect late blight on your farm, call your local Cooperative Extension office of call me at 518-434-0016

Sweet Corn
Hardly any corm borer are being caught in the traps. This is a good time for sweet corn growers because later plantings will have fewer and fewer insects. The earliest plants will always have the higher percentage of damage. Once the second flight of ECB starts around the end of July, control is more difficult.

Go out and scout your fields when they are in late whorl. Look at a minimum of 5 locations and 5 plants per location. Look directly down into the whorl for small windows, holes and frass. If you see more than 4 per 25 plants, than you are over threshold. Control of european corn borer (ECB) is all about timing. You want to make an application when the tassels are open but not fully extended. Since most fields do not come into tassel all at once, make your first application when 40% of the field is opening. The ECB larvae ride the center of the plant up till it tassels. When the tassel is freshly open, the ECB larvae are in the open and able to be controlled with a timely application. ECB larvae do not like the heat so especially if it is hot, they leave the tassel quickly, moving down the plant to the ear zone. This is why early season corn, if it has ECB damage, they come into the side of the ear.

Morning, before dawn is the best time to make a control application, as the ECB will be out and you are avoiding honey bees.

More and more organic growers are using Entrust to control insects. It is good to finally have a product that will do the job. In the past, organic growers did not have good options for ECB control. Spintor, the conventional version of Entrust also works very well on ECB.

Potatoes
Leaf hopper populations are increasing, especially the farther south you go. Leaf hopper is a dangerous insect because you do not see the damage till it is too late and you have lost yield. PLH are a sucking insect and when they are in large numbers and have been around for a while, the margins of the leaf will curl and turn black. When you see the black leaf margins, you may have already lost 50% of your yield. Get out there and check your fields for leafhopper and do control the problem. Grab a potato plant and flop it into the row and shake it. Flop the plant back and look on the ground for small, less than a quarter inch long, bright green wedge shaped insects. Organic insecticides do not have long residuals. They are gone very quickly so this does not give you very much long lasting protection. Go out and check you plants.

Pyganic is about the only product that is organic certified that will do the job. It is also very expensive so you want to use it wisely. You will probably need to make more than one application to control the pest. Conventional growers have a fairly easy time controlling PLH as there are lots of products that can be used. For conventional growers, Phaser and Thionex are the insecticides least toxic to ladybird beetles This is important for aphid suppression.

Upcoming meetings -
Tomato Late Blight and it’s Control, 6:00 – 8:00 PM

Prof. Meg McGrath will be coming out from the Long Island Lab to discuss late blight and what growers can do to deal with the problem.

July 7 - John Hand Farm,State Rt. 29, Greenwich, NY 12834.

July 8 - Hepworth Farms, Across from the Marlborough Town Hall,

Rt 9W, Milton, NY 12547-5432

There will be DEC pesticide credits for these meetings.

Vegetable MD online
The very best source for pictures and information about vegetable diseases is the Vegetable MD online site at Cornell. It has everything you will need to figure out what disease if affecting your particular crop. Check it out at - (http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/Home.htm)
--
John Mishanec
Area Vegetable IPM Educator
Cornell Cooperative Extension
126 State Street
2nd Floor
Albany, New York 12207
Phone 518-434-0016
Fax 518-434-4247
E-mail jjm27@cornell.edu

Vegetable Pest Status Report June 21, 2010

2010-06-23T08:23:00.000-07:00

Vegetable Pest Status Report June 21, 2010
By John Mishanec, IPM Vegetable Program

General Conditions
In most areas of eastern NY, growing conditions are still very good. While it was a little dry, we have had some very good rains throughout the region. Everyone knows last year was a very difficult time in terms of disease problems. It looks like we are going to have a carry over from those disease problems. Late blight (LB) and Downy Mildew (DM) have appeared relatively close. Growers should be prepared to deal with disease problems. This means if you are an organic grower, more so than conventional grower, you have to be proactive and have protection on your plants before the problem shows up in your neighborhood.

Tomato and Potato
Late blight has been confirmed on tomato in Connecticut and Long Island as well as four locations in Pennsylvania. This is pretty close by for us here in eastern NY. Last week it rained pretty steady for 3 days and this may have triggered the disease out-brake. We really need it to be hot and dry for a while.

It is very important to go out and scout your tomatoes and potatoes. Look at the field before you enter and look for areas that may harbor humidity, for example - low spots, shady areas or rows along tree lines. These are the spots in the field where you will most likely find LB first. Look for large black spots the size of a quarter. Also look for black spots on the stems. In the morning, you will see a white halo around the spot. On the stems, the black area will be about a half inch above and below where a leaflet comes off the stem where a spore germinated.

Organic growers should start applying copper. The recommended rate of copper for tomatoes and potatoes is 2 lbs./Acre. I know there is a lot of reluctance by organic grower to use any product even if it is organically certified. Many organic growers do not have the equipment to do a through job covering their crops. Many organic growers are afraid of copper toxicity in their soils by using too much copper. I looked into the copper toxicity problem last year. There is not a lot of information around, but in Florida, they use a lot of copper on their crops. They also use higher rates and make many, many applications. They have seen very little copper toxicity, if any, in Florida and if they don’t have it, we here in NY probably will not have a problem with the limited amounts we will use on our crops and good rotation practices.

*I have attached an article to this e-mail written by Ruth Hazzard from UMass Cooperative Extension on correctly measuring small amounts of product for use with a back-pack sprayer.

Sweet Corn
With the heat we’ve been having, even bare ground sweet corn fields are starting to come into tassel. Go out and scout your fields when they are in late whorl. Look at a minimum of 5 locations and 5 plants per location. Look directly down into the whorl for small windows, holes and frass. If you see more than 4 per 25 plants, than you are over threshold. Control of european corn borer (ECB) is all about timing. You want to make an application when the tassels are open but not fully extended. Since most fields do not come into tassel all at once, make your first application when 40% of the field is opening. The ECB larvae ride the center of the plant up till it tassels. When the tassel is freshly open, the ECB larvae are in the open and able to be controlled with a timely application. ECB larvae do not like the heat so especially if it is hot, they leave the tassel quickly, moving down the plant to the ear zone. This is why early season corn, if it has ECB damage, they come into the side of the ear.

Morning, before dawn is the best time to make a control application, as the ECB will be out and you are avoiding honey bees.

More and more organic growers are using Entrust to control insects. It is good to finally have a product that will do the job. In the past, organic growers did not have good options for ECB control. Spintor, the conventional version of Entrust also works very well on ECB.

Vine Crops – Cucumbers
Cucumber downy mildew (DM) has been confirmed in Ontario, Canada. Normally, downy mildew does not overwinter in the north and has to make its way to our area via wind currents from the south. About 5-6 years ago, we started getting DM a lot earlier than normal. The problem was traced to greenhouse operations growing cucumber year round in Canada. Now, we are seeing the disease move from the area of Canada north of Michigan east towards us here in NY. While we do not have a confirmed report of DM here in our state, it is coming. When we do find DM here in NY, we will report it and at that time, growers should begin making applications of protective fungicides. We have found if you find DM in your field, it is too late to save the crop. Protective fungicides will save the crop if they are made before the disease arrives.

Potatoes
I have been seeing potato leaf hoppers (PLH) in a number of potato fields. Leaf hopper is a dangerous insect because you do not see the damage till it is too late and you have lost yield. PLH are a sucking insect and when they are in large numbers and have been around for a while, the margins of the leaf will curl and turn black. When you see the black leaf margins, you may have already lost 50% of your yield. Get out there and check your fields for leafhopper and do control the problem. Grab a potato plant and flop it into the row and shake it. Flop the plant back and look on the ground for small, less than a quarter inch long, bright green wedge shaped insects. Organic insecticides do not have long residuals. They are gone very quickly so this does not give you very much long lasting protection. Go out and check you plants.

Pyganic is about the only product that is organic certified that will do the job. It is also very expensive so you want to use it wisely. You will probably need to make more than one application to control the pest. Conventional growers have a fairly easy time controlling PLH as there are lots of products that can be used. For conventional growers, Phaser and Thionex are the insecticides least toxic to ladybird beetles This is important for aphid suppression.

Upcoming meeting -

Tomato Late Blight and it’s Control, 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Prof. Meg McGrath will be coming out from the Long Island Lab to discuss late blight and what growers can do to deal with the problem.
July 7 - John Hand Farm,State Rt. 29, Greenwich, NY 12834.
July 8 - Hepworth Farms, Across from the Marlborough Town Hall,
Rt 9W, Milton, NY 12547-5432

There will be DEC pesticide credits for these meetings.

Vegetable MD online
The very best source for pictures and information about vegetable diseases is the Vegetable MD online site at Cornell. It has everything you will need to figure out what disease if affecting your particular crop. Check it out at - (http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/Home.htm)

John Mishanec
Area Vegetable IPM Educator
Cornell Cooperative Extension
126 State Street
2nd Floor
Albany, New York 12207
Phone 518-434-0016
Fax 518-434-4247
E-mail jjm27@cornell.edu

MEASURING INSECTICIDES FOR BACKPACK SPRAYERS AND SMALL PLANTINGS

2010-06-23T08:12:00.000-07:00

R. Hazzard, UMass Cooperative Extension. Adapted from New England Vegetable Management Guide.

Growers with diverse crops and small plantings often need to be able to apply pesticide to beds or plots of several hundred square feet. It is important to use the correct amount of insecticide in your backpack sprayer when spraying a small area. Calibration and mixing require some basic math, as do a lot of aspects of farming! The methods for backpack sprayers and tractor sprayers are essentially the same. Figure out the area to be sprayed and how much pesticide is needed for that area. Measure the amount of water you need to cover a known area, using the same equipment and walking or driving speed that you will use when spraying. Then ‘do the math’ so that the insecticide and the water rates both match your target area.

Why does it matter? Why do you need to be careful about these rates?

1. Effective control of the pest depends on correct rates.

2. You are legally responsible for following the label instructions. This is especially important when you are selling the crop to the public.

3. The safety of the applicator, workers and the public depends upon correct rates and using pesticides according to instructions on the label.

Read the label. Find and follow the following instructions:

--Personal protective equipment (PPE) – what you must wear when mixing and spraying.

--Agricultural Use Requirements – this tells what protective equipment you should wear.

--Crops and pests listed. The pesticide MUST be labeled for the target crop.

--Restricted Entry Interval (REI) – during this time, no one should work in the sprayed area unless they are wearing protective equipment.

--Days to Harvest (DH) – how long you must wait after a spray before harvesting

--Rate per acre or concentration per gallon (for backpack sprayer)

--Mixing instructions

Converting metric and english measures.

Conversions are key to your calculations. Below are some conversion ratios:

16 dry oz (by wt) = 1 lb

One ounce (dry weight) equals 28.45 grams.

32 fl oz = 1 qt.

128 fl oz = 1 gal

Liquid measure in (fluid) ounces is already a volume so it is easier to measure. One fluid ounce equals 6 teaspoons (tsp) or 29.6 milliliters (ml). An inexpensive measuring device for ml can be found in the children’s medicine section of drug stores. 43560 sq ft = 1 acre

Calibration and mixing method for a pesticide with a labeled rate per acre.

The following method is described step by step, using a specific example as a model. Adapted from New England Vegetable Management Guide.

Step 1: Determine how much water you’ll need.

Determine number of fl oz of water needed per unit area of the field (e.g. per sq ft). You can use any size area that works. The following example uses 250 sq ft.

Calibration steps:

1. Measure out a 250 sq. ft. area. (eg 10 by 25 ft)

2. Using only water in the sprayer, spray the test plot at the same speed (use a comfortable pace), pressure and boom height at which you will treat the larger area. Record the number of seconds that it takes to spray the test plot. Repeat the process 2–3 times and find the average time.

3. Measure the amount of water (fl. oz.) used to spray the test plot. This can be accomplished by collecting the spray output from your sprayer set at the same pressure and collected for the same number of seconds you found in step 2.

This gives you fl oz per 250 sq ft.

4. This can be converted to fl oz/sq ft. or used as described below.

Step 2. Determine the amount of spray mixture needed for the field area to be sprayed.

Example: Let’s assume you want to apply a dry insecticide for Colorado potato beetle on a potato field, area of 30 X 300 ft = 9,000 sq ft. The label rate is 2 oz. of insecticide per acre.

From calibration, use the time it took to cover the 250 sq. ft. calibration plot. For the following example, assume the sprayer output for 60 seconds was 12 fl.oz. Set up a ratio, cross multiply and divide.

Spray needed for test plot = spray needed for field area

Area of test plot (sq ft) area of field area

12 fl. oz. = total amount of spray needed in fl. oz.

250 sq. ft. 9,000 sq. ft.

12 fl. oz. * 9,000 sq. ft. = total amount of spray needed in fl. oz.

250 sq. ft

Step 3. Determine the amount of pesticide needed for the field area.

Set up a ratio and cross multiply.

Example:

2 oz. = total amount of insecticide needed in oz.

43,560 sq ft 9,000 sq ft.

43,560 sq ft * amt of insecticide needed in oz. = 2 oz * 9000 sq ft

Amt of insecticide needed in oz. = 2 oz * 9000 sq ft

43,560 sq ft

Step 4. Mix water and pesticide, then spray the field.

Measure the appropriate amount of water to sprayer, add part of it, then add the appropriate amount of pesticide, agitate, add remaining water, agitate again. Note: for liquid pesticide, pesticide + water = total spray mixture. Therefore, subtract the amount of pesticide needed from the total spray mixture needed to determine the amount of water to use.

Mixing method for labeled rate per gallon in a backpack sprayer.

All pesticide labels will give rates to be used per acre. Some labels also provide a rate of product to use per gallon, specifically for backpack sprayers. If this is given, add that amount of insecticide to each gallon of water. Spray enough to cover the crop foliage, but not to runoff on the ground. The following rates for two commonly used organic insecticides are listed on the product label:

If a gram scale is unavailable, then it is possible to measure Entrust by volume.

Based on repeated samples, we have found that there is 1.7 gm per teaspoon (shaved level and tamped slightly) of Entrust powder. For Entrust, do not use more than 3 gallons of water per 1,000 sq ft.

Equipment needed:
Chemical resistant gloves
Measuring container for water (units in fl oz)
Measuring device for small quantities of liquid, in fl oz or ml.
Measuring devices for solids: cup, ¼,1/2 and 1 tsp.

Product/Amount per gallon /Amount per 3 gallon/ Rate per acre:

Entrust - .43 gm (¼ tsp) - 1.3 gm (3/4 tsp) - 2 oz

Surround WP - 2 cups - 6 cups - 50 lb

Vegetable Pest Status Report June 7, 2010

2010-06-08T11:00:00.000-07:00

Vegetable Pest Status Report June 7, 2010
By John Mishanec, IPM Vegetable Program

General Conditions
We would be hard pressed to have a better spring for vegetables. While most growers will say it was a little dry, conditions have been perfect for planting. Also, it is better to have a dry spring as roots push deeper looking for water when it is dry. These deeper roots will serve the plant when it gets hot and dry later in the summer. We are also ahead on heat units. One of the traditional gauges growers use to assess an early season is when you start picking strawberries. This spring, most growers throughout the region were picking strawberries at least a week earlier than normal. Most vegetable crops are early as well.
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Upcoming meeting
Cover Cropping Systems
6:00 – 8:00 PM
Poughkeepsie Farm Project
Vassar College Farm
Poughkeepsie, NY 12603
Intersection of Raymond Ave. & Hooker Ave. Take a left then an immediate right. Take Vassar Farm Lane back to large gravel parking area.
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We will be talking about rotational cover crops and how to work them into your farming system. Asher Burkhart and Wendy Berkhart-Spiegel, managers of the Farm Project will talk about their cover crop program and how it benefits their cropping system. Prof. Thomas Bjorkman from Cornell will also be on hand to talk about cover crops and answer questions. We will also be talking about insect and disease developments in the field.DEC Pesticide credits will be available
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Sweet Corn
Every year, growers try to target the forth of July for their earliest sweet corn. While it is rare to hit that target, I think this year we will have local corn in some locations by that date. Row cover and plastic corn is starting to come into tassel. Bare ground corn is farther behind. Around the middle of May, there were localized frosts throughout eastern NY and some growers lost significant acreage. First generation European corn borer (ECB) flights have just begun. Trap catches are light but it is also possible to find some ECB larvae in the earliest corn. Row cover and plastic corn should be scouted. The best time to control ECB is tassel. Scout your early corn, looking down into the whorl. Look for very small holes or windows in the center of the plant. When ECB larvae are small, they are too small to chew holes through the leaf so they chew small windows. You will also see frass or saw dust around the holes or windows. As the larvae get bigger, you will see more holes and frass. Count the plants that have holes or windows. Stop at 10 locations in the field and inspect 5 plants at each location (50 plants). It is important to do random locations. Keep a running count of the number of infested plants you see. Multiply by two the number of infested plants and this will be your percentage for the field. This will give you a better idea of what the real population is in the field. If you are over 15%, than a treatment is called for. The best time to treat is when the tassel is just starting to open. The ECB will be riding the tassel up and when the tassel opens, they are exposed for the short time before they drop down to bore into the ear or other parts of the plant. Since most fields do not tassel at the same time, look for 40% tassel, treat and then treat again when the rest of the field comes into tassel.
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Tomatoes and potatoes
Everyone ask if we are going to experience the same late blight (LB) we had last summer. Late blight has been reported in Kentucky, Michigan and western Pennsylvania. Because of the dryer conditions, the disease is not spreading very quickly. The risk comes not from tomatoes but from last year’s potatoes. Since the disease needs living tissue to survive the winter, infected potato tubers are most likely source of infection. The biggest factor affecting if we will have a large scale LB outbreak is the weather. If it starts raining every other day like it did last spring, we will probably have LB. If we have a relatively dry summer, than we will probably not see LB or at least not the level we saw last summer.Prof. Tom Zitter and I have been rotating visits this spring to the Bonnie Plants facility in New Berlin. Chenango County Cooperative Extension has also employed a scout that is inspecting their crops and so far we have found nothing on the plants. We can be fairly certain there will not be infected plants in the big box stores this summer. It is a very good idea to go out and walk through your tomato and potato crop on a regular basis. Look at the field and scout those areas where the moisture and humidity will likely be highest. Scout the low areas and along trees and shaded areas. Also look for volunteer potato plants coming up where you had them last year. Again, volunteers may be the most likely place on your farm for late blight to appear. Check your cull piles regularly and remove any potato or tomato plants that start growing. If you do find late blight, get rid of the plants immediately. If you find anything suspicious, do not hesitate to contact your local Cooperative Extension office to have the plants positive identified. We have seen low numbers of leaf-hopper on alfalfa. This is fairly early so if the hot weather continues, expect to see populations increase quickly.
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Vine crops
Cucumber beetles are out. While the actual damage to plants done by the beetles is usually minimal, they do transmit bacterial wilt. Plants are most susceptible to will infection when they are small, usually in the one to 5 leaf stage. Rotating far away from last years vine crops, using floating row cover until flowering and planting larger transplants will all help reduce the chances of beetles infecting your crops. When scouting, the insects will always be on or in the flower on larger plants, so look their first. The threshold is 1 cucumber beetle per two plants. Conventional growers have a variety of products available. Consult the Cornell Vegetable guidlines at http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/recommends/.

According to Ruth Hazzard from UMass Cooperative Extension, the organic options are as follows. OMRI-list insecticides available for use in organic cucurbits include kaolin clay (Surround WP), pyrethrin (Pyganic Crop Spray 5.0 EC), and spinosad (Entrust). In 2009 spray trials comparing these three products at the UMass Research Farm, kaolin was the most effective in reducing beetle numbers and feeding damage. There was a trend toward Surround WP being more effective when Pyganic or Entrust was mixed with it, but never significantly better than Surround alone. Other studies have shown more efficacy from pyrethrin and spinosad. Surround should be applied before beetles arrive because it acts as a repellent and protectant -- beetles do not “recognize” the plant and so do not feed -- not a contact poison. With direct-seeded crops, apply as soon as seedlings emerge if beetles are active. Transplants can be sprayed before setting out in the field.
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Vegetable MD online
The very best source for pictures and information about vegetable diseases is the Vegetable MD online site at Cornell. It has everything you will need to figure out what disease if affecting your particular crop. Check it out at - (http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/Home.htm)
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John Mishanec
Area Vegetable IPM Educator
Cornell Cooperative Extension
126 State Street
2nd Floor
Albany, New York 12207

Vegetable IPM News

2010-06-07T05:09:00.000-07:00

Cornell Cooperative Extension, IPM Program
______________________________________________________________________________
Vol. 15 Number 1 June, 2010
______________________________________________________________________________

Table of Contents
- Late blight, What to expect
- Revised NEWA web resource
- Filling open niches in cropping schedule with cover crops
- How To Stand Out In A Crowded Marketplace
- Cornell guidelines
- Vegetable MD Online
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Late Blight, What to expect for 2010
John Mishanec, Vegetable IPM Program,
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The most frequent question I get from tomato growers is: Will late blight come back in 2010? The answer I give is “maybe”. The first thing to know is that late blight (LB) needs living tissue to survive. It does not over winter on tomato seed. You need not worry about LB overwintering in the soil or on tomato plant debris. You can also be reasonable certain the big box stores will not be selling infected plants.
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The strain of LB that was most prevalent on tomatoes last summer has been named US 22. It was a strain that favored tomato and was not as aggressive on potatoes. It was also fairly easy to control with fungicides. Organic growers also had a chance controlling the US 22 if they were persistent with copper and did a good job with coverage. Most organic growers do not have spray equipment or the desire to make repeated applications of copper.
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Large potato growers in western NY had the US 8 strain of LB, which they probably imported from Maine on potato seed. US 8 is much more aggressive and difficult to control.
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If you had potatoes on your farm last season, LB can over winter on volunteers or could come back from potato plants that come up in your cull pile. Inspect your cull piles and either kill volunteers with a herbicide, pull or bury volunteers. Do not plant corn where you had potatoes last year. If you have volunteer potatoes coming up in the corn, they will be difficult to spot. You have to be on the lookout for volunteer potatoes this coming summer because they will be the possible source to re-infect your farm.
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The biggest factor determining if we will have LB again this coming summer is the weather. If we get frequent rains early in the season, than any infected potato volunteers will easily spread the disease. Remember the disease triangle. You need the susceptible host (and we certainly have plenty of susceptible potatoes and tomatoes). You need the pathogen (and we probably will have some left over LB on volunteer potato plants). Lastly, you need the right conditions (and if it rains like it did last summer, we will again have the right conditions).
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The Revised North East Weather Association (NEWA) Web Site: Resources for Tomato + Potato Growers
Abby Seaman, IPM Program
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The NEWA (Network for Environmental and Weather Applications) web site has a new address and a new look. You’ll still find the same information that was on the old site, but navigation is a bit different. This article will help you get oriented in the new site. You may want to sit down at your computer while you read this and see the new site for yourself.
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The new web address for NEWA is http://newa.cornell.edu/. On the home page you’ll find a map of all the different locations at which weather data is being collected. Some sites are on commercial farms, indicated by a green leaf symbol, others are at airports, indicated by an airplane symbol, and some are on Cornell research farms, indicated by the Cornell University seal. If you move your cursor over the symbols the name of the site appears at the bottom of the map. You can zoom in on the map to get a better idea of where monitoring sites are. To access information about a data collection site you can click on its symbol on the map. This takes you to the “Station Page”. There you can view a satellite image that shows where weather monitors are located, and also see the elevation of the site printed above the satellite image. It’s important, especially for plant disease forecasting, to understand how similar the data collection site is to the field(s) you’re interested in running disease forecasts for. The site that’s closest to you may not be the most representative of conditions in your field because of differences in elevation or surrounding vegetation. On this page you can also see what types of weather data are being collected, and what pest forecasts are being calculated, for that location.
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The new web site has a menu bar across the top that follows you wherever you navigate within the site. And you can always click on the NEWA link at the top of any page to get to the home page. There is also a menu bar on the left side of the home page that contains the same menu items as the top horizontal menu. This one doesn’t stay with you as you navigate, though.
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Let’s say you want to see how growing degree-days (GDD) accumulations for this year compare with last year. There are a few different paths for navigating to degree-day information. Every station page has “quick links” to weather data on the left side of the page. You can find this year’s GDD information here, but what about last year’s? Moving your cursor over “weather data” in the top horizontal menu reveals all the different types of weather data you can access, including degree days. The same menu items appear in the “Weather Data” section of the left menu on the home page. Degree-day links are also found in the “Crop Management” sections of both menus. Clicking on “Degree Days” in any of these menus takes you to a page where you can choose the site and type of degree-day calculation you want.
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Choose the site you want degree-days for by either clicking and scrolling down the weather station list, or by clicking the location you want on the map. The degree day menu is automatically set to base 50 degree-days, which are the same as growing degree days. There are many other types of degree-days to choose from on the degree-day menu, each of which is useful for some type of pest forecast. Explaining the different types of degree-days and their uses could be the topic for a whole other article!
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Back to the degree-days page. The month and year menus are automatically set to the current month and year. Click on “get report” and you’ll get a page listing growing degree day accumulations, for three different starting dates, for the current season. To get the same information for last year, go back to the degree-day page and change the year to 2009. When you click on “get report” you’ll see the same three columns with degree-day accumulations from 2009. You may have noticed “degree day forecasts” in the menus where you found the degree day links. This link will take you to a list of all the NEWA locations with forecast degree-days for the next seven days.
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Crop-specific pest information can be accessed through either the “Pest Forecast” or “Crop Pages” menus, on both the horizontal and vertical menus, or from individual station pages. Note that when accessing pest forecasts from the Station pages, default biofix (date for starting the forecast) dates are used. To customize your starting date, access the forecasts from the “Pest Forecast” or “Crop Pages” menus. On the “Pest Forecast” menu you can scroll to a specific insect or disease pest. Using the “Crop Pages” menu you click on the crop and get to a page listing all the pest forecasts available for that crop. Choosing an individual pest takes you to a page where you choose a weather monitoring location and start date for the forecast.
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Let’s use the Blitecast late blight forecast as an example. Choose “Late Blight – Blitecast” from the “Pest Forecast” or the potato crop page. Temperature and hours of relative humidity over 90% are used to calculate late blight Severity Values (SV). The SV are used to determine when the first fungicide application should occur and to help assess disease pressure and appropriate spray intervals during the growing season. Choose the weather monitoring station most similar to your location, and for a start date, enter the date that the first potential source of late blight inoculum (sprouting cull potatoes, volunteers in last year’s fields, or infected potato seed planted this year) emerged in your area. If inoculum is present in any of those sources, it is unlikely to appear sooner than 7-10 days after the accumulation of 18 SV. Any fields with potato plants 4-6 inches tall or larger should receive a fungicide application when 18 SV have accrued. Younger fields should be sprayed as soon as they reach 4-6 inches. After the initial fungicide application, SV accumulations over a 7-day period can be used to assess disease pressure and adjust spray intervals. Cornell plant pathologists consider weather that accumulates six or more severity values in a week very favorable, indicating the need for a 5 day spray interval on potatoes; 3 - 5 severity values indicates moderately favorable weather and the need for a 7 day interval; less than 2 over a 7 day period indicates unfavorable weather, when a 10 day interval may be used.
One disadvantage of the late blight forecasting system described above is that it’s not a true forecast. You’re always looking at past weather, not future weather. Bill Fry, Cornell’s late blight expert, has developed the late blight Decision Support System (DSS), a new forecasting system that forecasts SV development seven days into the future and takes varietal susceptibility to late blight into account. Using the late blight DSS, you set up a file for individual farms or groups of fields with similar conditions, and can access the same SV described above, plus SV forecasts, simulated fungicide weathering, and simulated disease development. You can link to the late blight DSS through NEWA, in the same menus as the SV forecast, but you’ll need an account and some training to use it. Contact Laura Joseph mailto:lje5@cornell.edu about setting up an account and arranging training, if you’re interested.
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These are just two examples of information available on the NEWA web site. National Weather Service Forecasts and radar images, evapotranspiration maps and drought information, and an activity planner that can help you predict suitable conditions for spraying and other outdoor activities are also provided. Links to many other useful Cornell web sites can be found at the bottom of every page. Spend a little time acquainting yourself with the new web site before the growing season gets too busy, there’s sure to be something there you can use!
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Filling open niches in your rotation with cover crops to improve your soil
Thomas Björkman, Cornell University
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Cover crops let you take advantage of open periods in your rotation to improve soil. Many rotations have gaps that includes some time when cover crop growth is possible.
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Winter is a traditional time for cover cropping. In the late fall and, especially, early spring, there is time for root growth by an overwintering crop. Winter grains are commonly used, but legumes and turnips can provide significant additional advantages as well.
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Overwintering cover crops are generally established in September. For pure grain cover crops, triticale (which can go in before the Hessian Fly free date) or wheat provide good root growth and erosion control. Through September and into October, rye is often planted. It is best able to establish in cold soil, making it popular for those who couldn’t plant earlier. However, the seeding rates needed for late plantings are substantial, and it can interfere with the subsequent crop. Forage turnips overwinter in some parts of New York and can provide a measure of disease suppression in the spring. Overwintering legumes, red clover and hairy vetch, are established earlier with grain nurse crops.

Seeding a short-cycle crop in early spring can be worthwhile. Yellow mustard can be sown in April or early May to be incorporated in late May. It has a good record of reducing soil pathogens and increasing active organic matter. It can be a good choice to precede beans in a field that has been open over winter.
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Red clover is often overseeded into small grains in early spring to provide a large nitrogen harvest the following spring. Red clover is slow to establish, but very shade tolerant. Those traits make it a good candidate for overseeding, even with other cover crops, such as summer buckwheat.
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Late spring has long days and warming temperatures. Buckwheat can be used in late-May planting before vegetables such as pumpkins, broccoli or late cucumbers to improve tilth and protect the ground, even on soils that can’t be worked up early in the year. The soil mellowing and weed suppression can be especially valuable before small seeded crops.
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Summer cover crops may seem like an oxymoron, because that is the time when crops are growing. But there are opportunities for improving fields by using cover crops in the summer. Summer cover crops can be used after lettuce, peas, early beans, spinach or small grains. If the soil is worn out, summer is when a soil-building crop can do a lot of work. If the rotation leaves an opening in summer, a short cycle cover crop will be much better than leaving the field open, to suffer erosion from rain and have weeds go to seed.
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For planting in June and July, there are really only two choices. One is sudangrass, or sorghum-sudangrass, and the other is buckwheat. Both grow rapidly in the summer warmth. Sudangrass is often chosen for improving soil organic matter. It produces a strong root system and lots of biomass. The deep root system is helpful for reducing subsurface hardness. It is also a good choice for reducing root-knot nematode pressure. Buckwheat is best known for weed suppression and mellowing the soil.
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The condition of the field will determine which crop is suitable. If the soil is hard, or the field is prone to standing water, sudangrass is a good choice, while buckwheat will do poorly. However, if the field is low in nitrogen and phosphorous, buckwheat will do well without additional fertilizer, while sudangrass needs about 40 lb/acre of N to give satisfactory performance.
When crops are harvested in August, there are many opportunities to use a cover crop that grows in the fall. Some of these winter kill to provide winter cover but allow planting early the following spring.
For August seeding, if you want an overwintering cover crop, the choice is annual ryegrass. It improves soil health by correcting hard surface soil because it creates a sod. It does more for hard surface soil than buckwheat, but takes much longer, and requires some time for decomposition. Annual ryegrass is also good for weed suppression. It grows vigorously enough to outcompete late summer annual weeds as well as winter annuals that start in the fall. Annual ryegrass is a good cover crop choice on heavier ground, because it has better flooding tolerance than other cover crops. Annual ryegrass can be interseeded into crops that will be harvested in late August or September.
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The end of summer brings harvest time for many vegetables, and August and early September allow seeding pure grain cover crops triticale (which can go in before the Hessian Fly free date) or wheat. Late August is also the time to establish rye-hairy vetch combinations for nitrogen and biomass production. This combination has been more successful that either crop alone.
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Late summer is also the time to start fall cover crops that will winter kill to provide cover in the winter but dead or decomposed residue in the spring. Oats is probably the most commonly used. Long radishes (bio drills) can break up a shallow hardpan. Yellow mustard provides quick cover.
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With a small set of cover crops, almost any open slot in a rotation can be used to improve the soil. In addition, we have the knowledge to target cover crops to the specific soil health goals. Sometimes those soil health improvements are worth enough to alter a rotation to include the most effective cover crops.
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How To Stand Out In A Crowded Marketplace
Caleb Torrice, Tabora Farm and Orchard, 1104 Upper Stump Rd, Chalfont, PA 18914
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Tabora Farm and Orchard was started twenty years ago and run as a peach orchard until one day a customer asked if it would be possible to make her peaches into a pie. Today, Tabora consists of a from scratch bakery, full service deli, country store, internet gift basket business, and pick your own fruit and vegetable operation. We produce 162 products fresh made daily; employ around twenty four people; and expect sales of approximately 1.4 million for 2009. There have been several keys to our growth and success; however, I am by no means an expert. We should discuss the following points more as a case study than a how to lesson.
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Pick something that you excel at and be known for that.
A neighbor farmer raises every fruit and vegetable known to man, chickens for eggs, cider, all natural beef, and honey products. If you ask local residents about the farm they have no real idea what his business is, essentially, no identity. Tabora is a bakery; however, when customers come in, they buy every fruit and vegetable known to man, eggs, cider, all natural beef, and honey products in addition to our bakery items. When we advertise, we always include our bakery items, and then focus on the other product that we are trying to promote. It allows our specials to be partnered with a bakery item that will draw customers in.
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Become a Household Name.
Everyone has heard of Coke, Bounty, and The Gap, but unless you have a multimillion dollar advertising budget that is just not realistic. For normal small businesses, it is a challenge to get your name in front of customers. Every customer that drives in our neighborhood is hit with our signage; we have a billboard on the closest highway and within the next year will add an additional 20 signs. When they step into the market all of our employees are wearing our shirts with the logo. Any product that is bought goes out the door with a Tabora sticker on it so that when they get it home, every time they open the box they see our farm name, logo and phone number. These stickers help us focus on branding to ensure that when someone gets a Tabora product they know that it is going to be the best.
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Use the Internet
We have all heard this countless times over the years, but it is never too late. Remember that over 90% of working professionals access the internet everyday. If you are not on the internet you are crazy. It is the world’s largest farmers market and anyone can get a booth there. In addition to our website, twitter, and face book page, every month we will check our electronic footprint. Essentially, Googling your name and seeing what people are saying about you. We have found that customers have loved some changes and were not thrilled with others and we have been able to adapt to keep everyone happy.
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Satellite Markets
If you look in the phone book for bakeries in our area there are over forty. Farmer’s markets and festivals are a major advertising venue for us. This last year alone, we participated in five weekly farmer’s markets, and over a dozen festivals and events. Many of these we knew would not be profitable, but would be used as a marketing tool for us where we could show off our products. In addition, the profitable farmer’s markets helped with cash flow on a weekly basis and allowed us to expand.
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Keep Customers Talking About New Things
This past year we put in a huge patio for live music events, new restrooms that are clean and air conditioned, started construction on our winery, and moved a table of cookies from one wall to the other. All of these changes were huge to our customers and kept them talking about us when other businesses were closing due to the recession. It is not necessary to spend a fortune on a project, it is just required that customers see something new and fresh.
We owe a great amount of appreciation to many other businesses and people. It is truly a team effort to run our business. With a lot of hard work and new ideas we hope to continue to grow and expand and wish you all the same.
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The 2010 Cornell Vegetable Guidelines is now available from you local Cooperative Extension office. On the web, the address is
http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/recommends/
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The web version is updated continuously. Click on Index to find the subject you are looking for. What makes the web version even more useful than the printed version is the many links to other web sites with useful information for those interested in growing vegetables. There are links to a site with information on natural enemies of vegetable pests, links to Cornell vegetable fact sheets, links to an excellent Virginia Tech weed identification site, links to the New York IPM site with many pest pictures and descriptions, links to a site with local weather information and pest forecasts, and links to a site containing the latest pesticide labels.
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Vegetable MD Online
Another really great web resource is the Vegetable MD Online. This is a site produced by the Plant Pathology Department at Cornell. It has great pictures. You can go through a selected crop and learn about any disease that might affect that crop. Did I mention it has great pictures? Check it out. The web location is:

http://VegetableMDOnline.ppath.cornell.edu/Home.htm

Sell Your Potatoes by Variety Name

2009-12-08T16:54:00.000-08:00

Sell Your Potatoes by Variety Name
John Mishanec, Cornell Cooperative Extension
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Most people do not give potatoes much thought. For a while, potatoes were on the outs because of the popularity of the many low carb diets. But people just love potatoes and it's hard to keep a good vegetable down.
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Potatoes are grown in most regions of the country. If asked to name a potato variety, most people would be hard pressed to come up with a single variety name. Yukon Gold is probably the variety with the most name recognition. It originated in the Pacific Northwest. It has name recognition because consumers could recognize it for its yellow flesh. Another variety with name recognition is one of the russet varieties, Russet Burbank. This variety was also developed out west.
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Potato varieties grow best where they were developed so western varieties do not grow well here in the east. New York farmers would like to grow Yukon Gold or Russet varieties but they yield very poorly and many growers say they will go broke growing those varieties. New York has one of the best potato breeding programs in the country at Cornell University. Cornell has developed many great varieties.
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The New York potato harvest season is beginning and you will want your customers to come back and ask for the great potatoes they bought from you. The only way they can do that is if you tell them what variety they are purchasing. New York varieties have great flavor, good cooking characteristics plus a wide range of textures and colors. Potatoes are one of the vegetables grown in NY that you can get almost year round. And best of all, they have not traveled 2000 miles.
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Here are some of the more common NY potato varieties:
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Adirondack Blue - low starch
A new potato that is very popular because of its blue skin and blue flesh. Excellent flavor. You cannot go wrong with this potato. Combined with Adirondack Red and a low starch white potato, makes a great red, white and blue potato salad. People love the color. Good for showing your patriotism.
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Adirondack Red - low starch
Another new potato developed by Cornell. It has red skin and flesh. It's great for potato salad. People love the pink flesh color. You can make great chips from both the red and blue varieties.
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Keuka Gold - intermediate starch content
A pail yellow fleshed variety with good disease resistance. Very good eating quality, and also the highest-yielding variety ever released by Cornell. This is why many farmers like this variety.
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Salem - low starch content
Round to oblong, slightly flattened fresh-market variety with bright white skin. Has probably the best flavor of any potato you will find. Try it and you will be hooked.
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Eva - intermediate starch content
A very attractive white-skinned variety, released by Cornell in 1999. The tubers have shallow eyes and bright skin. Does everything well in the kitchen and has good flavor. Named after the mother of the Cornell potato breeder who developed it.
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Lehigh- low starch
This is the newest variety released by Cornell. It is a good looking table-stock potato. Good boiling quality. Has a pail yellow flesh
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Other varieties grown locally
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Carola - intermediate starch content
Gold skin and bright gold (yellow flesh). Very moist cooking qualities. A European variety that has gained some acceptance here in NY.
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Katahdin - intermediate starch content
An older fresh market variety, and the most widely grown variety in NY in the 1950s through the 70s. White flesh and bright white skin. Developed in Maine, and named after Mount Katahdin. Good all rounder and stores very well.
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Chieftain and Red Norland - low starch content
Both are red varieties that are widely grown in NY. Good eating quality. Great for mashed potatoes. Both are the standard red varieties.
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Cooking tips
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* When boiling, the higher the starch content, the more disintegration you'll see. Red varieties are almost always low in starch, and thus hold together well.
* For baking: just about anything will bake. A low starch baked potato will be moist while a high starch potato will be drier. Baking texture comes down to personal preference and so it is hard to come to a consensus.
* For frying, high starch potatoes will chip or fry better. Sugar turns brown when cooked so you don't want a brown potato chip
* Generally high starch potatoes do not mash well.
--
John Mishanec
Area Vegetable IPM Educator
Cornell Cooperative Extension
90 State Street
6th Floor, Suite 600
Albany, New York 12207
Phone 518-434-0016
Fax 518-426-3316
E-mail jjm27@cornell.edu

Vegetable Pest Status Report September 2, 2009

2009-09-06T10:38:00.000-07:00

Vegetable Pest Status Report September 2, 2009
By John Mishanec, IPM Vegetable Program
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General Conditions
Scattered rains keep things from completely drying out. Right now, there are still a number of very dangerous fungal diseases threatening the crops. Late Blight is still a problem for tomatoes and there are more and more reports of Downy mildew on both pumpkins and cucumbers. If you have to carry the crops longer than normal this year, keep up your protective fungicide sprays.
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Sweet Corn
With the storms coming from the south, they carry along with them corn ear worm (CEW). The CEW arrived over the weekend and we are averaging between 5-7 per night. That translates to a four day spray schedule. At this point in the season, the European corn borer (ECB) flight is pretty much over so all you are spraying for is ear worm. Everything that has silk needs to be sprayed and maintain the 4 day schedule till the silks turn brown.
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Trap catch numbers
Trap Location (ECB – NY, CEW)
Albany Co. North 1 30+
Albany Co. South 0 30+
Saratoga West 2 -
Saratoga East - 25+
Schoharie north 0 -
Schoharie South 0 19
Washington Co. North 0 -
Washington Co. South 0 -
Kingston - -
Orange Co. South 2 35+
Orange Co. North 3 35+
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Tomatoes
On tomatoes, we are seeing some growers experience a problem with Botrytis. The flower is staying attached to the bottom of the fruit. The flower then rots and leaves a small black area on the bottom of the tomato. This is a wound that does not look particularly bad but when the tomatoes are stacked in a box, they leak through the wound. A suggestion is to pick the fruit a little earlier in blush, as it seems to get worse as the fruit gets more mature.
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Even though the weather has become hot and dry, continue with your fungicide applications. We are still having heavy due and fog in the mornings. There is so much late blight around, unprotected plants are an easy target for LB.
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Another problem we are seeing more and more of is bacterial spot on the fruit. (http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/factsheets/Tomato_Bacterial.htm) For both conventional and organic growers, copper is the best product. Conventional growers, mixing mancozeb with the copper will increase effectiveness.
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Early blight is also getting more serious at this time of year. (http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/factsheets/Potato_EarlyBlt.htm)Early blight takes advantage of stress in the plant (fruit sizing up) and can defoliate the plant fairly quickly if nothing is done. Copper, Sonata and Serenade Max for organic growers are products labeled for early blight. We are seeing more and more early blight with conventional growers as resistance to the Quadris group of fungicides has shown up. Bravo at higher rates after fruit set also works well at preventing the spread of early blight. Increase your water to insure good coverage of the fruit and penetration into the canopy.
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The only late blight resistant tomato variety is Mountain Magic. It is a semi determinant large cherry tomato Up to this year it has been experimental but Seedway has bough the rights and will be distributing it for the coming season. If you know your Seedway salesman, give him/her a call and order Mountain magic seed right away. I am sure it will sell out quickly with all the problems we have had this summer.
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Lastly, many people are still asking about late blight and next year. Late blight will absolutely not over-winter in tomato. It needs living tissue to survive. It is another story with potatoes. If you have LB in potatoes, the danger is the possibility of the disease surviving on un-harvested tubers or volunteers in the field next year. It is impossible to harvest all the tubers in a plot. An infected tuber will over-winter the disease. Be careful what you plant next year in this years potato plot. Plant something low growing so you will be able to spot volunteer potatoes coming up. Next spring, if you see volunteer potatoes, pull them out immediately. Do not throw bad potatoes in your cull pile. Any place where infected tubers can sprout next year, you have a chance of reintroducing late blight.
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Vine Crops
We are finding more and more Downy Mildew (DM) on pumpkins and cucumbers. That DM came from the west, originating in the greenhouses of Canada. The strain of DM that is affecting pumpkins is coming from the south and along the coast. For DM, Prof Zitter recommends Curzate, Gavel, Tanos, Previcur Flex, Ranman in order of effectiveness. Always rotate with a protectant like Bravo or copper.
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Powdery mildew (PM is also coming on strong as the pumpkins size up. Quintec (NOW registered on winter squash, pumpkins, gourds, muskmelon, spec. melons and watermelon); begin usage early in the PM cycle and see below). Quintec is labeled for use at 4-6 fl oz/A in alternation with other fungicides for a maximum of 50% of the total number of powdery mildew applications, 4 applications per crop, and 32 fl oz per year. The re-treatment interval is 10-14 days, which compels use of an alternation schedule under high disease pressure that warrants a 7-day fungicide program. Pre-harvest interval is 3 days. Quintec is only effective for powdery mildew. It is recommended that Quintec be used in a tank-mix with a protectant fungicideUse the following in an alternating program:2Sulfur (good protectant, alone or tank-mixed with Quintec or those below)Rally , (or OLP) orProcure , (or OLP) or alternated with other protectants like JMS Stylet mineral oil, coppers, etc.)
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Vegetable MD online
The very best source for pictures and information about vegetable diseases is the Vegetable MD online site at Cornell. It has everything you will need to figure out what disease if affecting your particular crop. Check it out at -(http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/Home.htm )
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Cornell Vegetable Guidelines
The online version of the 2009 Integrated Crop and Pest Management Guidelines for Vegetables is now available at http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/recommends/
--
John Mishanec
Area Vegetable IPM Educator
Cornell Cooperative Extension
90 State Street
6th Floor, Suite 600
Albany, New York 12207
Phone 518-434-0016
Fax 518-426-3316
E-mail jjm27@cornell.edu

Vegetable Pest Status Report August 25, 2009

2009-08-30T18:11:00.000-07:00

Vegetable Pest Status Report August 25, 2009
By John Mishanec, IPM Vegetable Program
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General Conditions
Generally dry weather but there have been some location where they are still receiving significant amounts of rain. It has been difficult for some growers to get into the fields to maintain protective coverage of crops
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Vine Crops
Just as Prof. Tom Zitter predicted a couple weeks ago, we have found Downy Mildew (DM) on pumpkins to the south the Capital District. For the past couple of years, we have only had to deal with a strain of DM that affects cucumbers. That DM came from the west, originating in the greenhouses of Canada. The strain of DM that is affecting pumpkins is coming from the south and along the coast. For DM, Prof Zitter recommends Curzate, Gavel, Tanos, Previcur Flex, Ranman in order of effectiveness. Always rotate with a protectant like Bravo or copper.
.
Powdery mildew (PM is also coming on strong as the pumpkins size up.
Quintec (NOW registered on winter squash, pumpkins, gourds, muskmelon, spec. melons and watermelon); begin usage early in the PM cycle and see below). Quintec is labeled for use at 4-6 fl oz/A in alternation with other fungicides for a maximum of 50% of the total number of powdery mildew applications, 4 applications per crop, and 32 fl oz per year. The re-treatment interval is 10-14 days, which compels use of an alternation schedule under high disease pressure that warrants a 7-day fungicide program. Pre-harvest interval is 3 days. Quintec is only effective for powdery mildew. It is recommended that Quintec be used in a tank-mix with a protectant fungicideUse the following in an alternating program:2Sulfur (good protectant, alone or tank-mixed with Quintec or those below)Rally , (or OLP) orProcure , (or OLP) or alternated with other protectants like JMS Stylet mineral oil, coppers, etc.)
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Sweet corn
The numbers of European corn borer (ECB) has dropped off but we are still catching a steady low number of corn ear worms (CEW). The ear worm is far more dangerous but in most of the region we are catching less than two per night. This is a relatively low number. Most reports from growers is that their corn is pretty clean. A 5 day schedule should be adiquet for any corn with silk. CEW is a very dangerous pest as it lays its eggs directly on the silk and once the eggs hatch, the larvae will follow the silk directly into the tip of the ear. You only have a small widow to get the larvae. Low populations like we have now allow you to space out your sprays. Once inside the tip, they are impossible to control. For organic growers, Entrust will work very well with low populations of CEW. Once the populations jump, even conventional growers using harder products will have a difficult time with CEW.
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Trap catch numbers
Trap Location ECB - NY CEW
Albany Co. North 2 4
Albany Co. South 0 8
Saratoga West 0 0
Saratoga East - 4
Schoharie north 0 6
Schoharie South 0 3
Washington Co. North 0 6
Washington Co. South 0 0
Kingston - -
Orange Co. South 2 6
Orange Co. North 3 7
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Tomatoes
First off, some good news. From visiting a number of organic farms this past week, it is apparent that if the grower had a good spray program of copper, the tomato crop was not totally lost. This means that copper needs to be applied on a 3-5 day schedule and you have to get good coverage of all the plant tissue (especially within the canopy). The problem is that many organic growers are not set up to do regular spraying. Most organic growers do not have spray equipment and if they do, it is usually just a small back-pack sprayer with limited range. Another factor is that many organic growers are afraid of copper toxicity. Toxicity levels in the soil are in the range of 200 parts per million (PPM). If you apply copper at the recommended rate, 1.5-2.0 lbs./acre you are putting out 1 PPM per application. Even if you made 10 applications this summer, you are still way below the toxicity level. If you are worried about copper in your soil, according to Jim Ballerstein at the Geneva Agricultural Experiment Station, sweet potatoes need and utilize copper in production. They may make a good rotational crop next year where you grew tomatoes this summer.
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Even though the weather has become hot and dry, continue with your fungicide applications. We are still having heavy due and fog in the mornings. There is so much late blight around, unprotected plants are an easy target for LB.
A problem that we are seeing a lot of lately is blossom blast on tomatoes. The blossoms turn brown and you have lost production. This is probably caused by hot weather.
.
Another problem we are seeing more and more of is bacterial spot on the fruit. (http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/factsheets/Tomato_Bacterial.htm) For both conventional and organic growers, copper is the best product. Conventional growers, mixing mancozeb with the copper will increase effectiveness.
.
Early blight is also getting more serious at this time of year. (http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/factsheets/Potato_EarlyBlt.htm)Early blight takes advantage of stress in the plant (fruit sizing up) and can defoliate the plant fairly quickly if nothing is done. Copper, Sonata and Serenade Max for organic growers are products labeled for early blight. We are seeing more and more early blight with conventional growers as resistance to the Quadris group of fungicides has shown up. Bravo at higher rates after fruit set also works well at preventing the spread of early blight. Increase your water to insure good coverage of the fruit and penetration into the canopy.
.
The only late blight resistant tomato variety is Mountain Magic. It is a semi determinant large cherry tomato Up to this year it has been experimental but Seedway has bough the rights and will be distributing it for the coming season. If you know your Seedway salesman, give him/her a call and order Mountain magic seed right away. I am sure it will sell out quickly with all the problems we have had this summer.
.
Lastly, many people are still asking about late blight and next year. Late blight will absolutely not over-winter in tomato. It needs living tissue to survive. It is another story with potatoes. If you have LB in potatoes, the danger is the possibility of the disease surviving on un-harvested tubers or volunteers in the field next year. It is impossible to harvest all the tubers in a plot. An infected tuber will over-winter the disease. Be careful what you plant next year in this years potato plot. Plant something low growing so you will be able to spot volunteer potatoes coming up. Next spring, if you see volunteer potatoes, pull them out immediately. Do not throw bad potatoes in your cull pile. Any place where infected tubers can sprout next year, you have a chance of reintroducing late blight.
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Potatoes
When you harvest your potatoes, do a good job in grading and inspecting the tubers. Infected tubers will have a black area on the skin. If you cut across the black spot, you will see a red discoloration of the flesh if it is a fresh infection. The older an infection, the more rot will be in the potato. After harvest, allow the tubers time to cure. To cure the tubers, store the potatoes at a higher temperature, with lots of air movement before you move them into the cool, moist conditions of winter storage.
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If you can, avoid storage of your potatoes by selling them quickly. You will be better off not washing potatoes before bagging as the moisture will speed rot if you have an infected potato in the bag. Store your potatoes in as reasonably small quantities as possible. If you have some bad tubers, you will not rune a large quantity.
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According to Vern Grubinger,UVM, organic growers can use Storox (Oxidate) or chlorine (must dilute to 4ppm before discharge) at labeled rates in wash water; another more effective option for suppressing late blight tuber rot appears to be Phostrol but it is labeled for russet-skinned varieties only.
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Lastly, if you have more than one variety of potato, assess which varieties show the disease more.I have received 3-4 responses to this question and it will be good information for growers to have for next year. Email me, jjm27@cornell with your observations. It is really good information to share.
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Peppers
We have seen a surprising lot of Phytophthora blight on peppers. It looks like late blight with a big dark gray spot the size of a quarter on leaves but there is no sporulation on the underside of the spot. You will also see black spots on the stems, especially at the soil line. Check your peppers that are along your spray tracks in the field. Water tends to hang on longer where there is soil compaction and phytophthora loves standing water. There is very little you can do but try to stay out of areas where you find Phytophthora blight as it is better to abandon those locations than spread the disease to un-infected plants.
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Vegetable MD online
The very best source for pictures and information about vegetable diseases is the Vegetable MD online site at Cornell. It has everything you will need to figure out what disease if affecting your particular crop. Check it out at -(http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/Home.htm )
.
Cornell Vegetable Guidelines
The online version of the 2009 Integrated Crop and Pest Management Guidelines for Vegetables is now available at http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/recommends/
--
John Mishanec
Area Vegetable IPM Educator
Cornell Cooperative Extension
90 State Street6th Floor, Suite 600
Albany, New York 12207
Phone 518-434-0016
Fax 518-426-3316
E-mail jjm27@cornell.edu

Mid-Summer Report Card on the Occurrence and Affects of Late Blight on Tomato and Potato in New York, 2009

2009-08-30T18:04:00.000-07:00

Tom A. Zitter, Department of Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology, Cornell University, August 19, 2009
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Although admittedly dreading a trip to eastern NY last week (Aug 10-13) for fear of seeing one dead tomato or potato field after another, I was pleasantly surprised to see that not every grower (conventional or organic) had experienced a complete wipeout of their crops. To be sure, some sporulating late blight was found in many fields examined at each stop, still it was apparent that the disease, although wide-spread, was not causing total destruction either, and that growers had taken the appropriate steps to minimize their losses. To be sure, this was at the expense of many fungicide applications and a lot of time and sweat expended to control the disease, but the results were gratifying to see. Homeowner gardeners and smaller organic operations suffered the greatest losses, and they will be glad to garden another season in the absence of late blight.
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Why an endemic problem but not an epidemic catastrophe in susceptible crops this summer?
As previously documented, the spring and early summer of 2009 was setup for losses in tomato and potato crops of unprecedented proportions, given that infected tomato plants had been sold to unsuspecting home gardeners from large "big box" stores and environmental conditions (frequent rains and cool temperatures) were common throughout the NE. Additionally, in the case of potatoes, late blight occurrence in 2008 in some seed producing states, also could provide inoculum on infected tubers used for the 2009 crop. Based upon tests to identify the clonal lineages of Phytophthora infestans conducted in Dr Fry's lab at Cornell, the isolates recovered from infected tomato and subsequently infected potato did not fit any of the previous late blight genotypes previously identified in NY. The new genotype is mating type A2 (perhaps P-T, but not as virulent as some in the past), unlike the previous genotypes like US-11 (P-T) and US-17 (p -T by laboratory tests only) which are A1 mating types and were even more destructive on tomato. The pathogenicity indicated by (P-T) refers to pathogenic specialization on both crops, where capital P and T indicates primary pathogens of both crops, while a lower case letter indicates less pathogenicity for the crops. Separate infections did occur in potato in western NY and were identified as US-8 (mating type A2, P). US-8 is now the primary genotype of late blight infecting potato on a regional basis. So, our salvation this summer was that the primary genotype(s) spread throughout the region were apparently not as pathogenic on tomato and potato as we have encountered in other years. This is little consolation to homeowners and organic growers who suffered total loses, but does explain how some growers were able to keep losses to a minimum.
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What steps worked for growers faced with late blight in 2009?
I will divide this discussion into two parts, since we are dealing with the two different genotypes in NYS, and the actions taken are different. In the case of the unidentified A2 type originating initial from tomato (not quite P-T, but close) that spread to tomato and potato, growers (both conventional and organic) relied upon a tight fungicide program (5-7 day schedule) with late blight specific fungicides in conventional operations (products including contact materials like chlorothalonil, Gavel, and Ranman, and translaminar materials like Curzate, Previcur Flex, Revus, and Tanos). Organic growers relied on copper fungicides applied on a 3-4 day schedule (Nu-Cop and Basic Copper 53). Another procedure followed, especially by organic growers, was to flame out of the most aggressive hot spot areas located near tree lines to remove the most heavily infected plants early in the initial spread of late blight. This practice undoubtedly saved a lot of the crop and allowed copper sprays a chance to reduce remaining infections. In organic operations we also saw growers cutting down infected potato foliage of more susceptible varieties in an effort to reduce the inoculum level in their fields.
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In the case of commercial potato fields faced with the need to control US-8 (mating type A2, P) within their crop (likely originating from infected seed tubers), the steps take were more aggressive. Hot spots of infection in fields were killed as soon as detected and then an aggressive 4-5 day spray schedule was followed using the late blight specific products mentioned above. The bottom line in both cases this season, the successfully control on late blight hinged on the application of appropriate fungicides on a very tight schedule.
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What can we expect for the remainder of the season?
Unfortunately, we are not out of the woods by any means, as what I call "back filling" of infections is still occurring in remaining susceptible crops (potato and tomato) in both homeowner gardens and commercial acreages (both organic and conventional). Reports of late blight infections just now appearing in home gardens and isolated cropping areas are just now coming in. Although a brief spell of hot weather may have slowed down late blight a bit, it is still sporulating and producing inoculum during our heavy evening dew periods. All concerned interests must continue on a regular fungicide program until the crops are finished. Special care must be made in the case of potato to examine harvested tubers to make sure they are free of tuber blight. It is advisable to move the crop as soon as possible to reduce tuber infections in storage. The other significant reminder is to make sure that all tubers are harvested and that special attention is directed to removing and destroying volunteers that may survive the winter season and have the potential of carrying over late blight to next year. A common problem is encountered when corn is planted as the rotational crop in fields that had late blight this season. Volunteer potatoes are difficult to rogue out when hidden by the emerging corn or other rotational crop.
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What can we learn from tomato and potato crops with more limited infections?
Differences in the amount of infection of potato and tomato, both traditional varieties and heirlooms, have been observed this year across the state. For sure there are definitely differences in the amount of infection for both crops. However, given that the predominate clonal lineage that occurred this year is apparently not as aggressive as those encountered recently, this might lead one to consider a variety as resistant or tolerant to late blight, when in fact in another year is could perform differently. One fact does remain, with the exception of comments made about overwintering of inoculum on potato tubers, next year we begin the season with a "clean slate", one that will be more kind to all fanciers of tomato and potato.
--
John Mishanec
Area Vegetable IPM Educator
Cornell Cooperative Extension
90 State Street
6th Floor, Suite 600
Albany, New York 12207
Phone 518-434-0016
Fax 518-426-3316
E-mail jjm27@cornell.edu

Correction to Vegetable Pest Report August 15, 2009

2009-08-23T10:46:00.001-07:00

I made a mistake in the recommendation for Botrytis gray mold. In the tomato recommendations, it said,
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A problem that we are seeing a lot of lately is blossom blast on tomatoes. The blossoms turn brown and you have lost production. This is caused by Botrytis gray mold. While fungicides can protect against the disease, even with good coverage, blossom blast will sill occur. With the very wet conditions we've experienced, blast is certainly another problem to be aware of. Conventional growers can use Bravo while organic growers can use the biological fungicide Contans WG.
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Dontans WG is only recommended for white mold, which is completely different problem (and much more serious) than Botrytis gray mold. I spoke with Prof. Tom Zitter today and he felt that the blossom blast we are seeing on tomatoes is due to the hot weather and unless you are seeing gray mold on the leaves, it is more than likely the heat.
I apologize for the mistake.
.
John
--
John Mishanec
Area Vegetable IPM Educator
Cornell Cooperative Extension
90 State Street
6th Floor, Suite 600
Albany, New York 12207
Phone 518-434-0016
Fax 518-426-3316
E-mail jjm27@cornell.edu

Vegetable Pest Status Report July 15, 2009

2009-08-23T10:32:00.000-07:00

Vegetable Pest Status Report July 15, 2009
By John Mishanec, IPM Vegetable Program
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General Conditions
The unremitting rain seems to be remitting a little. The last few days have been wonderful for drying things out. The factor that will slow late blight the most is hot, dry weather.
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Tomatoes
Also, for the first time, I have something good to report. Growers that have late blight and have made applications of Curzate + Previcur Flex + Bravo are controlling the disease. New growth is moving along and the infected leaves are on the bottom of the plant. In a week or so, it will be hard to see the diseased parts of the plant if we continue to have warm, dry weather. When you look at the plants, you can still see spots but the ring of spores that circles the spot does not appear. You can still see some sporulation on the undersides of the spots that are deep in the canopy of the plant but the disease does not appear to be spreading like crazy. Cornell recommends 3 day schedule when it is raining but you may be able to spread the sprays out a little if it remains dry.
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Another observation is that the disease does not appear to move as quickly in potatoes. It makes sense as the disease came in on tomato plants from the big box stores so it is probably a tomato strain. It will affect potatoes but prefers tomatoes. Check your potatoes. Look into the canopy of the plant. That is where it is most moist and better conditions for spores to germinate. Potatoes are growing pretty vigorously this time of year so you should have a pretty big and dense canopy. It is very important to scout your fields.
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Organic options
We have been getting lots of organic control questions and Meg McGrath has done some research. According to an experiment conducted with potato in Oregon in 2007, all 3 copper fungicides were the best and equally effective. The first application was made the day after infected plant tissue was put in plots. Dates: 8/30, 9/3, 9/10, 9/17. Sonata was ineffective based on AUDPC (area under disease progress curve). Oxidate significantly reduced disease severity by 42% at the 2nd evaluation date but not on any other date; ineffective based on AUDPC. AUDPC was calculated for the period 9/12/07 - 9/23/07. Actual assessment dates aren't noted in report. Basically it says that fixed copper is your best bet.
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The total report is posted at:http://ospud.org/materials_for_late_blight_management (there is an underscore between the words in the web address but it is not showing up above in the address)
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Sweet corn
Good news is that we are not catching Corn Ear Worm (CEW). Last year and so far this year the CEW have been late in arriving. Maybe they do not like the cool, wet weather.
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Something to remember is that European corn borer (ECB) will be less in later plantings of sweet corn. This morning, I walked a number of plantings of sweet corn. One planting was 5-7 days ahead of the next and I found 28% ECB infestation in it and 2% infestation in the next planting even though they were right next to each other. Go out and scout your fields. It is worth the time and energy if you can save a spray. Your earliest corn will have the most damage and successive plantings will have progressively less damage. You have to scout your corn to make sure.The time to scout your corn is in late whorl. Look right into the center of the whorl. If a plant is infested with ECB, you will see small holes, frass (saw dust) and windows in the leaf, This means you have ECB larvae(s) riding the tassel. You don't need to spend a lot of time scouting. Scout your field making between 5 to 10 random stops in the field. Look at five plants every time you stop. Keep a running count of how many plants you see feeding damage. With ten stops, you will be looking at 50 plants. If you find over 8 infested plants, you are over threshold (15% at tassel) and the field should be treated.
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If you are uncertain, look at more plants. Remember looking for something is different from scouting. With scouting, you are randomly evaluating the field for a true level of the pest. When you look for something, you will find it, but you will not have a true picture of what is in the field. You may have found a hot spot or whatever. It is important that you do a systematic and random scouting of a field in order to evaluate if it is economically necessary to treat the field.
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Timing of control is important
Now the timing is the thing. If you spray a field before open tassel, you are wasting our money. The absolute best time to spray a field is when the flag leaf pulls away from the tassel and the individual tassels are separating but still vertical. When you see around 30-40% of the field in early tassel, that is the best time to spray. Come in 4-5 days later when the rest of the field is in tassel and you should get very good control. Also spray first thing in the morning. You will catch the larvae out on the tassels before they drop down to the ear. If you wait too long, the larvae will be gone. As the day warms up, the larvae seek cooler locations and will move into the stem or drop down to the ear.
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For conventional growers Spintor works very well against ECB larvae. For organic operations, Entrust works great.
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Vine crops
Another good thing to report is according to Chris Smart at the Geneva Research station, we have not seen downy mildew in the state. Downy Mildew is being found in Michigan, Ohio and moving our way. We are charting the progression of the disease. Growers should wait to apply systemic fungicides until we find it here in NY. Once you see downy mildew in the field, it is too late and uncontrollable.
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We are seeing more and more angular leaf spot on vine crops. This is a bacteria and spreads easily with splashing of rain. Spots appear white, about a quarter of an inch in diameter and usually with a black ring around the white spot. As the spot ages, the center falls out and you have a ragged appearance to the leaf. Copper is the best control.
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Everyone is worried about late blight but I think phytophthora is also going to be a big problem in a couple weeks. If you have flooded spots in the field, when it dries out a little, disk a ring around the flood area. This will help in stopping the spread of phytophthora in the field.
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Tomato/Potato Late Blight Control Guidelines
Syngenta submitted supplemental labeling to NYS DEC to approve just the Revus part of Revus Tops label for tomatoes and potatoes. A label has been approved and Revus can now be used on tomatoes and potatoes in NY. Revus should be tank mixed with a protectant (Bravo or mancozeb) at a rate of 5.5 - 8.0 fl. ozs/per acre. Also according to the label, "The addition of a spreading/penetrating type adjuvant such as a non-ionic surfactant or crop oil concentrate or blend is recommended when applying by ground or air." Do not apply more than 32 fl. oz. of product/A/season (0.52 lbs. a.i./A/season). Do not apply within 1 day of harvest (1 day PHI) for tomatoes and 14 days for potatoes and other vegetables listed on the label. It is also important that you maintain good agitation in your tank and once you start spraying to finish the tank as the material can settle out. Flush your lines when you finish. This would be an excellent choice of materials to rotate with Previcur Flex plus a protectant.
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For non-organic growers, if you find late blight in your tomatoes, Meg McGrath at Cornell recommends when you first see symptoms you apply Curzate + Previcur Flex + Bravo. Curzate is the only product with "kickback" activity and thus has impact on infections that are up to 2 days old (the cooler it is the longer this kickback is; but once up to 80+ F there is little kickback). Previcur Flex is the only product with some systemic activity and thus provides the best control of stem lesions and also protects new growth.
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If you have not found late blight, stay with a fungicide program with products specifically for late blight in this field and other fields near by. These products have translaminar activity and thus provide better coverage than contact, protectant fungicides. A 5- to 7- day spray interval is recommended when weather conditions are wet and cool. It can be extended to 10 days under hot, dry conditions. Alternate among fungicides in different chemical groups (as indicated by FRAC Code) to manage resistance. The late blight pathogen has demonstrated ability to develop resistance; Ridomil fungicides are no longer recommended because of resistance. Include in each application a protectant fungicide like maneb, mancozeb or chlorothalonil, or triphenyltin hydroxide for potatoes. This is important for resistance management and ensuring effective control, and is specified on the label and thus is a requirement. A spray program with just protectant fungicides applied regularly starting before late blight begins to develop can provide adequate control, but this is challenging to achieve when plants are actively growing and conditions are very favorable for disease development, as has been occurring this spring.
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Curzate (FRAC Group 27 fungicide) at 3.2-5 oz/A (3.2 oz for potatoes) or Tanos (also contains cymoxanil, active ingredient in Curzate) at 8 oz is a good choice for the first application because these fungicides have some kickback activity, thus they can suppress some established lesions. The maximum kickback is about 2 days when it is cool, declining with increasing temperatures to about zero above 80 F. Cymoxanil has little residual activity, therefore, 5 days later apply another fungicide.
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Previcur Flex (Group 28) has some systemic activity, which is an important attribute even though it is not as systemic as Ridomil. It was the only fungicide rated good for symptoms on stems and also for protecting new growth in a bulletin from the University of Maine; it is not known how effective many of the other products are on new growth that develops after the application. It was not rated as highly as other late blight fungicides for leaf symptoms (good vs excellent). It is considered a good choice for an application made right before rain. It is rainfast in 30 minutes. It is labeled for use at 0.7-1.5 pt (1.2 pt max for potatoes). According to the manufacturer Previcur Flex provides best control when applied in blocks of 2 applications alternated with 2 applications of other fungicides.
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Other fungicides to consider including in the fungicide program are Gavel (Group 22) at 1.5-2 lb, Forum (Group 40) at 6 fl oz, and Ranman (Group 21) at 1.4-2.75 fl oz. Gavel is the only late blight fungicide formulated with a protectant.
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Group 11 fungicides (Headline, Quadris, etc) and Group 33 (phosphorous acid) fungicides are not considered as effective for late blight as the other products.
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Good fungicide coverage is critical. Pathogen spores can be moved on equipment and workers, therefore spray and work in affected fields last and clean equipment between fields. As soon as harvest is complete disk down field.
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Tomatoes - Organic
I have received a number of calls and emails from organic growers concerned about how to control late blight. Basically, the only option you have is fixed copper. Copper acts as a protectant on the plant. The more copper on the new growth and the rest of the plant, the better the chance you have of avoiding late blight. With the wet weather, it is difficult for everyone to get out to the field and make copper applications. If it continues to be wet, the best bet is a five day application schedule. More than that will leave new growth on the plants unprotected. Also, copper washes off and weathers becoming not as effective. So, it is important to get good coverage of the whole plant and continue covering the plant with copper. Talking with growers, some are saying they are getting good results tank mixing Sonata and or Oxidate with the copper. Even if the weather dries up, it is important to continue with protective sprays as there is lots and lots of late blight out there.
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Once late blight comes into an organic planting, the best option is pulling/destroying badly infected plants.
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Cornell Vegetable Recommends
The online version of the 2009 Integrated Crop and Pest Management Guidelines for Vegetables is now available at http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/recommends/
--
John Mishanec
Area Vegetable IPM Educator
Cornell Cooperative Extension
90 State Street
6th Floor, Suite 600
Albany, New York 12207
Phone 518-434-0016
Fax 518-426-3316
E-mail jjm27@cornell.edu

Vegetable Pest Status Report August 6, 2009

2009-08-08T06:46:00.000-07:00

Vegetable Pest Status Report August 6, 2009
By John Mishanec, IPM Vegetable Program
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General Conditions
This is the first dry week we have had all summer. This has allowed fields to dry out and growers to get in and do things that were not possible with the wet soils. More and more disease problems are showing up. It is important that you stay on top of things to avoid serious crop loss. Go out and scout your fields as often as you can. If you have already found problems, maintain your spray schedule.
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I have been having problems with this newsletter delivery. With the large number of people receiving the newsletter, I switched to a list serve. This summer, many growers have told me they are not getting the newsletter and I think it is getting cut out by firewalls or spam collectors. I will try to fix the problem but some of you may be getting two copies.
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Potatoes
Late blight came into the region on tomatoes. It appears to be a tomato strain. (http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/factsheets/Potato_LateBlt.htm)
This means it is more aggressive on tomatoes than potatoes. Growers with LB on their tomatoes, with a good protective fungicide program on their potatoes were not showing late blight. Organic growers were not seeing the aggressive knock down of plants in their potatoes they were seeing in the tomatoes. As time passes, late blight has crept into the potatoes and could seriously endanger the crop.
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Late blight on tomatoes is pretty apparent on both the plant and the fruit. When a spore lands on a leaf, it makes a large spot with lots of spores on the underside of the spot. Those millions of spores then either spread to more leaves or land on the tomato fruit. That is why it spreads and kills the plants so quickly.
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With potatoes, the tubers are under the ground. For a tuber to become infected, a spore needs to wash down cracks in the ground and attach itself to a tuber. Obviously, it is more difficult for a spore to come into contact with a tuber than an exposed tomato fruit. If you have late blight in your potato field, assess how wide spread and aggressive it is. With lots of spots on the plants, you will have lots of spores and more chance to infect tubers.
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As the late blight gets worse in the potatoes, growers should assess if it might not be a good idea to kill the plants before late blight gets really bad in their fields. Most growers are digging some early potatoes now. With all the rain we have had, potatoes have generally sized up very well by now. Go out and assess the rest of your potatoes to see if you can get away with killing the tops on everything now. If you feel you have a yield you can live with, mow or kill off the tops of your potatoes to avoid more spores and more late blight infestation.
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Late blight will not survive on dead tissue, therefore, if you kill or eliminate the tops, than when you dig the tubers, this will lessen the chance of tuber infection. If you are organic, either mow off the tops or allow them to be completely dead. You should wait at least two weeks with the tops completely dead for skin set before digging tubers.
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Once you have dug your tubers, do not wash them before putting them into storage. With the cool, moist conditions of storage, any potato with late blight will turn to mush and bring all the other tubers around it down too. Store your tubers in as small batches as possible to lessen the chance of tuber infection spreading to the bigger storage population. Increase ventilation to help keep the humidity down in your storage area.
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If you can, grade your potatoes well before selling them. Look for dark spots on the tuber. When you wash potatoes try to make sure they are dry before bagging. Wait a few days after bagging to make sure you do not have any break down.
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According to Vern Grubinger,UVM, organic growers can use Storox (Oxidate) or chlorine (must dilute to 4ppm before discharge) at labeled rates in wash water; another more effective option for suppressing late blight tuber rot appears to be Phostrol but it is labeled for russet-skinned varieties only.
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Lastly, if you have more than one variety of potato, assess which varieties show the disease more. From my unscientific observations, Keuka Gold and Katadin show less disease than other varieties. Red Norland shows the most. Email me, jjm27@cornell with your observations. It is good information to share.
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Sweet corn
This past week, we starting catching both european corn borer (ECB) and small numbers of corn ear worm (CEW). This means that your corn is now at risk from both these pests. Based on the CEW trap catches, a 5 day schedule should be adiquet for any corn with silk. CEW is a very dangerous pest as it lays its eggs directly on the silk and once the eggs hatch, the larvae will follow the silk directly into the tip of the ear. You only have a small widow to get the larvae. Low populations like we have now allow you to space out your sprays. Once inside the tip, they are impossible to control. For organic growers, Entrust will work very well with low populations of CEW. Once the populations jump, even conventional growers using harder products will have a difficult time with CEW.
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ECB are also dangerous at this time as now there are ears out when they are flying. The ECB moth will lay its eggs directly on the ear or very close to the ear.Maintain this schedule until the silk turns completely brown. This schedule will also take care of the ECB.
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Trap catch numbers
Trap Location (ECB – NY, CEW)
Albany Co. North 3,1
Albany Co. South 4,2
Saratoga West 0,0
Saratoga East 0,2
Schoharie north 1,0
Schoharie South 1,3
Washington Co. North 11,1
Washington Co. South 1,0
Kingston 80,0
Orange Co. South 4,4
Orange Co. North 6,7
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Tomatoes
We are seeing more damage to tomatoes other than late blight. Not surprisingly, with all the rain, we are seeing a lot of bacterial spot (http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/factsheets/Tomato_Bacterial.htm ) on fruit. You will see small, black spots (an eighth of an inch or smaller) and also spots with a white halo (birds eye). Heavy rains spread and splash the bacteria to the fruit. Organic growers can use opper with spreader (soap). For conventional growers, copper with mancozeb tank mixed will give good disease control.
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Early blight is also getting more serious at this time of year. (http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/factsheets/Potato_EarlyBlt.htm )Early blight takes advantage of stress in the plant (fruit sizing up) and can defoliate the plant fairly quickly if nothing is done. Copper, Sonata and Serenade Max for organic growers are products labeled for early blight. We are seeing more and more early blight with conventional growers as resistance to the Quadris group of fungicides has shown up. Bravo at higher rates after fruit set also works well at preventing the spread of early blight. Increase your water to insure good coverage of the fruit and penetration into the canopy.
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Another disease that is showing up is septoria leaf spot (http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/factsheets/Tomato_Septoria.htm). The lower, older leaves of the tomato plant will have lots of small, 1/8' spots. The difference between septoria and bacterial spot is you will not see spots on the fruit. This is especially a problem for organic growers as besides copper, there is little to slow the disease down.
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Tomato prices
There has been lots of talk about what the impact late blight is having on the tomato crop. Certainly, organic growers are being hit the hardest. Tomatoes are a cash crop and make for a large percentage of grower income. For conventional growers, from what I have seen, the loss is considerably smaller. I would estimate anywhere from 10 to 20 percent for growers using systemic fungicides to fight the disease.
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There is also lots of talk about how much tomatoes are selling for. In the Capital District, most growers I have spoken to say they are selling a box of tomatoes for $30-35 and $10-15 higher for heirloom varieties. I have heard reports of $50 plus per box. Growers farther south are reporting $35-40 per box. In New York City, the NJ crop is coming in and boxes are going for $10-15 and double for heirloom varieties.
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Vine crops
According to Chris Smart at the Geneva Cornell Research Station, Downy mildew has been confirmed on cucumber in Orleans and Ontario counties, western NY. This is a really serious problem for cucumbers. This particular strain does not affect pumpkins. Normally, once we find downy mildew in western NY, it is about a week before it comes to eastern NY. While I would like to say you are able to control the disease once you see it in a field, that has not been the case. The good news is if you have systemic fungicides on the cucumber crop before the disease arrives, you can get good results. According to Chris, Mary Hausbeck at Michigan State does lots of cucumber downy fungicide trials and has been recommending the following products: Previcure Flex, Ranman and Tanos. Alternate products and mix each with a protectant like Bravo and/or copper. For more information on downy mildew, I have attached an article from Meg McGrath.
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Powdery mildew (PM) on pumpkins is usually a problem starting this time of year but everything about pumpkins is late this year.(http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/factsheets/Cucurbits_PM.htm )I have not seen LB but you should go out and scout your fields. Look for small white tuffs of fluffy spores beginning on the underside of the leaves.
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PM Control Recommendations from Meg McGrath, Cornell, are as follows: In 2009, fungicide resistance continues to be a concern. The recommended program for managing powdery mildew and fungicide resistance is:1. Grow resistant varieties. Select squash and pumpkin varieties with resistance from both parents when possible. Cantaloupe varieties should have resistance to races 1 and 2. See the 'Resistant Variety' section at http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/.2. Scout regularly and initiate fungicide applications at disease onset or before. Powdery mildew typically starts to develop early in fruit production, therefore when first fruit appear is a good time to start applications. The action threshold is 1 leaf with symptoms out of 50 older leaves examined.3. Alternate among at-risk fungicides in different FRAC Groups. Procure and Pristine are recommended at highest label rates (8 and 18.5 oz/A). Quintec remains only labeled for use on melons. Additional crops are anticipated to be labeled in 2009. Quintec and Procure have narrow spectrum activity. Therefore it is important to monitor crops for other diseases.
4. Tank mix fungicides at-risk for resistance with protectant (contact) fungicides (e.g sulfur, chlorothalonil, and oils). Melons are sensitive to sulfur; there are tolerant varieties.5. Maintain a regular (7-day) application schedule. When maintaining this schedule through the season for at-risk fungicides is not economical, use protectant fungicides alone late in the season rather than compromising application timing early in the season to save money. The powdery mildew pathogen does not require leaf wetness for infection as other fungal foliar pathogens do, therefore fungicides are needed under dry conditions.6. Rate control achieved based on powdery mildew severity on lower surfaces of leaves. Report poor control despite following these guidelines to a local extension specialist.
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Phytophthora blight
Everyone is worried about late blight but I think phytophthora is also going to be a big problem too. If you have flooded spots in the field, when it dries out a little, disk a ring around the flood area. This will help in stopping the spread of phytophthora in the field. Go out and scout your pumpkins.(http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/factsheets/Cucurbit_Phytoph2.htm)
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Vegetable MD online
The very best source for pictures and information about vegetable diseases is the Vegetable MD online site at Cornell. It has everything you will need to figure out what disease if affecting your particular crop. Check it out at -(http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/Home.htm )
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Cornell Vegetable Guidelines
The online version of the 2009 Integrated Crop and Pest Management Guidelines for Vegetables is now available at http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/recommends/
--
John Mishanec
Area Vegetable IPM Educator
Cornell Cooperative Extension
90 State Street6th Floor, Suite 600
Albany, New York 12207
Phone 518-434-0016
Fax 518-426-3316
E-mail jjm27@cornell.edu

Managing Downy Mildew of Cucurbits

2009-08-08T06:06:00.000-07:00

Managing Downy Mildew of Cucurbits
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Margaret Tuttle McGrath
Department of Plant Pathology, Cornell University
Long Island Horticultural Research and Extension Center
3059 Sound Avenue, Riverhead, NY 11901; mtm3@cornell.edu
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Kathryne Everts
University of Maryland College Park
Lower Eastern Shore Research and Education Center
27664 Nanticoke Road, Salisbury, MD 21801; keverts@umd.edu
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Christian A. Wyenandt
Rutgers University, Cooperative Research and Extension
121 Northville Road, Bridgeton, NJ 08302; wyenandt@AESOP.Rutgers.edu
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Steven L. Rideout
Virginia Tech - Eastern Shore Agricultural Research and Extension Center
33446 Research Dr., Painter, VA 23420; srideout@vt.edu
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Cucurbit downy mildew is a potentially very devastating disease that can develop any time during the growing season. Young seedlings are especially susceptible. In the past, downy mildew occurred sporadically in the northeastern USA, usually appearing late enough in the growing season that cucurbit yields were seldom impacted. However, since 2004 this disease has appeared earlier during the year causing extensive defoliation on some cucurbits when not properly managed with fungicides. Also, QoI (aka strobilurin) fungicides (FRAC code 11) are no longer highly effective and cucumber crops in particular have been severely affected despite genetic resistance which is a common feature of most slicer and pickling varieties marketed today. These recent changes indicate that a new strain of the pathogen most likely has developed.
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The downy mildew pathogen exists as pathotypes that vary in their ability to infect the different cucurbit crops. Certain pathotypes can infect all cucurbits while others are able to infect only cucumber and cantaloupe but not watermelon, squash or pumpkin. Races and strains have been described within pathotypes based on variation in virulence and fungicide sensitivity. Races and strains often develop in response to selection pressure from management practices. Cucumber, when not improved by breeding, is susceptible to all pathotypes. The impetus for previous resistance breeding started in the 1930’s was the great impact downy mildew was having on cucumber production. This work resulted in varieties highly suppressive to the pathogen strains present in the USA at that time.
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Only cucurbit leaves can become infected by the downy mildew pathogen. Initially spots are pale green, then yellow before infected tissue dies. Spots become angular and are often delineated by leaf veins. Often several spots occur together in a coalesced group. Affected tissue in pumpkin can be more orange than yellow. On the underside of leaves, spots appear water-soaked at first. Extensive defoliation can occur rapidly when conditions are favorable. Leaf petioles often remain green and upright after the leaf blade has died and drooped giving the appearance of limp rags on sticks. In contrast with powdery mildew, spores of the downy mildew pathogen are darker (purplish gray) and develop only on the underside of leaves. Spores are not always present (they are most visible on humid mornings) and symptoms can vary greatly based upon variety and/or crop, thus diagnosis can be challenging. Photographs are posted at http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/ . There is an article at this site on ‘Identifying initial downy mildew symptoms in cucurbits is critical for successful management’.
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Premature death of leaf tissue results in reduced fruit quality and quantity. Loss can be quite extensive in cucumber as fruit production declines substantially in severely affected plants and much of the fruit produced is misshapen. As with powdery mildew, premature loss of leaves can result in reduced market quality because fruit may become sunburned, have poor color, or have low sugar content due to premature or incomplete ripening. Fruit, such as melon and winter squash, with low sugars has poor flavor and poor storability. The handles of pumpkin fruit on infected plants may be shriveled or rotten in addition to fruit being paler orange in color.
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Management of downy mildew can be accomplished by planting resistant varieties when available, minimizing conditions favorable for disease development, monitoring forecasts of disease occurrence and weather, scouting crops for symptoms weekly, and applying broad-spectrum protective fungicides before detection and mobile narrow-spectrum fungicides when downy mildew occurs early in crop production. Currently, fungicides are the main tool for managing downy mildew due to greater relative efficacy.
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Breeding for resistance to downy mildew has been ongoing since the 1930’s. These breeding programs produced many cucumber varieties and a few melon varieties that had resistance to strains of downy mildew present in the U.S. This resistance, which was developed for the previous pathogen strains, is only minimally effective against the new strain(s). These varieties however, may still provide some contribution to downy mildew management. However, even the best resistance is not expected to provide adequate suppression when used in the absence of fungicides. Cucumber variety evaluations conducted each year in North Carolina have included downy mildew ratings since 2005. Differences have been detected in resistance to the new strain(s) of downy mildew. Reports are available at http://cuke.hort.ncsu.edu/cucurbit/cuke/cukemain.html . Scroll down the page to ‘Cucumber Trials Summary’. Within each summary scroll down to find the table with the downy mildew ratings. Performance has varied from test to test and year to year, therefore several trial results should be considered when selecting a variety. These results have been compiled in a table posted in the ‘Resistant Variety’ section at http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/ . Best slicer type varieties include Dasher II and Poinsett 76. Best pickle types are Calypso, Vlaspik, and Johnston. Some cucumber varieties like Rockingham have such a vigorous vine they appear to provide tolerance. A search for new sources of resistance is underway at North Carolina State University.
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Choose planting sites with good air movement and full sun (no shading) to minimize leaf wetness periods. Disease development may be slowed in trellised cucumbers compared to ground culture. Avoid overhead irrigation in early morning when leaves are wet from dew or late in the day when leaves will not have an opportunity to dry before dew forms. Maintain ample but not excessive nitrogen fertility. These cultural practices should be used with a good fungicide program to achieve effective control. Producing crops under tunnels has been suggested for organic production as a means to protect plants from spores and to reduce leaf wetness periods that are favorable for pathogen infection; however, downy mildew has developed in tunnels and greenhouses, thus this practice is not expected to be as successful as high tunnels are for some tomato foliar diseases.
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The downy mildew pathogen does not survive winter in cold climates. Therefore, except when fields are planted with infected transplants, downy mildew only occurs in northern states when conditions favor spore production, release, and movement by wind from where the disease is occurring. Also, favorable environmental conditions for disease development need to be present where spores land. A forecasting system has been developed to predict where downy mildew will occur in the eastern USA based on forecasted wind trajectories and weather from spore production through infection. Forecasts are posted at a North Carolina State University web site (www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/pp/cucurbit/ ). Even when the forecasting program is not funded, as in 2004, a map of the current active sources and a table describing each is maintained at this web site. Click on ‘Current Forecasts’ on the left side of the home page. The calendar on the right side can be used to look at previous year’s forecasts. Considering the potential for spores to be dispersed to northern states at any time during the cucurbit growing season, the destructive potential of this disease, and the fact these crops are susceptible from the cotyledon stage, regularly checking the forecast is a critical component of downy mildew management. This web site also has fungicide evaluation results and photographs of symptoms.
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Direct seed crops or produce your own transplants if possible to avoid introducing the pathogen on infected transplants. Avoid transplants from greenhouses producing winter cucumbers or from southern areas where downy mildew can persist in the winter.
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Growers in northern states may attempt to avoid the disease by concentrating production early in the growing season when downy mildew is less likely to occur.
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Fungicides that have broad-spectrum contact and protectant activity (Bravo, Maneb, Dithane, copper) provide some downy mildew control. They are not as effective as mobile fungicides which can move to the under side of leaves. They should be used alone to provide protection before disease onset in a production area, and in combination with mobile products when downy mildew is present to manage resistance. Researchers in NC regularly conducting fungicide evaluations for downy mildew rated chlorothalonil efficacy higher than the EBDC fungicides mancozeb and maneb (4 vs. 3), which rated higher than copper (rated 1). Therefore, while EBDC fungicides are often recommended because they cost less than chlorothalonil products; chlorothalonil should be used when powdery mildew also is developing.
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Applications of mobile (systemic, translaminar) fungicides, which have an active ingredient that specifically targets oomycete fungi, are recommended beginning when downy mildew is forecasted to occur in the area or symptoms are observed. It is critical to initiate treatment promptly because delaying fungicide application until after disease onset increases selection pressure for resistance development and greatly decreases the degree of control achieved. Apply fungicides every 5-7 days depending on weather. The downy mildew pathogen is prone to developing fungicide resistance and also all mobile fungicides are at risk for resistance due to their specific mode of action. Therefore it is important to minimize the opportunity for resistance development by alternating among mobile fungicides that are in different chemical classes and tank-mixing with protectant fungicides when the mobile fungicide is not formulated with a protectant. Fortunately several effective mobile fungicides are now available. In university fungicide efficacy experiments, Ranman and Presidio have performed slightly better than Previcur Flex, followed by Tanos and Curzate, which are considered slightly better than Forum, Revus, Gavel, and phosphorus acid fungicides. Most treatments tested were fungicide programs with mobile fungicides tank-mixed with protectants and used in alternation with other mobile fungicides. Several different programs with combinations of mobile fungicides have provided similar control. Therefore growers have many options. Revus has exhibited variable efficacy with different cucurbit crop types, suggesting that it might not be equally effective for all downy mildew pathotypes. For example, downy mildew was more effectively controlled in pumpkin than cucumber in two experiments at the same location. Most mobile fungicides for downy mildew are also labeled for Phytophthora blight, but they are not effective for powdery mildew.
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Ranman (cyazofamid; Code 21) is labeled for use at 2.1-2.75 fl oz/A on a 7-10 day schedule for a maximum of 6 applications (16.5 fl oz) with no more than 3 consecutive applications followed by at least 3 applications of fungicide in another FRAC group. It has a 12 hr REI and 0 day PHI. Ranman should be tank-mixed with a protectant fungicide. Cost of product per application is about $16.20/A for the highest label rate which is the label rate for Phytophthora blight.
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Previcur Flex (propamocarb, Code 28) is labeled for use at 1.2 pts/A on a 7-14 day schedule for a maximum of 6 pts. PHI is 2 days. REI is 12 hours. Previcur Flex should be tank-mixed with a protectant fungicide. Cost of product per application is about $11.83/A.
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Curzate and Tanos both contain cymoxanil, a Code 27 fungicide. Both have a 12 hr REI and 3 day PHI. They are rainfast in 2 hours. Curzate is labeled for use at 3.2 oz/A on a 10-14 day schedule for a maximum of 9 applications. Cost of product per application is about $7.50/A. Tanos also contains famoxadone (Code 11). It is labeled for use at 8 oz/A, tank-mixed with protectant fungicide, on a 5-7 day schedule. There is a crop maximum of 4 applications of Code 11 fungicides which includes Tanos. Cost of product per application is about $13.13/A. Curzate or Tanos is a good choice for the first application of a mobile fungicide to a crop after detecting downy mildew. They have poor residual activity thus another mobile fungicide should be applied within a week.
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Forum (dimethomorph, Code 40), a new formulation replacing Acrobat, is labeled for use at 6 fl oz/A tank-mixed with protectant fungicide on a 5-10 day schedule for a maximum of 5 times with no more than 2 sequential applications. PHI is 0 days. REI is 12 hours. Tank-mix with protectant fungicide. Cost of product per application is about $8.61/A.
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Gavel (mancozeb and zoxamide, Codes M3 + 22) can be used on cucumber, melon, summer squash, and watermelon but not currently on pumpkin and winter squash because it contains mancozeb. Gavel is labeled for use at 1.5–2.0 lb/A, every 7 to 10 days or when conditions are favorable for disease for a maximum of 8 applications. Cost of product applied at 2 lb/A is about $12.40/A. PHI is 5 days. REI is 48 hours.
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New phosphorus acid fungicides (Phostrol, ProPhyt, and Fosphite)(phosphonates; Code 33) are more effective than Aliette, an older product in this group, but they are not as effective as other mobile fungicides for downy mildew in cucurbits, which is in contrast with their efficacy for some other downy mildew diseases. They have a 12 hr REI and can be applied to all cucurbits at 2.5-5 pt/A, which will cost about $8.16-16.32/A, on a 7-14 day interval up to 6-7 times/crop. Phosphite ion, the active ingredient for these fungicides, effects fungal pathogens directly and promotes the plant’s defense system.
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Forum, Ranman, Gavel, Tanos and phosphorus acid fungicides are also labeled for Phytophthora blight, which is caused by a pathogen related to the downy mildew fungus.
Reason (fenamidone) is labeled for cucurbit downy mildew, but not recommended at this time because other products available now contain more effective chemistry.
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Fungicides with mefenoxam (Code 4) or with QoI fungicides (Code 11) are no longer recommended for downy mildew because of resistance. Products with this chemistry provided little or no control of downy mildew when tested alone in several university experiments conducted recently, which is in sharp contrast to their previous performance. Products include Ridomil Gold Bravo, Ridomil Gold Copper, Quadris, Amistar, Cabrio, Flint, and Pristine. Tanos is one Code 11 fungicide that is still recommended because it contains an additional active ingredient, cymoxanil.
.
Presidio (fluopicolide; FRAC Code 43) and Revus (mandipropamid, Code 40) are two new fungicides that recently received EPA registration. It is now registered in NY
.
Downy mildew is very challenging to manage in organically-produced crops due to current lack of adequately effective resistant varieties, cultural practices and approved products. Serenade and Sonata have not been effective when tested in fungicide efficacy experiments with conventionally managed crops. Copper fungicides provided limited to no control.
.
Please Note: The specific directions on fungicide labels must be adhered to -- they supersede these recommendations, if there is a conflict. Any reference to commercial products, trade or brand names is for information only; no endorsement is intended.

Vegetable Pest Status Report July 15, 2009

2009-07-20T19:38:00.000-07:00

Vegetable Pest Status Report July 15, 2009
By John Mishanec, IPM Vegetable Program
.
General Conditions
The unremitting rain seems to be remitting a little. The last few days have been wonderful for drying things out. The factor that will slow late blight the most is hot, dry weather.
.
Tomatoes
Also, for the first time, I have something good to report. Growers that have late blight and have made applications of Curzate + Previcur Flex + Bravo are controlling the disease. New growth is moving along and the infected leaves are on the bottom of the plant. In a week or so, it will be hard to see the diseased parts of the plant if we continue to have warm, dry weather. When you look at the plants, you can still see spots but the ring of spores that circles the spot does not appear. You can still see some sporulation on the undersides of the spots that are deep in the canopy of the plant but the disease does not appear to be spreading like crazy. Cornell recommends 3 day schedule when it is raining but you may be able to spread the sprays out a little if it remains dry.
.
Another observation is that the disease does not appear to move as quickly in potatoes. It makes sense as the disease came in on tomato plants from the big box stores so it is probably a tomato strain. It will affect potatoes but prefers tomatoes. Check your potatoes. Look into the canopy of the plant. That is where it is most moist and better conditions for spores to germinate. Potatoes are growing pretty vigorously this time of year so you should have a pretty big and dense canopy. It is very important to scout your fields.
.
Organic Options
We have been getting lots of organic control questions and Meg McGrath has done some research. According to an experiment conducted with potato in Oregon in 2007, all 3 copper fungicides were the best and equally effective. The first application was made the day after infected plant tissue was put in plots. Dates: 8/30, 9/3, 9/10, 9/17. Sonata was ineffective based on AUDPC (area under disease progress curve). Oxidate significantly reduced disease severity by 42% at the 2nd evaluation date but not on any other date; ineffective based on AUDPC. AUDPC was calculated for the period 9/12/07 - 9/23/07. Actual assessment dates aren't noted in report. Basically it says that fixed copper is your best bet.
.
The total report is posted at:http://ospud.org/materials_for_late_blight_management (there is an underscore between the words in the web address but it is not showing up above in the address)
.
Sweet Corn
Good news is that we are not catching Corn Ear Worm (CEW). Last year and so far this year the CEW have been late in arriving. Maybe they do not like the cool, wet weather.
.
Something to remember is that European corn borer (ECB) will be less in later plantings of sweet corn. This morning, I walked a number of plantings of sweet corn. One planting was 5-7 days ahead of the next and I found 28% ECB infestation in it and 2% infestation in the next planting even though they were right next to each other. Go out and scout your fields. It is worth the time and energy if you can save a spray. Your earliest corn will have the most damage and successive plantings will have progressively less damage. You have to scout your corn to make sure.
.
The time to scout your corn is in late whorl. Look right into the center of the whorl. If a plant is infested with ECB, you will see small holes, frass (saw dust) and windows in the leaf, This means you have ECB larvae(s) riding the tassel. You don't need to spend a lot of time scouting. Scout your field making between 5 to 10 random stops in the field. Look at five plants every time you stop. Keep a running count of how many plants you see feeding damage. With ten stops, you will be looking at 50 plants. If you find over 8 infested plants, you are over threshold (15% at tassel) and the field should be treated.
.
If you are uncertain, look at more plants. Remember looking for something is different from scouting. With scouting, you are randomly evaluating the field for a true level of the pest. When you look for something, you will find it, but you will not have a true picture of what is in the field. You may have found a hot spot or whatever. It is important that you do a systematic and random scouting of a field in order to evaluate if it is economically necessary to treat the field.
.
Timing of control is importantNow the timing is the thing. If you spray a field before open tassel, you are wasting our money. The absolute best time to spray a field is when the flag leaf pulls away from the tassel and the individual tassels are separating but still vertical. When you see around 30-40% of the field in early tassel, that is the best time to spray. Come in 4-5 days later when the rest of the field is in tassel and you should get very good control. Also spray first thing in the morning. You will catch the larvae out on the tassels before they drop down to the ear. If you wait too long, the larvae will be gone. As the day warms up, the larvae seek cooler locations and will move into the stem or drop down to the ear.
.
For conventional growers Spintor works very well against ECB larvae. For organic operations, Entrust works great.
.
Vine crops
Another good thing to report is according to Chris Smart at the Geneva Research station, we have not seen downy mildew in the state. Downy Mildew is being found in Michigan, Ohio and moving our way. We are charting the progression of the disease. Growers should wait to apply systemic fungicides until we find it here in NY. Once you see downy mildew in the field, it is too late and uncontrollable.
.
We are seeing more and more angular leaf spot on vine crops. This is a bacteria and spreads easily with splashing of rain. Spots appear white, about a quarter of an inch in diameter and usually with a black ring around the white spot. As the spot ages, the center falls out and you have a ragged appearance to the leaf. Copper is the best control.
.
Everyone is worried about late blight but I think phytophthora is also going to be a big problem in a couple weeks. If you have flooded spots in the field, when it dries out a little, disk a ring around the flood area. This will help in stopping the spread of phytophthora in the field.
.
Tomato/Potato Late Blight Control Guidelines
Syngenta submitted supplemental labeling to NYS DEC to approve just the Revus part of Revus Tops label for tomatoes and potatoes. A label has been approved and Revus can now be used on tomatoes and potatoes in NY. Revus should be tank mixed with a protectant (Bravo or mancozeb) at a rate of 5.5 - 8.0 fl. ozs/per acre. Also according to the label, "The addition of a spreading/penetrating type adjuvant such as a non-ionic surfactant or crop oil concentrate or blend is recommended when applying by ground or air." Do not apply more than 32 fl. oz. of product/A/season (0.52 lbs. a.i./A/season). Do not apply within 1 day of harvest (1 day PHI) for tomatoes and 14 days for potatoes and other vegetables listed on the label. It is also important that you maintain good agitation in your tank and once you start spraying to finish the tank as the material can settle out. Flush your lines when you finish. This would be an excellent choice of materials to rotate with Previcur Flex plus a protectant.
.
For non-organic growers, if you find late blight in your tomatoes, Meg McGrath at Cornell recommends when you first see symptoms you apply Curzate + Previcur Flex + Bravo. Curzate is the only product with "kickback" activity and thus has impact on infections that are up to 2 days old (the cooler it is the longer this kickback is; but once up to 80+ F there is little kickback). Previcur Flex is the only product with some systemic activity and thus provides the best control of stem lesions and also protects new growth.
.
If you have not found late blight, stay with a fungicide program with products specifically for late blight in this field and other fields near by. These products have translaminar activity and thus provide better coverage than contact, protectant fungicides. A 5- to 7- day spray interval is recommended when weather conditions are wet and cool. It can be extended to 10 days under hot, dry conditions. Alternate among fungicides in different chemical groups (as indicated by FRAC Code) to manage resistance. The late blight pathogen has demonstrated ability to develop resistance; Ridomil fungicides are no longer recommended because of resistance. Include in each application a protectant fungicide like maneb, mancozeb or chlorothalonil, or triphenyltin hydroxide for potatoes. This is important for resistance management and ensuring effective control, and is specified on the label and thus is a requirement. A spray program with just protectant fungicides applied regularly starting before late blight begins to develop can provide adequate control, but this is challenging to achieve when plants are actively growing and conditions are very favorable for disease development, as has been occurring this spring.
.
Curzate (FRAC Group 27 fungicide) at 3.2-5 oz/A (3.2 oz for potatoes) or Tanos (also contains cymoxanil, active ingredient in Curzate) at 8 oz is a good choice for the first application because these fungicides have some kickback activity, thus they can suppress some established lesions. The maximum kickback is about 2 days when it is cool, declining with increasing temperatures to about zero above 80 F. Cymoxanil has little residual activity, therefore, 5 days later apply another fungicide.
.
Previcur Flex (Group 28) has some systemic activity, which is an important attribute even though it is not as systemic as Ridomil. It was the only fungicide rated good for symptoms on stems and also for protecting new growth in a bulletin from the University of Maine; it is not known how effective many of the other products are on new growth that develops after the application. It was not rated as highly as other late blight fungicides for leaf symptoms (good vs excellent). It is considered a good choice for an application made right before rain. It is rainfast in 30 minutes. It is labeled for use at 0.7-1.5 pt (1.2 pt max for potatoes). According to the manufacturer Previcur Flex provides best control when applied in blocks of 2 applications alternated with 2 applications of other fungicides.
.
Other fungicides to consider including in the fungicide program are Gavel (Group 22) at 1.5-2 lb, Forum (Group 40) at 6 fl oz, and Ranman (Group 21) at 1.4-2.75 fl oz. Gavel is the only late blight fungicide formulated with a protectant.
.
Group 11 fungicides (Headline, Quadris, etc) and Group 33 (phosphorous acid) fungicides are not considered as effective for late blight as the other products.
.
Good fungicide coverage is critical. Pathogen spores can be moved on equipment and workers, therefore spray and work in affected fields last and clean equipment between fields. As soon as harvest is complete disk down field.
.
Tomatoes - Organic
I have received a number of calls and emails from organic growers concerned about how to control late blight. Basically, the only option you have is fixed copper. Copper acts as a protectant on the plant. The more copper on the new growth and the rest of the plant, the better the chance you have of avoiding late blight. With the wet weather, it is difficult for everyone to get out to the field and make copper applications. If it continues to be wet, the best bet is a five day application schedule. More than that will leave new growth on the plants unprotected. Also, copper washes off and weathers becoming not as effective. So, it is important to get good coverage of the whole plant and continue covering the plant with copper. Talking with growers, some are saying they are getting good results tank mixing Sonata and or Oxidate with the copper. Even if the weather dries up, it is important to continue with protective sprays as there is lots and lots of late blight out there.
.
Once late blight comes into an organic planting, the best option is pulling/destroying badly infected plants.
.
Cornell Vegetable Recommends
The online version of the 2009 Integrated Crop and Pest Management Guidelines for Vegetables is now available at http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/recommends/
--
John Mishanec
Area Vegetable IPM Educator
Cornell Cooperative Extension
90 State Street6th Floor, Suite 600
Albany, New York 12207
Phone 518-434-0016
Fax 518-426-3316
E-mail jjm27@cornell.edu

Vegetable Pest Status Report July 9, 2009

2009-07-12T16:54:00.000-07:00

Vegetable Pest Status Report July 9, 2009
By John Mishanec, IPM Vegetable Program
.
General Conditions
In a hundred years, when someone looks at a tree stump and sees one year with one inch wide growth rings, they will have an idea what kind of summer 2009 was. Rain seems to fall every day. This is not good as diseases that favor these humid conditions are going crazy in the field.
.
Hopefully it will be drying out a little in the coming week. The forecast for next week is drier than we have had in a month. What we really need is 85 degree plus for a week to slow down the diseases and give crops a shot in the arm.
.
We were previously seeing late blight mostly on tomato but we are now starting to see it move into potatoes as well. Just an impression on my part, but the late blight seems to prefer tomatoes over potatoes even though it will go to both. The late blight seems to move quicker through a tomato field than a potato field.
.
Scout both your tomatoes/potatoes every day. Look deep into the canopy. Even as late as midday, the leaves stay wet with overnight dew. Spots are big, dark green to black in color and the size of a quarter. A very good diagnostic sign is there will also be big black spots on the stems as well. The earlier you find the disease, the better chance you have of keeping it in check.
.
Sweet corn
In both NJ and western NY, there are very few if any Corn Ear Worms (CEW) being caught. This is a good sign that we are catching a break and the storms that are dumping all the water on us are not dumping CEW on us as well. The flight of corn borer (ECB) has also petered out. This is the time of year when you can possibly save a spray on your sweet corn. The ECB prefer to lay their eggs on the most mature corn available when they are in flight. So your earliest corn will have the most damage and successive plantings will have progressively less damage. You have to scout your corn to make sure.
.
The time to scout your corn is in late whorl. Look right into the center of the whorl. If a plant is infested with ECB, you will see small holes, frass (saw dust) and windows in the leaf, This means you have ECB larvae(s) riding the tassel. You don't need to spend a lot of time scouting. Scout your field making between 5 to 10 random stops in the field. Look at five plants every time you stop. Keep a running count of how many plants you see feeding damage. With ten stops, you will be looking at 50 plants. If you find over 8 infested plants, you are over threshold (15% at tassel) and the field should be treated.
.
If you are uncertain, look at more plants. Remember looking for something is different from scouting. With scouting, you are randomly evaluating the field for a true level of the pest. When you look for something, you will find it, but you will not have a true picture of what is in the field. You may have found a hot spot or whatever. It is important that you do a systematic and random scouting of a field in order to evaluate if it is economically necessary to treat the field.
.
Timing of control is importantNow the timing is the thing. If you spray a field before open tassel, you are wasting our money. The absolute best time to spray a field is when the flag leaf pulls away from the tassel and the individual tassels are separating but still vertical. When you see around 30-40% of the field in early tassel, that is the best time to spray. Come in 4-5 days later when the rest of the field is in tassel and you should get very good control. Also spray first thing in the morning. You will catch the larvae out on the tassels before they drop down to the ear. If you wait too long, the larvae will be gone. As the day warms up, the larvae seek cooler locations and will move into the stem or drop down to the ear.
.
For conventional growers Spintor works very well against ECB larvae. For organic operations, Entrust works great.
.
Vine crops
Everyone is worried about late blight but I think phytophthora is also going to be a big problem in a couple weeks. If you have flooded spots in the field, when it dries out a little, disk a ring around the flood area. This will help in stopping the spread of phytophthera in the field.
.
Because of the wet weather, there is lots of angular leaf spot in vine crops. This is a bacteria and spreads easily with splashing of rain. Spots appear white, about a quarter of an inch in diameter and usually with a black ring around the white spot. As the spot ages, the center falls out and you have a ragged appearance to the leaf. Copper is the best control.
.
Downy Mildew is being found in Michigan, Ohio and moving our way. We are charting the progression of the disease. Once it arrives in NY, growers should start making protective fungicide applications. I would like to say you can control the disease once you first see it but from bitter lessons over the past two seasons, we have learned you need to have fungicides on the cucumbers before it arrives. Next week we will lay out a control strategy for growers.
.
Tomatoes - Updated news
Syngenta submitted supplemental labeling to NYS DEC to approve just the Revus part of Revus Tops label for tomatoes and potatoes. A label has been approved and Revus can now be used on tomatoes and potatoes in NY. Revus should be tank mixed with a protectant (Bravo or mancozeb) at a rate of 5.5 - 8.0 fl. ozs/per acre. Also according to the label, "The addition of a spreading/penetrating type adjuvant such as a non-ionic surfactant or crop oil concentrate or blend is recommended when applying by ground or air." Do not apply more than 32 fl. oz. of product/A/season (0.52 lbs. a.i./A/season). Do not apply within 1 day of harvest (1 day PHI) for tomatoes and 14 days for potatoes and other vegetables listed on the label. It is also important that you maintain good agitation in your tank and once you start spraying to finish the tank as the material can settle out. Flush your lines when you finish. This would be an excellent choice of materials to rotate with Previcur Flex plus a protectant.
.
For non-organic growers, if you find late blight in your tomatoes, Meg McGrath at Cornell recommends when you first see symptoms you apply Curzate + Previcur Flex + Bravo. Curzate is the only product with "kickback" activity and thus has impact on infections that are up to 2 days old (the cooler it is the longer this kickback is; but once up to 80+ F there is little kickback). Previcur Flex is the only product with some systemic activity and thus provides the best control of stem lesions and also protects new growth.
.
If you have not found late blight, stay with a fungicide program with products specifically for late blight in this field and other fields near by. These products have translaminar activity and thus provide better coverage than contact, protectant fungicides. A 5- to 7- day spray interval is recommended when weather conditions are wet and cool. It can be extended to 10 days under hot, dry conditions. Alternate among fungicides in different chemical groups (as indicated by FRAC Code) to manage resistance. The late blight pathogen has demonstrated ability to develop resistance; Ridomil fungicides are no longer recommended because of resistance. Include in each application a protectant fungicide like maneb, mancozeb or chlorothalonil, or triphenyltin hydroxide for potatoes. This is important for resistance management and ensuring effective control, and is specified on the label and thus is a requirement. A spray program with just protectant fungicides applied regularly starting before late blight begins to develop can provide adequate control, but this is challenging to achieve when plants are actively growing and conditions are very favorable for disease development, as has been occurring this spring.
.
Curzate (FRAC Group 27 fungicide) at 3.2-5 oz/A (3.2 oz for potatoes) or Tanos (also contains cymoxanil, active ingredient in Curzate) at 8 oz is a good choice for the first application because these fungicides have some kickback activity, thus they can suppress some established lesions. The maximum kickback is about 2 days when it is cool, declining with increasing temperatures to about zero above 80 F. Cymoxanil has little residual activity, therefore, 5 days later apply another fungicide.
.
Previcur Flex (Group 28) has some systemic activity, which is an important attribute even though it is not as systemic as Ridomil. It was the only fungicide rated good for symptoms on stems and also for protecting new growth in a bulletin from the University of Maine; it is not known how effective many of the other products are on new growth that develops after the application. It was not rated as highly as other late blight fungicides for leaf symptoms (good vs excellent). It is considered a good choice for an application made right before rain. It is rainfast in 30 minutes. It is labeled for use at 0.7-1.5 pt (1.2 pt max for potatoes). According to the manufacturer Previcur Flex provides best control when applied in blocks of 2 applications alternated with 2 applications of other fungicides.
.
Other fungicides to consider including in the fungicide program are Gavel (Group 22) at 1.5-2 lb, Forum (Group 40) at 6 fl oz, and Ranman (Group 21) at 1.4-2.75 fl oz. Gavel is the only late blight fungicide formulated with a protectant.
.
Group 11 fungicides (Headline, Quadris, etc) and Group 33 (phosphorous acid) fungicides are not considered as effective for late blight as the other products.
.
Good fungicide coverage is critical. Pathogen spores can be moved on equipment and workers, therefore spray and work in affected fields last and clean equipment between fields. As soon as harvest is complete disk down field.
.
Tomatoes - Organic
I have received a number of calls and emails from organic growers concerned about how to control late blight. Basically, the only option you have is fixed copper. Copper acts as a protectant on the plant. The more copper on the new growth and the rest of the plant, the better the chance you have of avoiding late blight. With the wet weather, it is difficult for everyone to get out to the field and make copper applications. If it continues to be wet, the best bet is a five day application schedule. More than that will leave new growth on the plants unprotected. Also, copper washes off and weathers becoming not as effective. So, it is important to get good coverage of the whole plant and continue covering the plant with copper. Talking with growers, some are saying they are getting good results tank mixing Sonata and or Oxidate with the copper. Even if the weather dries up, it is important to continue with protective sprays as there is lots and lots of late blight out there.
Once late blight comes into an organic planting, the best option is pulling/destroying badly infected plants.
.
Cornell Vegetable Recommends
The online version of the 2009 Integrated Crop and Pest Management Guidelines for Vegetables is now available at http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/recommends/
--
John Mishanec
Area Vegetable IPM Educator
Cornell Cooperative Extension
90 State Street
6th Floor, Suite 600
Albany, New York 12207
Phone 518-434-0016
Fax 518-426-3316
E-mail jjm27@cornell.edu

Winter 2008 Vegetable IPM Newsletter

2008-12-17T19:18:00.000-08:00

Vegetable IPM News
Cornell Cooperative Extension
.
Vol. 13 Number 5 Winter, 2008
.
Table of Contents
- Seed Directory info
- 08 Eastern NY Organic potato trial results
- Notes on Potato Varieties Under Evaluation for NOFANY
- 2006-07 New York State Sweet Potato Cultivar Trial
.
Potato Issue
This issue of the Vegetable IPM News will be dedicated to potatoes. Many seed growers run out of certain varieties so order your seed early. If you have any questions on potato varieties, feel free to e-mail me with your questions. - John
.
Seed Directory
You can obtain a free copy of the New York Certified Seed Potatoes 2008 Crop Directory. This little booklet list all the seed growers in New York state and the potato seed varieties each grows. To obtain a copy,
you can call – 607-255-9869
e-mail aaw4@cornell.edu or write
New York Seed Improvement project
103C Leeland Lab
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
.
2008 Organic Potato Variety Trial - Eastern NY
John Mishanec, Cornell University
.
In 2008, two Organic Potato Variety trials were held in Eastern NY. One at Taliaferro Farms in New Paltz, NY and the other at Sisters Hill farms in Millbrook, NY. I would like to thank Pete Talifarro and David Hamilton for hosting the trials. With some descriptions, I have included Dr. Keith Perry’s (KP) observations from his trials.
.
Varieties
.
Reba – intermediate starch content
Developed by Cornell. High yields. Round white with white flesh. Named after a widely respected grower’s mother from Western NY.
.
Keuka Gold - intermediate starch content
A pail yellow fleshed variety with good resistance to common scab. Very good eating quality, and also the highest-yielding variety ever released by Cornell. Recommended. KP - Very high yields of large round tubers. Very few pickouts. Small percentage of internal defects upstate, but internal necrosis on Long Island. Scab resistance like Superior. Specific gravity like Katahdin. Resistant to golden nematode.
.
Yukon Gold – intermediate starch content
A yellow-fleshed variety released by Agriculture Canada in 1980. Although yellow-fleshed varieties are widely consumed in the rest of the world, it wasn't until Yukon Gold became popular that yellow potatoes became common in the North American marketplace. Relatively low yielding. KP- Mid-season tablestock. high specific gravity. Tubers oval, shallow pink eyes, yellowish-buff skin, and light yellow flesh. Resistant to potato virus A, and leafroll. Susceptible to scab. Widely grown.
.
Red Norland - low starch content
A widely-grown, early maturing red-skinned cultivar. Good yields and generally a good eating potato. Sets lots of small tubers so may be a good choice for “salt potatoes”.
.
Salem - low starch content
Round to oblong, slightly flattened fresh-market variety with bright white skin. Midseason maturity and resistant to common scab. It is a daughter of the variety "Rosa". Very good distinct flavor. Does not like hot, dry growing conditions. Recommended
.
Eva - intermediate starch content
A very attractive white-skinned variety, released by Cornell in 1999. The tubers have shallow eyes and bright skin. Named after the mother of the Cornell potato breeder who developed it. Good yielding. KP - Tubers are medium in size, round in shape, with very bright blemish-free skin and are almost free from pickouts and internal defects. Tuber dormancy is 6 weeks longer than Katahdin and Monona. Resistant to early blight and golden nematode Ro1.
.
Carola - intermediate starch content
Gold skin and bright gold (yello flesh). Excellent cooking qualities. Stays firm after boiling. Good yields. A European variety that has gained some acceptance here in NY. Scab resistant. Tastes good. KP - Short to medium dormancy. Good scab resistance, moderate resistance to tuber late blight.
.
Katahdin – intermediate starch content
An older freshmarket variety. The most widely grown variety in NY in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. White flesh and bright white skin. Developed in Maine, and named after Mount Katahdin. Fairly resistant to leafhopper. Good all rounder and stores very well.
.
Chieftain - low starch content
An older, pale-red variety that grows and yields well in a wide range of locations. Good eating quality. Considered one of the standard red varieties. KP - Mid-season tablestock. Tubers round to oblong, shallow eyes, attractive red skin. Yield > Norland. Specific gravity similar to Norland. Moderately resistant to scab. Widely grown.
.
Adirondack Blue – low starch
A new potato that is very popular because of its blue skin and blue flesh. Good tasting. You cannot go wrong growing this potato. Combined with Adirondack Red and a low starch white potato, makes a great red, white and blue potato salad. People love the color. Good for attracting attention at your farm stand. KP- Unfortunately scab susceptible.
.
Adirondack Red – low starch
Another new potato developed by Cornell. It has red skin and flesh. It’s great for potato salad. People love the color
.
Prince Harry/King Harry
New insect resistant varieties from Cornell. Prince Harry is a more refined version of King Harry. A round white potato that stays green very late in the season. For that reason, if you dig it while green, the skin does not set well. Bland taste but yields very well.
.
Marcy
High starch potato. Round white shape. Good yield and resistant to scab.
.
Lehigh (NY 126)
Brand new Cornell variety. Good yield, attractive shape and scab resistance. Consider growing this variety. KP - Mid-late season tablestock. Large tubers with scurfy skin and appealing yellow flesh. Good yields with few pickouts and low levels of internal defects. Good boiling quality. Attractive vines with white flowers. Scab resistance is similar to Pike. Resistant to golden nematode (Ro1).
.
NorDonna
Early-Medium season. Round to oblong tubers red skin. Resistant to scab.
.
Genesee
Late maturing. Round white tubers. Resistant to early blight and scab.
.
Superior
Very early potato. Medium yield. Shallow eyes, round shape. Resistant to scab but susceptible to Verticillium wilt.
.
Field Trial Results
Generally organic growers look for a potato that will yield 2 pounds per foot of row. Most of our results were down from that goal this summer but on a better year, you can expect the higher yielding varieties in the trial to reach the 2 lbs. / row foot goal. Conventional growers can generally expect higher yields.
..
*Sorted for total yield
.
Lbs. for 10’, #for 10’
.
Talliaferro Farm
.
Prince Harry 20.5, 68
Keuka Gold 13.75, 46
King Harry 13.5, 44
Adirondack Blue 12.75, 52
Katahdin 11, 40
Salem 10.5, 50
Adirondack Red 10, 65
Lehigh 9.5, 35
Dk Red 9, 52
Norland
Chieftain 8.5, 31
Marcy 8, 27
Genesee 7.5, 31
Reba 7, 32
Superior 7, 42
Eva 5.5, 28
Nordanna 5, 34
.
Lbs. for 10’, # for 10’
.
Sisters Hill Farm
.
Prince Harry 25,97
King Harry 20, 69
Chieftan1 7.5, 60
Keuka Gold 17, 58
Marcy 14.5, 64
Dk Red
Norland 14.25, 124
Adirondack Red 13.5, 76
Katahdin 13.25, 52
Eva 12.5, 54
Lehigh 11, 30
Yukon Gold 11, 41
Salem 11, 43
Genesee 11, 47
Adirondack Blue 10.5, 48
Superior 9.5, 50
Reba 8.5, 40
*Sorted by individual tuber size
.
Lbs. for 10’, # for 10’, Ave. Wt potato-oz
.
Talliaferro Farm
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Keuka Gold 13.75, 46, 4.8
Adirondack Blue 12.75, 52, 3.9
Salem 10.5, 50, 3.4
Adirondack Red 10, 65, 2.5
Prince Harry 20.5, 68, 4.8
Dk red, Norland 9, 52, 2.8
Marcy 8, 27, 4.7
Chieftan 8.5, 31, 4.4
King Harry 13.5, 44, 4.9
Eva 5.5, 28, 3.1
Lehigh 9.5, 35, 4.3
Nordanna 5, 34, 2.4
Reba 7, 32, 3.5
Genesee 7.5, 31, 3.9
Superior 7, 42, 2.7
Katahdin 11, 40, 4.4
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Lbs. for 10’, # for 10’, Ave. Wt potato-oz
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Sisters Hill Farm
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Lehigh 11, 30, 5.9
Keuka Gold 17, 58, 4.7
Chieftan 17.5, 60, 4.7
King Harry 20, 69, 4.6
Yukon Gold 11, 41, 4.3
Prince Harry 25, 97, 4.1
Salem 11, 43, 4.1
Katahdin 13.25, 52, 4.1
Genesee 11, 47, 3.7
Eva 12.5, 54, 3.7
Marcy 14.5, 64, 3.6
Adirondack Blue 10.5, 48, 3.5
Reba 8.5, 40, 3.4
Superior 9.5, 50, 3.0
Adirondack Red 13.5, 76, 2.8
Dk Red, Norland 14.25, 124, 1.8
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Notes on Potato Varieties Under Evaluation for NOFANY
Keith Perry, Cornell University
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Commercial Varieties (most listed in NY Crop Directory) for which seed is available. (In order to avoid repeating, I have combined Keith’s comments with the varieties evaluated in eastern NY in the previous article -JM)
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Andover
Early season tablestock and chipping variety. Tubers spherical with slightly textured skin. Good cooking qualities and specific gravity. Excellent chip color from 45° storage. Relatively free from internal defects. Resistant to scab and golden nematode. This variety is notable for its flavor and, as such, very highly regarded by some in the Cornell potato program
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B1816-5 (Peter Wilcox)
Very attractive tubers with purple skin and yellow flesh.
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Banana
Late maturing, specialty tablestock. Tubers are small, banana-shaped with pale yellow skin and flesh. Good scab resistance. Susceptible to PVY.
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CF7523-1
Midseason tablestock. Possible substitute for Superior. Tubers long to oblong, bright white skin. Good yielder, acceptable chip color and specific gravity. Resistant to golden nematode, net necrosis, early blight, and Verticillium wilt. Potential problems in scab prone sites.
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Eramosa
Very early tablestock. Plants medium to large with bluish purple flowers. Tubers are oval, semi-flat with shallow eyes, buff skin and white flesh. High yielding, 200 cwt/acre as early as 62 days. Resistant to Rhizoctonia, hollow heart and skinning. Susceptible to PVY. Good storability and excellent boiling.
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French Fingerling
Specialty tablestock. Fingerling with pink skin and yellow flesh. Resistances and susceptibilities unknown.
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German Butterball
Late maturity, specialty tablestock. Large, round to oblong tubers with lightly netted, golden skin and yellow flesh. Resistances and susceptibilities unknown.
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Green Mountain (not certified in NY State)
Late, tablestock. Excellent boiling and baking. Plants are large with white flowers. Tubers are brick-shaped with deep eyes, buff colored, often netted skin, white flesh. Subject to misshapen tubers under poor growing conditions. Resistant to Fusarium storage rot, Black leg, and Verticillium wilt. Susceptible to PVY, PLRV, Common scab, Late blight, and net necrosis.
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Lehigh (NY 126)
Mid-late season tablestock. Large tubers with scurfy skin and appealing yellow flesh. Good yields with few pickouts and low levels of internal defects. Good boiling quality. Attractive vines with white flowers. Scab resistance is similar to Pike. Resistant to golden nematode (Ro1).
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Magic Molly
Purple skinned, uniform very dark purple fleshed tablestock. Tubers medium to large sized.
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NY 129
Late season, red-skinned tablestock. High yields of large, round tubers with shallow eyes and textured skin. Yield, dormancy better than Chieftain. Low frequency of pickouts and internal defects. Good boiling quality. Dark green vines with red/purple flowers. Scab resistance is similar to Pike. Resistant to golden nematode (Ro1).
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2006-07 New York State Sweet Potato Cultivar Trial
James Ballerstein and Steve Reiners, Cornell University
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Introduction:
Sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas L.) are traditionally thought of as a southern food crop, but they can be grown and thrive in NY with some extra care. As members of the morning glory family, sweet potatoes are believed to have originated in tropical valleys of Central or South America. They have been used for human and animal food for over 10,000 years. They are remarkably heat tolerant and have few insect and disease pests in the northeastern United States, although deer and mice seem to find them tasty. In order to have a successful planting and harvest in NY, high quality plant stock must be used. Sweet potatoes can be grown without a plastic layer but yields and tuber size would be smaller. Plastic keeps the soil warmer in late May and also in September when air temperatures and hours of sunlight start to decline. It also conserves moisture. North Carolina studies have determined that soil temperatures below 55 ° F prior to harvest will result in chilling injury. This greatly affects the storage capability of tubers. Proper harvest, followed by curing, is essential to prevent disease and decay during storage.
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Objective:
Evaluate cultivars for Northeast production over consecutive years to determine which one(s) would be more productive. Determining northeast compatible cultivars will be a value to all growers looking to diversify crop planting with sweet potatoes.
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Table 1. Cultivar List and Plant Source
Cultivar
Plant source
Beauregard Scott Farms, North Carolina
Hernandez Scott Farms, North Carolina
Carolina Ruby Scott Farms, North Carolina
O'Henry Scott Farms, North Carolina
Japanese Scott Farms, North Carolina
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Scott Farms, Inc.
919-284-4030 or scottfarms@cocentral.com
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Procedure:
Five cultivars (see Table 1) were replicated four times (15 plants per replicate). Plants (slips) arrived from Scott Farms in North Carolina on June 1st and were planted on June 2nd. Plants were very similar to bare root cabbage plants. They were kept cool (about 60 degrees F.) and moist until planting.
The trial was located at our research farm in Geneva, NY. Soil type was a silt loam. Three hundred pounds per acre of 15-15-15 were broadcast and worked in. A Rain-Flo Raised Bed-Plastic Layer was used to make a raised bed (about 6 inches high) and to lay a 48 inch black plastic sheet along with trickle tape for fertigation prior to planting. Soil conditions were good to very good on one end of the field but wet on the other end. This resulted in a cloddier bed than desired. Actual bed width was about 36 inches. Plot size was four rows by 450 feet long with 2 feet between beds (6 foot from the center of one row to the center of next). An iron bar with a flat tip was used to open a hole in the plastic and make a hole for the plants. Plants were hand planted at a spacing of 15 inches between plants (80 plants per 100 feet). A second treatment, of 12 inches between the plants (100 plants per 100 feet) was added to see if more uniform size tubers could be achieved at this closer plant spacing. Care was taken to place slips at least 4 inches deep in order to have as many nodes below the soil as possible. About one cup of low concentration liquid starter fertilizer (15-5-15) was put with each plant and soil firmed around it. A few replacement plants were put in the following week for those that had died.
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The herbicide Roundup was sprayed on the small weeds between the beds prior to planting the cuttings. Twenty pounds total of soluble nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium were applied with water through the trickle tape in two separate applications (early July and again three weeks later).
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Trickle irrigation was provided approximately every two weeks at the rate of one inch until late August when rainfall was above normal.
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Tubers were harvested on 9/22-24. A worker initially pulled the vines to one side of the bed and then cut the vines a few inches above the plastic. Next, the plastic was sliced between the plants so that the plastic could be pulled away from the tubers. Two workers then went through with a fork on each side of the hill and loosened tubers so that workers following could pull them from the ground, roughly clean the soil from them, and put in plastic trays. About 35-50 pounds of tubers were put in these trays. Soil was quite wet in areas and wet soil had to be hand wiped off of the tubers. Some tubers had to be washed prior to weighing due to mud sticking to them. A few tubers with rot (far less than was expected considering the field conditions) were counted and left in the field. Tubers, with cuts from the fork or mouse injury (if not severe), were also harvested.
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The trays were then placed in a warm greenhouse and humidity kept high for five days to cure tubers. Curing thickens the skin and heals over small cuts or scrapes that are prime areas for rot or decay to occur. This curing was accomplished by spraying water on the gravel floor of the greenhouse several times a day to keep humidity up. Care was taken to avoid splashing the tubers. Daily temperatures averaged 70-80 degrees F. during the daytime. Night temperatures did not fall below 65 degrees F.
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After curing, tubers were graded into four categories: jumbos (2 pounds or more), large marketable (one to two pounds and at least 2-3 inches in diameter), small marketable (.25 lbs up to one pound in weight and 1.5 to 2 inches in diameter) and smalls (basically thumb size or smaller and .25 lbs or less). See the results of the grading in Table 3 and 4. A small hot oil fryer was used to make sweet potato fries to judge texture and color. See additional comments on this in Results and Conclusions. Some of the large marketable tubers were sent to market with a local produce grower to judge consumer acceptance.
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Costs:
A rough estimate of input costs per acre: (based on 6 foot spacing or 7260 row ft per acre)
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Black plastic (3000 ft roll 4 ft wide) - $218 ($90 per roll)
Drip tape (7500 ft roll) - $140 ($140 per roll)
Header tape and fittings - $100
Fertilizer - $75
Plants (spacing of 15 inches) - $140 ($20per 1000 (6000/A) +$20 shipping)
Labor* and other - $500-$1500/A (Rough estimate)
Other inputs (cleaning, packaging, advertising, machine wear and tear, deer deterrent, plastic disposal)
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*Labor would vary tremendously depending on whether handplanting or using a transplanter, difficulty in cutting plants away prior to harvest, how tubers were harvested (by hand or some type of digger), grading and packaging, storing and selling. Soil type would influence labor costs also as a lighter soil should make harvest easier whether hand digging or using some type of digger. Tubers would be more likely to be cleaner harvested from a lighter soil. In conversations with a North Carolina grower, it is advised to just brush the tubers clean rather than wash them. Washing them seems to encourage decay and decrease the time they can be stored. If washing is necessary, it is recommended to be done just prior to sale.
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Results
Revenue and marketing
At farm markets, our marketer was able to sell graded tubers for 50 cents a pound. At a good roadside stand, 75 cents to a dollar a pound might be a possible price for graded uniform tubers. Local grocery stores normally sell tubers for approximately a dollar a pound. Informal comments from other colleagues indicated that flavor was better than those at the grocery store. Our marketer continued to see a preference for the traditional copper skin colored tubers with orange flesh (Beauregard and Hernandez) over the white tubers with yellow flesh (O’Henry). Red skinned Carolina Ruby with traditional orange flesh sold quite well once consumers realized it had the traditional deep orange internal color.
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Jumbo sized tubers may have a market with restaurants or local diners as sweet potato fries are increasing in popularity. We researched and found recipes for a sprinkling of cinnamon and sugar or traditional sprinkling of salt. Both recipes were tried and found to be good. Among our research group, Carolina Ruby fries were the favorite for color. Flavor and texture were similar for Beauregard, Hernandez, Carolina Ruby and O’Henry. Japanese had a more crisper texture. The group considered both the moist types (Beauregard, Hernandez, Carolina Ruby and O’Henry) and the dry type (Japanese) to have acceptable or better texture.
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Organic production should be considered if a market is available. A premium is usually paid for organic produce. Pests are minimal and an organic fertilizer could very easily be substituted for the fertilizer that was used. Hand weeding or some other type of weed control would be necessary between the plastic beds.
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Pests:
As mentioned before, deer and mice seem to be the major pests. Deer like the leaves and the mice will chew on the tubers under the plastic. Our deer fence kept deer from being a problem and mice seemed to be less of a problem than in 2005. Less tubers were protruding above the soil and this may have helped.
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Heat Units
Growing season 2006 - 2036 heat units (from time of planting until harvest)
A hail storm in late June caused some plant damage and possibly slowed growth. Late August and September were cool and wet. A warmer September would have probably increased some of the small marketable up to large marketable.
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Comments by Cultivar: (15 inch spacing)
Carolina Ruby –Green stems and long runners; plant mortality after transplanting was slightly higher than the others; red skinned tubers with orange flesh; skin was thicker than others; highest number of tubers per plant and also highest average weight per tuber; tubers not as uniform in size as preferred, but were concentrated tightly underneath the plant; information not available regarding beta carotene content; high yield and good percentage of marketable tubers make this cultivar well worth trying for both home garden or farm market; skin color was not the traditional copper color seen in stores so consumer acceptance may require additional marketing.
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Beauregard – Beauregard is the industry standard in North Carolina. Plants had green stems; tubers had the traditional copper colored skin with orange flesh; it was similar to Carolina Ruby in that they both had good yield and a high percentage of marketable tubers; Beauregard did have a more uniform tuber size than Carolina Ruby; good yield and traditional skin color and flesh color make this well worth trying either in a home garden or for farm market.
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O’Henry – Green stems; tubers tightly concentrated underneath the plant, white skinned tubers with yellow white flesh, uniform tuber size with good yield and high marketable percentage; information not available regarding beta carotene content; good flavor; tuber uniformity and good yield make this cultivar well worth trying; special marketing would probably be needed with this cultivar due to its unconventional skin and flesh color.
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Hernandez – Purple stems with distinctive leaf shape; tubers had traditional copper colored skin with a deep orange flesh color; yield characteristics not spectacular (lowest of the five cultivars) but sweeter than the others; data from North Carolina indicate that this cultivar has twice the amount of beta carotene than Beauregard; small diameter, long tubers that were not uniform; more of a home garden cultivar (especially for its sweeter flavor) than a commercial type for the Northeast. It does need that longer growing season to make larger tubers.
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Japanese – Plants from the nursery were just stems but were noticeably the first to start growing again in 2006, green stems; red, thin skinned tubers with white flesh (this cultivar would require extra care during harvest to avoid skin scrapes); skin did not seem to thicken during curing process although cuts did heal over; it is much different in texture compared to others (drier type compared to others having a more moist texture); information not available regarding beta carotene content; good flavor, decent yield and good marketable percentage; a different cooking process (stir fried or boiled and mashed) than others is recommended, but this cultivar is well worth trying for personal consumption and possible retailing if a market is established. Although it is considered to have a 120 day season, its quick start vigor make it compete well with shorter season cultivars.
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Cultivar Descriptions Provided by the Plant Source or Nursery:
Beauregard – The commercial sweet potato industry’s best selling variety. Beauregard features rose colored skin and orange flesh. The plant produces a good yield in a fairly short growing season, usually 95-100 days. Plant survival is excellent even under dry conditions.
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Hernandez – Situated on the sweet end of the sweet potato taste spectrum. Hernandez makes a wonderful ingredient for baking pies, cakes and candied sweet potatoes. After a 120 day growing season, this attractive plant will produce potatoes of uniform shape with a burnt orange skin and deep orange flesh.
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Carolina Ruby – This is a high yielding variety that produces sweet potatoes with dark red skin and moist good tasting orange flesh. The growing time for this variety is approximately 100 days.
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O’Henry – Similar to the Beauregard variety in growing season and heartiness, the O’Henry plant actually produces a sweet potato with white skin and white, moist flesh. Its growing time is between 95 and 100 days.
.
Japanese – Developed for the Asian market, the Japanese variety yields a sweet potato with red skin and a light yellow, dry flesh with a sweet taste. This variety requires a longer growing period, approximately 120 days.
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Spacing comparison:
As outlined in the procedure, two different in-row spacings (15 inch and 12 inch spacing) were used to determine if spacing influenced tuber size. The reason for trying this closer spacing was the number of very large tubers that were harvested in 2005. (If you would like to see the actual data, email me at jjm27@cornell.edu and I will send them to you)
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Although plant populations increased, total yield for Beauregard and Carolina Ruby decreased slightly, yield for Hernandez and Japanese increased slightly and yield for O’Henry stayed about the same. These differences in yield were not statistically significant. The jumbo sized tubers were eliminated for the most part with the closer spacing. Japanese was the one cultivar that did not seem to be affected by spacing when looking at distribution of tuber size and actually had slightly better yield at the closer spacing. Both Beauregard and Carolina Ruby were negatively affected by closer spacing. O’Henry was not affected as much as Beauregard and Carolina Ruby, but closer spacing still had a negative effect. An interesting bit of data was that the number of tubers per plot at both spacings (plant populations per plot were essentially the same) were very close to being the same indicating a possible genetic predisposition for number of tubers per plant. Japanese was the one exception with a lower tuber number per plant at the closer spacing. Further research would be necessary to determine if there is a trend for cultivars to react to different in-row spacing.
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Comparison of 2005 and 2006 trials:
The growing season for 2006 was probably more of a ‘typical’ growing season for NY than the growing season we had in 2005.
2005 - 2468 heat units (from time of planting until harvest)
2006 - 2036 heat units (from time of planting until harvest)
Grading in 2006 was separated into 4 different categories whereas only three categories were used in 2005. See table 5 for a comparison of yield over the two years.
.
Beauregard performed much better (more uniform tuber size) this year compared to 2005. It climbed from the poorest yielder in 2005 to a joint top yielder in 2006. Carolina Ruby and Beauregard were the co-leaders in yield for 2006. The gross yields for all of the cultivars except Beauregard (80%) ranged from 40 – 57% of the yield that they had in 2005. The one major difference (when combining the small marketable and the large marketable categories in 2006 and comparing that to the marketable category of 2005) was that Beauregard had a 32% increase in marketable tubers in 2006 while the others increased slightly or remained basically the same. Carolina Ruby and O’Henry continued to have the most tubers per plant. Japanese continued to be a quick starter and showed good plant vigor after transplanting.
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Conclusions:
Growing sweet potatoes in NY would be labor intensive, particularly if planting and harvesting them on a small scale for roadside market and personal consumption. Small scale production would not allow the luxury of specialized machinery. A bed maker-plastic layer is the one piece of machinery needed. Raised beds provide an optimum growing environment for the tubers, hand harvest is much easier and tubers were found to be more uniform. Also, high amounts of precipitation in late August in September would have resulted in a lost harvest or severe decay if not for the raised beds (minimal rot or decay was observed in 2006). A water wheel transplanter would save labor if planting a large number of plants. Some form of harvester to at least loosen the tubers would also make harvesting far more efficient.
.
NY weather conditions and lack of a processing industry make it a risky endeavor to grow them on a large scale although markets could be developed. One quarter to one half acre is enough area to grow a substantial amount of tubers for roadside market or personal use. Sweet potato tubers do store well under proper conditions if cured and harvested prior to frost. Curing prolongs the market interval and provides a substantial advantage to growers. They are highly nutritious and easily cooked (microwave). These two characteristics are important marketing advantages and should be utilized to increase sales as well as interest in the crop.
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In summation, costs and revenue might vary tremendously. Individual growers would have to assess their operation costs and market to determine if this crop would make a viable addition to their roadside stand/farm market operation.
.
2007 Results
Comments by Cultivar:
Carolina Ruby –Green stems and long runners; plant mortality after transplanting was slightly higher than the others; red skinned tubers with orange flesh; skin was thicker than others; tubers not as uniform in size as preferred, but were concentrated tightly underneath the plant; decent yield and good percentage of marketable tubers make this cultivar well worth trying for both home garden or possibly farm market; skin color was not the traditional copper color seen in stores so consumer acceptance may require additional marketing.
.
Beauregard – Beauregard is the industry standard in North Carolina. Plants had green stems; tubers had the traditional copper colored skin with orange flesh; it was similar to Carolina Ruby in that they both had good yield and a decent percentage of marketable tubers; Beauregard did have a more uniform tuber size than Carolina Ruby; good yield and traditional skin color and flesh color make this well worth trying either in a home garden or for farm market.
.
O’Henry – Green stems; tubers tightly concentrated underneath the plant, white skinned tubers with yellow white flesh, uniform tuber size with good yield and a decent marketable percentage; this cultivar does not make large tubers and less than optimum growing conditions kept tubers small in 2007; good flavor; tuber uniformity and decent yield make this cultivar worth trying; tubers did show a superficial blackening of the skin during storage which would have prohibited marketing; special marketing would probably be needed with this cultivar due to its unconventional skin and flesh color.
.
Covington – Very similar to Beauregard. Plants had green stems; tubers had the traditional copper colored skin with orange flesh; one year results show that it out yielded the other three cultivars; it also showed higher marketable percentage at the higher in row spacing; shows potential but needs further evaluation.
.
Cultivar Descriptions Provided by the Plant Source or Nursery:
Beauregard – The commercial sweet potato industry’s best selling variety. Beauregard features rose colored skin and orange flesh. The plant produces a good yield in a fairly short growing season, usually 95-100 days. Plant survival is excellent even under dry conditions.
.
Carolina Ruby – This is a high yielding variety that produces sweet potatoes with dark red skin and moist good tasting orange flesh. The growing time for this variety is approximately 100 days.
.
O’Henry – Similar to the Beauregard variety in growing season and heartiness, the O’Henry plant actually produces a sweet potato with white skin and white, moist flesh. Its growing time is between 95 and 100 days.
.
Covington – An improved, more uniform Beaurgard type.
.
Spacing comparison (15 inch compared to 18 inch):
As outlined in the procedure, two different in-row spacings (15 inch and 18 inch spacing) were planted to determine if larger spacing influenced tuber size. The reason for trying this wider spacing was the cool September we had in 2006. I was trying to determine if larger spacing might offset lower growing degree units in the growing season. Tables 2 and 3 detail the differences found when comparing these two spacings.
.
As plant populations increased (18 inch spacing – 4839 plants per acre compared to 15 inch spacing – 5808 plants per acre), total yield per acre for all four cultivars also increased which is what would be expected. The difference in marketable percentage when comparing the 18 inch spacing to the 15 inch spacing varied only slightly for cultivars Beaurgard, Carolina Ruby and O’Henry. Covington had a higher percentage of marketable tubers at the 18 inch spacing. Mouse damage was about the same over all cultivars. Tubers per plant did not seem to be significantly different at either spacing. The average weight of tubers per plant was also essentially the same at both spacings. We may have seen different results with a more optimum soil moisture, but it appears that 15 inch spacing is adequate.
.
Comparison of 2005 - 2007 trials. See Table 5.
2005 - 2468 heat units (from time of planting until harvest)
2006 - 2036 heat units (from time of planting until harvest)
2007 – 2164 heat units (from time of planting until harvest)
.
Yield was the lowest in 2007 but I attribute that to less than optimum water as noted earlier. This also resulted in a much higher percentage of small culls for all cultivars. Carolina Ruby and O’Henry continued to have slightly more tubers per plant than Beaurgard (three years in a row). .
Conclusions:
The trends for yield and uniformity for the three varieties planted since 2005 were similar again in 2007. Fifteen inch row spacing appears to be a good overall spacing for the three cultivars tested since 2005. Although Covington was grown as a single plot at each spacing, it did appear to have a yield advantage over the other three cultivars. It would be interesting to see if beta carotene content was similar to Beaurgard. As yield goes up, does this dilute the vitamin content? Based on these one year results, Covington may also have a higher percentage of marketable tubers at the 18 inch row spacing. Carolina Ruby continues to yield well but uniformity of the tubers make it a better backyard garden cultivar than a market cultivar. It does not seem to store quite as well as Beaurgard, O’henry or Covington.
.
Plans for 2008
The 2008 results are in data from only and have not been written up at this time. If you would like a copy of the data, e-mail me at jjm27@cornell.edu or contact Jim Ballerstein directly.
.
Acknowledgements:
We wish to thank Scotts Farm in North Carolina for the plants and information they provided, Ms. Rita Reissig and Mr. Douglas MacNeil for their assistance in growing and harvesting the trial and Christy Hoepting (Cooperative Extension) for statistical assistance. Please contact Jim Ballerstein at 315-787-2223 or email at jwb2@cornell.edu if you have any questions.

Vegetable Pest Status Report September 5, 2008

2008-09-06T12:29:00.000-07:00

Vegetable Pest Status Report September 5, 2008
By John Mishanec, IPM Vegetable Program and Chuck Bornt, CCE Capital District Vegetable Program

General Conditions
Conditions have been fairly dry and growers are harvesting.

If you see something, and you do not know what it is, take a sample and bring it in the house and go to Vegetable MD online. It's a great site.The address is http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/Home.htm

If you have questions about anything, just e-mail me (jjm27@cornell.edu) and I will do my best to answer your questions.

Cornell Vegetable GuidelinesThe online version of the 2008 Integrated Crop and Pest Management Guidelines for Vegetables is now available at http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/recommends/

Vine Crops
The big danger is from Phytophthora blight on crops that were infected with the disease when we received all that rain in early August. Had it not generally gotten fairly dry, we would have seen a real disaster. Since it has been dry, Phytophthora blight never really got going too bad. This is not to say it wasn't a problem or will not be one again. Now that the vines are going down and you can see the pumpkins, winter squash etc in the field, look for fruit that appears to be deflated like a soft basketball. Also look for a sprinkling of white spores on the undersides of the fruit. If you find some deflated fruit in the field and you sell wholesale, watch out. Even if the fruit looks good, it may brake down later on when in the crate.

The weather report says we may be in for some heavy rains in the next week or so. Rain now would be a disaster on fields that had Phytophthora blight earlier in the season. The best advice you can have is harvest as much as possible or get the fruit to high, dry ground.

Downy mildew (DM) seems to be everywhere on everything from cucumbers to winter squash and pumpkins. Look for yellow angular spots about the size of a dime on the leaves. On pumpkins, it looks different with smaller yellow spots and the back of the leave dose not have the gray sporulation. If you see DM, in your field, it probably is not worth trying to spray and stop it. Once DM gets in, it is next to impossible to stop. Hopefully, you have made a crop and do not need that late season harvest or cucumbers.

Sweet Corn
The influx of Corn Ear worm didn't seem to hit the capital District this week but with the expected rain from all those storms down south, this may be the week. Stay on a 3-4 day schedule.

Check for corn aphid on the tassels. This can be a big problem. If you find aphid, use a product other than Warrior on the corn, as this product will only cause a buildup of aphids.

Morning, before dawn is the best time to make an application as you are avoiding honey bees.

Potatoes
While there are some locations that could benefit from some rain, here in easten NY, dry is good. Western has been very wet. As a result of all the rain there and the inability to get out to the field to spray, late blight has been found on potatoes in two locations in Genesee and Monroe counties (both near Rochester). Most of the potato fields I have visited are either down and brown or are very close to vine kill. Dig up some of your crop to get an idea of the size. Late Blight is all around us. It's in Conn, Mass, Vt, and western NY. Fortunately we have not found it here in eastern NY. If you have the size you want, consider knocking them down so as not to risk late blight coming in and runing the crop.

Potatoes look good coming out of the ground. Again keep an eye out for wet spots. I saw one grower plow up a large flooded area of his potato field and plant sudex. This is an excellent way to deal with the problem and one that anyone else should consider next year.

If you find late blight or think you have it, give Chuck a call (859-6213) or email me (jjm27@cornell.edu) and we will come out to check your crop. Late blight produces large black spots the size of a half dollar. Sometimes, you will also see black spots on the stem, where the leaflet meets the main stem. This is different from black leg, which is usually caused from high moisture and damage to the main stem of plant. If you are unsure, place a leaf in a plastic bag overnight and see if you have white spores on the spot in the morning.
--
John Mishanec
Area Vegetable IPM Educator
Cornell Cooperative Extension
90 State Street
6th Floor, Suite 600
Albany, New York 12207
Phone 518-434-0016
Fax 518-426-3316
E-mail jjm27@cornell.edu

Vegetable Pest Status Report August 27, 2008

2008-08-30T19:57:00.000-07:00

Vegetable Pest Status Report August 27, 2008
By John Mishanec, IPM Vegetable Program and Chuck Bornt, CCE Capital District Vegetable Program

General Conditions
Here in Eastern NY, we have been lucky to avoid more heavy rainfalls and have been relatively dry. Parts of western NY have received some serious rains the past couple weeks. Here, we are starting to see the fall-out from our own heavy rains. Diseases are showing up, especially in the vine crops and these problems are a direct result of the heavy rain of a few weeks ago.

The vast tomato crop is beginning to come in. For whatever reason, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and other crops are later than normal. Growers tell me wholesale prices are still high but once the main crop comes in, expect lots of product and not as many buyers. If you sell directly to the public, I think you can expect a better return on your product.

If you see something, and you do not know what it is, take a sample and bring it in the house and go to Vegetable MD online. It's a great site.The address is http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/Home.htm

If you have questions about anything, just e-mail me (jjm27@cornell.edu) and I will do my best to answer your questions.

Cornell Vegetable Guidelines
The online version of the 2008 Integrated Crop and Pest Management Guidelines for Vegetables is now available at http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/recommends/

Sweet Corn
On Tuesdays, I go to Orange County to check crops down there. It is 120 miles south of Albany. We have 3 trap locations down there and I have always felt what Orange County gets, we in the Capital District will be getting in a few days. Corn ear worm (CEW) traps were full yesterday. There were over 100 per trap in the three trap locations. In New Paltz, they have been 4+ moths per night the past two weeks. The threshold is 2 per night.

Of course, I have checked the Capital District traps. In three locations, the trap catch number was 4 per night. Traps north of Albany were empty.

If you are located in Orange or Ulster counties, tighten up your spray schedule for the next couple weeks. The population of CEW is high and most dangerous. CEW lays eggs directly on the silk and once the eggs hatch, the larvae move right into the tip. You only have a short window to control the larvae. A 3-4 day schedule is probably adiquet.

So what to make of this if you are located north or Ulster county? Listening to the weather reports, we are experiencing the remains of tropical storm Fay. The storm will mostly peter out east of us. The tail end of the storm is supposed to hit us on Friday. Usually we say storms carry up the CEW from the south but I think they were pushed up in front of the storm. If you have been on a 6-7 day schedule, I would suggest tightening up your spray schedule (3-4 days) to catch any CEW that may come in this week. After that, wait to see how the trap catch is next week.

For organic growers, Entrust works fairly well with low populations of CEW. Once the population is really high, neither Entrust or for that matter, conventional insecticides will work very well.

Check for corn aphid on the tassels. This can be a big problem. If you find aphid, use a product other than Warrior on the corn, as this product will only cause a buildup of aphids.

Morning, before dawn is the best time to make an application as you are avoiding honey bees.

Vine Crops
About 4 years ago, we had a huge problem of DM on pumpkins. This year, the problem has mostly been on cucumbers. Unfortunately, DM has made the jump to pumpkins. Prof. Tom Zitter has found DM on pumpkins in the Ithaca area and we have found 3-4 locations here in the Capital District. It seems to be the same strain of DM that shows up on cucumber but does not show the classic symptoms on pumpkin that show up on cucumber. You normally see the gray spores on the underside of the cucumber leaf. On pumpkin, you see the same spot on the upper leaf surface but on the lower side, the spot looks kind of orange. This is very confusing as it is hard to be sure when you first see the problem in the field and DM moves very quickly. The good side is that most pumpkin fields have made a crop at this point in the season. If you planted late and the crop is still being made, you may consider adding a DM spray into your fungicide schedule.

Check your melons and cucumbers for aphids on the underside of the leaves. With high populations of aphids, your crop will go down slowly and have lots of non-descript spots on the leaves. Also, the honey-due that the aphids produce will detract from the fruit. In the field, it seems some fields have high populations and some have nothing. Go out and check your plots.

With the wet weather we had a few weeks ago, it is possible to find phytophthora in fields. Fruit looks like a deflated basketball with white dusting of spores on the lower sides. Be careful when you see this in a field. We have seen fields where there are a few collapsed pumpkins here and there. Try not to get too close to the pumpkins that are broken down when you harvest the others. Not much you can do at this point but hope we stay relatively dry for the rest of the season.

Another problem we are seeing now, after the heavy rains, is plectosporium. The stems have diamond shaped tan lesions and the fruit has lots of small tan spots on it. Fruit is usually smaller than normal and may not turn fully orange. This is a fungal problem that we only see on wet years. Go to the Vegetable MD online website listed above to see what plectosporium looks like.

Pumpkins are maturing and it is interesting to see the differences between powdery mildew tolerant varieties and conventional pumpkin varieties. The tolerant varieties are just starting to show powdery mildew (PM) while the conventional varieties are pretty much going down. Go out there and evaluate your varieties. See which ones have good set and which ones have size. What you want to find is a variety that is consistent year in and year out. Next year, try some of the new tolerant varieties. If you have had good luck with a variety, stick with it. If you have experienced inconsistent results, try something new.

Lastly, think about cutting handles once the fruit turns orange. With powdery mildew, you run the risk of the disease softening up the handles if it progresses too long. This is especially true of powdery mildew tolerant varieties. You need to cut the handles as soon as the pumpkins turn orange.

Also, I know it is a busy time of the year but consider removing your pumpkins from the field and putting them in a high and dry location. Lots of fields looked great last year but we had a very wet September and many, many pumpkin went down quickly with phytophthora.

Peppers
I had a grower ask me if he still needed to worry about european corn borer (ECB) on his peppers. The corn borer lays it's eggs on the fruit and the larvae will eat a hole just on the edge of the cap. You usually cannot see the whole but later after a rain, water will get into the hole and rot the pepper fruit. First, the flight is pretty much over for ECB. Secondly, I have not seen any ECB damage on peppers at all this year. In fact, I think it will be a bumper crop of peppers this year. It will be a late crop but still a huge crop.

Check for aphids on peppers and if you find them, avoid using Warrior as it will only make the aphids worse.

Potatoes
While there are some locations that could benefit from some rain, here in easten NY, dry is good. Western has been very wet. As a result of all the rain there and the inability to get out to the field to spray, late blight has been found on potatoes in two locations in Genesee and Monroe counties (both near Rochester). Most of the potato fields I have visited are either down and brown or are very close to vine kill. Dig up some of your crop to get an idea of the size. Late Blight is all around us. It's in Conn, Mass, Vt, and western NY. Fortunately we have not found it here in eastern NY. If you have the size you want, consider knocking them down so as not to risk late blight coming in and runing the crop.

Potatoes look good coming out of the ground. Again keep an eye out for wet spots. I saw one grower plow up a large flooded area of his potato field and plant sudex. This is an excellent way to deal with the problem and one that anyone else should consider next year.

If you find late blight or think yo have it, give Chuck a call (859-6213) or email me (jjm27@cornell.edu) and we will come out to check your crop. Late blight produces large black spots the size of a half dollar. Sometimes, you will also see black spots on the stem, where the leaflet meets the main stem. This is different from black leg, which is usually caused from high moisture and damage to the main stem of plant. If you are unsure, place a leaf in a plastic bag overnight and see if you have white spores on the spot in the morning.

Tomatoes
We are seeing three problems on tomatoes. Early blight, spetoria and bacterial spot/canker. Early blight and septoria can be controlled by regular fungicide sprays of Quadris or Bravo. Organic growers have copper. While we are seeing a lot of bacterial disease, there is not a lot of fruit damage. According to Chris Smart, if it is wet when the tomatoes are marbles, that is the time when they are most susceptible to bacterial spots. If it is dry at that time, the fruit will be spot free but the vines will still go down later in the season. This is what we are seeing on many farms. It was dry early and even thought we went through a wet period, the fruit was big enough to not have spots. Keep up the copper plus mancozeb sprays to protect the fruit. Organic growers should keep using copper.

We are seeing what we think is early blight resistance to Quadris in tomatoes. We have sent samples in to be confirmed. If you have tomatoes that do not seem to repsond to Quadris, that give either Chuck or myself a call and have us come out and take some samples. You should only be using Quadris twice per crop year. If you are seeing heavy early blight and have used Quadris, switch to Tanos or Gavel mixed with a protectant.
--
John Mishanec
Area Vegetable IPM Educator
Cornell Cooperative Extension
90 State Street
6th Floor, Suite 600
Albany, New York 12207
Phone 518-434-0016
Fax 518-426-3316
jjm27@cornell.edu

Vegetable Pest Status Report August 21, 2008

2008-08-24T06:26:00.000-07:00

Vegetable Pest Status Report August 21, 2008
By John Mishanec, IPM Vegetable Program and Chuck Bornt, CCE Capital District Vegetable Program

General Conditions
Basically, what we are seeing in terms of insects and diseases is what you will probably have for the rest of the season. The exception is phytophthora. This disease comes with flooding and can affect crops like tomatoes, peppers and especially vine crops. Do what you can to avoid flooding any more that we have already had. If you see spots that flooded, if possible, disk a drainage path for that spot. Otherwise try to stay out of flooded areas and avoid spreading potential disease problems.

Seeing lots of sign of flooding in fields. Root crops that may be going into storage or vine crops are very, very suspect in flooding situations. Even small pockets of flooding can risk a storage crop. Try to identify flooding areas in any field and when you harvest, try to closely inspect the crop as it comes off the field. Anything that doesn't look right probably isn't right. Keep the crops harvested from suspect areas separate at least for a while to evaluate the potential for loss.

Also, seeing lots of weeds. In most cases, weeds just make life miserable when harvesting. In root crops, you may end up leaving lots of crop in the field. Evaluate the weed population and it may call for some pulling before you come in and harvest.

Otherwise crops look good. There will be a bumper crop of tomatoes and peppers and many eggplant fields look more productive than ever before. Potatoes look good too.

If you see something, and you do not know what it is, take a sample and bring it in the house and go to Vegetable MD online. It's a great site.The address is http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/Home.htm

If you have questions about anything, just e-mail me (jjm27@cornell.edu) and I will do my best to answer your questions.

Sweet Corn
I am always uneasy this time of year because I want to be on top of what is happening in the field. With the corn insects, you have to rely on pheromone traps to tell you what is happening. Traps are great, They tell you when the flight starts, how long it lasts and how heavy the population is. While we have more traps out this summer than ever, one always wonders if the traps are telling the truth. This is why I monitor reports from other locations around us. Western NY reports very scattered trap catches. For us here in the Capital District/Hudson valley, our weather patterns seem to come out of the south. This means NJ has the most influence on what we see in the fields. We are seeing pretty low levels of european corn borer (ECB) and the same with corn ear worm (CEW). The exception seems to be around New Paltz which is catching high numbers of both CEW and ECB. In Orange county, we are catching very low numbers as well. I have also spoke with many corn growers this week, asking them what they are seeing in their harvested corn. All say they see very little worm presence. This is good. One grower who does not spray his sweet corn said since the early corn, they have not had damage in the corn. Right now, I feel the insects are probably pretty low but anything with silks should still be on a weekly schedule as that is want the traps call for. But do not let this totally influence you. Go out and scout your crop. Look for worm damage, as well as aphids and sap beetles.

From New Jersey -European corn borer (ECB) adult catches are very low in most areas (averaging 1 or less per night), with Sussex County and coastal Monmouth County now having the only significant catches (see ECB map). This flight has been very weak overall, with trap catches well below average.Adult corn earworm (CEW) catches have generally increasedacross southern New Jersey over the past week, although numbers vary widely among the traps. A few locations in Cumberland and Cape May counties have moderately high adult numbers, but other traps nearby are capturing only scattered CEW moths. Catches in the northern counties are still scattered and light. Generally, CEW numbers are much lower than we would expect for mid-August. Catches from North Carolina appear to have peaked and are now decreasing, while Maryland and Delaware's catches have increased, although still lower than usual for this time of year. We may yet experience a migratory increase in CEW, but recent weather has not been conducive to this type of flight.

Morning, before dawn is the best time to make an application as you are avoiding honey bees.

Vine Crops
If you have flooding, check for fruit with talc powder like white growth on the bottom. Also look for fruit that seems to be deflated like a balloon. These are signs of phytophthora blight. Avoid going back into those areas so as not to spread the disease.

Chuck and I have found more locations of downy mildew on cucumbers, but most of them are north or Albany. Look for lots of yellow spots about a quarter inch in diameter on the upper surface of the leaf. On the lower surface you will see gray spores. There is a disease called clover yellow virus which looks something like DM but it does not have the gray undersides to the spots. If you see something that you think is DM, Give Chuck of me a call. If you catch it early, keep an eye on the problem to see if it gets worse. Remember, the strain of DM only affects cucumbers.

If you identify DM, you need to protect your melons as well as cucumber with one of the following systemic fungicides with a mixing protectant partner.

Previcur Flex + a protectant (Bravo, applause, Equus, Echo)
Ranman + protectant
Tanos + protectant
Curzate + protectant
or Gravelprotectant

Alternate weekly with Acrobate, or Reason or Phosphoric acids ( Agri-Fos, Fosphite, FungiPhite, ProPhytor Ridomil gold or Coppers

Also, attached is a useful list of the different fungicides, their cost per applications and days to harvest information.

It is very important to act in the next couple days as DM moves very quickly. Once in a field, it will knock down and kill cucumbers within 3-5 days.

For organic growers, Tom Zitter reports that sulpher works fairly well as a protectant against DM and other fungal diseases.

Potatoes
Potatoes look good coming out of the ground. Again keep an eye out for wet spots. I saw one grower plow up a large flooded area of his potato field and plant sudex. This is an excellent way to deal with the problem and one that anyone else should consider next year.

As stated above, late blight (LB) has been found in Mass, Vt and Conn. Hopefully, most growers will have protective fungicides on their crops. A tighter spray schedule (when you are able to get into the field) may be called for. According to Tom Zitter at Cornell, Bravo is as good an anything to protect against LB. With lots of moisture, potatoes will be pushing out new growth. That new growth will not have protective fungicide on it. Try to get out to the field as soon as things dry up.

If you find late blight or think yo have it, give Chuck a call or email me and we will come out to check your crop. Late blight produces large black spots the size of a half dollar. Sometimes, you will also see black spots on the stem, where the leaflet meets the main stem. This is different from black leg, which is usually caused from high moisture and damage to the main stem of plant.

Tomatoes
There are lots of green tomatoes out there. They are just starting to come red. In a few weeks there will be more tomatoes on the market than you can shake a stick at. The good side is most home owners tomatoes have succumbed to any one of the fungal problems out there (mine included. I have all of 3 feet to rotate and was killed by septoria)

We are seeing three problems on tomatoes. Early blight, spetoria and bacterial spot/canker. Early blight and septoria can be controlled by regular fungicide sprays of Quadris or Bravo. Organic growers have copper. While we are seeing a lot of bacterial disease, there is not a lot of fruit damage. According to Chris Smart, if it is wet when the tomatoes are marbles, that is the time when they are most susceptible to bacterial spots. If it is dry at that time, the fruit will be spot free but the vines will still go down later in the season. This is what we are seeing on many farms. It was dry early and even thought we went through a wet period, the fruit was big enough to not have spots. Keep up the copper plus mancozeb sprays to protect the fruit. Organic growers should keep using copper.

We are seeing what we think is early blight resistance to Quadris in tomatoes. We have sent samples in to be confirmed. If you have tomatoes that do not seem to repsond to Quadris, that give either Chuck or myself a call and have us come out and take some samples. You should only be using Quadris twice per crop year. If you are seeing heavy early blight and have used Quadris, switch to Tanos or Gavel mixed with a protectant.

Cornell Vegetable Recommends
The online version of the 2008 Integrated Crop and Pest Management Guidelines for Vegetables is now available at http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/recommends/
--
John Mishanec
Area Vegetable IPM Educator
Cornell Cooperative Extension
90 State Street6th Floor, Suite 600
Albany, New York 12207
Phone 518-434-0016
Fax 518-426-3316
E-mail jjm27@cornell.edu

John Mishanic's Vegetable Pest Status Report August 11, 2008

2008-08-14T04:44:00.000-07:00

Vegetable Pest Status Report August 11, 2008
By John Mishanec, IPM Vegetable Program and Chuck Bornt, CCE Capital District Vegetable Program

General Conditions
The rain continues. With the rains are coming moisture related disease problems. Late blight on potatoes has been reported in Mass, Southern VT as well as Conn. There are more reports of Downy Mildew on cucumbers and now it may be spreading to melons. It's very hard to get out and protect your crops when it is raining.

Don't rush back in until the ground is reasonable dry or you will be creating compacted ground. Wheel tracks are a good place where water will stick around longer than normal. If you have flooding, it may be wise to stay away from those spots and forget about the crops that were flooded. Disk an alleyway around flooded areas in the field, especially root or vine crops. Also, if you can, disk up your spray rows (when not planted in crops) as this will help slow water movement in the field as well as help water penetration of tire tracks.

Lastly, go out and scout your fields. Especially scout in areas where water is sticking around, high moisture areas along tree lines as well as places that get poor air circulation.

If you see something, and you do not know what it is, take a sample and bring it in the house and go to Vegetable MD online. It's a great site.The address is http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/Home.htmIf you have questions about anything, just e-mail me (jjm27@cornell.edu) and I will do my best to answer your questions.

Sweet Corn
The second flight of european corn borer (ECB) has started. We are catching double digit numbers of ECB in most traps. ECB lay their eggs in the ear zone so any corn in silk needs to be protected. A 5-day schedule should be adequate at this point. Corn ear worm (CEW) trap catches are still low and do not call for heavier spray schedule that the 5-day for ECB.

Morning, before dawn is the best time to make an application as you are avoiding honey bees.

Vine Crops
There are more reports of downy mildew here in eastern NY. Tom Zitter reports "Sometime during last week, Downy Mildew spread into our planting of Hales Best Jumbo cantaloupe. Defoliation in Straight Eight cucumber has reached 80% defoliation, with 50% defoliation in Poinsett 76. The rating in cantaloupe is also 50%". This means you need to protect your melons as well as cucumber with one of the following systemic fungicides with a mixing protectant partner.

Previcur Flex + a protectant (Bravo, applause, Equus, Echo)
Ranman + protectant
Tanos + protectant
Curzate + protectant
or Gravel + protectant

Alternate weekly with Acrobate, or Reason or Phosphoric acids ( Agri-Fos, Fosphite, FungiPhite, ProPhyt or Ridomil gold or Coppers

Also, attached is a useful list of the different fungicides, their cost per applications and days to harvest information. If you have trouble opening the list, let me know.

It is very important to act in the next couple days as DM moves very quickly. Once in a field, it will knock down and kill cucumbers within 3-5 days.

For organic growers, Tom Zitter reports that sulpher works fairly well as a protectant against DM and other fungal diseases.

Potatoes
As stated above, late blight (LB) has been found in Mass, Vt and Conn. Hopefully, most growers will have protective fungicides on their crops. A tighter spray schedule (when you are able to get into the field) may be called for. According to Tom Zitter at Cornell, Bravo is as good an anything to protect against LB. With lots of moisture, potatoes will be pushing out new growth. That new growth will not have protective fungicide on it. Try to get out to the field as soon as things dry up.

If you find late blight or think yo have it, give Chuck a call or email me and we will come out to check your crop. Late blight produces large black spots the size of a half dollar. Sometimes, you will also see black spots on the stem, where the leaflet meets the main stem. This is different from black leg, which is usually caused from high moisture and damage to the main stem of plant.

Tomatoes
We are seeing what we think is early blight resistance to Quadris in tomatoes. We have sent samples in to be confirmed. If you have tomatoes that do not seem to repsond to Quadris, that give either Chuck or myself a call and have us come out and take some samples. You should only be using Quadris twice per crop year. If you are seeing heavy early blight and have used Quadris, switch to Tanos or Gavel mixed with a protectant.

Cornell Vegetable RecommendsThe online version of the 2008 Integrated Crop and Pest Management Guidelines for Vegetables is now available at http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/recommends/
--
John Mishanec
Area Vegetable IPM Educator
Cornell Cooperative Extension
90 State Street
6th Floor, Suite 600
Albany, New York 12207
Phone 518-434-0016
Fax 518-426-3316
E-mail jjm27@cornell.edu

Vegetable IPM News Cornell Cooperative Extension

2008-08-08T05:28:00.000-07:00

Vegetable IPM News
Cornell Cooperative Extension
____________________________________________________________
Vol. 13 Number 4 Early August, 2008
__________________________________________________________________

Table of Content

- Late Blight Of Potato
- Effective Managing Powdery Mildew in Cucurbit Crops with Fungicides
- Plectosporium Blight on Cucs
- Salmonella Source Found
- New York, U.S. Potato Acreage Decreases
- Updated Fungicide Listings on Veg MD Online
- Sap Beetle on Sweet Corn
- Squash Bugs and Squash Vine Borer in Organic Production
- Organic Powdery Mildew Products
- Hedge Bindweed "Wild Morning Glory”
-The 2008 Cornell Vegetable Recommends
- Vegetable MD Online

Late Blight Of Potato Found In Western Massachusetts: Protect Potatoes And Tomatoes.
Bess Dicklow, UMass Cooperative Extension

Late blight caused by Phytophthora infestans has been identified in potatoes in the Connecticut Valley this week. Late blight is the most famous and most important disease of potatoes world-wide. It is a threat wherever potatoes are grown, but is particularly important in rain fed and irrigated fields at moderate temperatures. Late blight also infects tomatoes and many different Solanum species including hairy nightshade, petunia, and bittersweet. The ideal conditions for an epidemic of late blight are when night temperatures drop to 50 to
60° F, daytime temperatures range from 60 to 75° F, along with fog, heavy dew, rain, and long periods of leaf wetness, and cloudy skies. Four to five continual days of such weather are an open invitation for an outbreak. This describes exactly what we had in the Connecticut Valley last week. With over 3,000 acres of potatoes, mostly centered in the Connecticut Valley, an outbreak of late blight is a serious concern. It’s time to scout and spray!
Take action. Late blight spores are produced rapidly and are dispersed regionally by wind and rain. Growers in western and central Massachusetts and southern Vermont should consider their tomato and potato crops to be at risk of infection with late blight and should apply protectant fungicides. Scout your fields. If you suspect late blight in your field, it is important to confirm the diagnosis by contacting your local Cooperative Extension office of e-mail jjm27@cornell.edu. See symptoms listed below. It is important that farms within a few miles of your farm are aware of the risk.

Scouting and symptoms.
Field scouting will help you to catch the disease early, which will reduce losses and increase your options for control. Check fields twice a week. Look at leaves and stems under the canopy, as this is where the disease gets established first. The first sign of infected tissue is a water-soaked appearance of the leaves, which, in dry weather, quickly turn dark brown and brittle. Very young lesions occur as irregularly shaped, small black areas, often with an adjacent area of light green and collapsed tissues. Under favorable environmental conditions, lesions enlarge rapidly resulting in the blighting of entire leaves and plants. Infected areas may be surrounded by a halo of chlorotic, or yellowed, tissue. Under moist conditions, the pathogen sporulates producing a white, cottony growth especially on the underside of the leaves. Infected stems and petioles will turn dark brown or black.
Symptoms first show up around low-lying areas, ponds or creeks, near center-pivot irrigation rigs, and in places protected from wind. Early-planted fields are likely to be affected first.
Tuber infections appear as brown, dry, granular lesions which can extend well into tubers. Late blight lesions on tubers allow secondary organisms like soft rot bacteria to develop. Tubers can be infected whenever they come in contact with sporangia, which can occur during tuber growth or during harvest. Spores may be washed into soil and through the soil to tubers. Cool wet soil conditions favor infection; higher soil temperatures (>65 F) apparently suppress infection. Tubers infected with late blight are highly susceptible to soft rot; store in cool, dry conditions.

Symptoms on tomato
Leaf symptoms are similar to potato. On green fruit, gray-green water-soaked spots form, enlarge, coalesce, and darken, resulting in large, firm, brown, leathery-appearing lesions. If conditions remain moist, cottony white mold will develop on the lesions, and secondary soft-rot bacteria may follow, resulting in a slimy wet rot of the entire fruit. On ripe fruit, lesions have cream-colored concentric zones which eventually coalesce and affect the entire fruit.

Life Cycle.
Sources can include infected seed stocks and over-wintered infected plant material. The pathogen overwinters in volunteer host plants; potato (and tomato) cull piles, and may occur in both commercial fields and residential gardens. When moderate temperatures (50-80 ° F) and high humidity occur, sporangia are produced, released in the air, and blown onto susceptible crops. When cutting seed, infection can be spread from a few tubers to additional seed. Unlike other Phytophthora species, P. infestans is not considered to be a soil borne pathogen, although this assumption may change if both mating types are present and sexual spores (Oospores) are formed which can persist in the soil. A notable feature of this disease is the speed of disease development and spread. Under conducive conditions, entire fields can become infected after only a few days.

Fungicides - conventional.
Fungicides are the most important tool for managing late blight. Apply protectant fungicides prior to infection. If late blight is reported within a mile or two, begin applications of Previcur Flex or Curzate. Curzate should be applied in a tank mix with mancozeb, chlorothalonil, or metiram. Previcur Flex should be mixed with chlorothalonil.
The pathogen has developed resistance to some fungicides such as metalaxyl and mefenoxam (Ridomil, Ridomil Gold), so these are no longer effective. If environmental conditions remain conducive for disease development, apply a fungicide from a different mode of action class every 5-7 days such as Ranman, Forum, Tanos, Gavel, Reason, or a phosphorous acid fungicide (ProPhyt, Fosphite, Phostrol). Plants with significant disease should be burned down or plowed under.

Fungicides – organic.
Options for organic growers are extremely limited. Copper products may provide some protection. Currently in Massachusetts, there is one copper product that is allowed for organic use (OMRI listed) AND is currently registered in Massachusetts. This product is Basic Copper 53, sold by Albaugh, Inc. Ask your supplier to obtain it. Previously allowed copper products include Kocide formulations and Champion have had their approval revoked due to inert ingredients. An additional product, Champ WG, has been approved by Baystate Certifiers but will likely be impossible to find in market channels. Hydrogen peroxide products (OxiDate) will kill the pathogen spores that it contacts, but has no residual (protective) or curative activity.

Effective Managing Powdery Mildew in Cucurbit Crops with Fungicides
Margaret Tuttle McGrath, Cornell

Every year the question arises repeatedly: what is the best fungicide program for managing powdery mildew in cucurbit crops? This is not surprising considering the importance of cucurbit crops, powdery mildew and fungicides for management, as well as the ability of the pathogen to evolve resistance to fungicides. Powdery mildew is the one disease everyone growing cucurbits in most production areas can count on occurring. Resistant varieties, the only other management tool for powdery mildew, are not recommended as a substitution for fungicides, but rather should be used as a component of an integrated program with fungicides. An integrated program should slow pathogen evolution to overcome resistant varieties and fungicides.

Selecting the best fungicide program is challenging because the powdery mildew pathogen has proven adept at developing resistance to the most important fungicides. These are the mobile fungicides due to their ability to get to the lower leaf surface where the disease develops best. Mobile fungicides are prone to resistance development because of their single-site mode of action. When resistance is qualitative, as is the case with Topsin M and with the QoI fungicides (Quadris, Amistar, Cabrio, and Flint), individuals in the pathogen population that have insensitivity to the fungicide are fully resistant. The fungicide is completely ineffective. It doesn’t matter how much fungicide is applied, the insensitive isolates cannot be controlled. In this situation it is easier to determine when a fungicide is no longer worth applying, in contrast with fungicides to which resistance is quantitative. Resistance to fungicides typically is quantitative. In this situation, individuals in the pathogen population exhibit a range in sensitivity to the fungicide. Eventually individuals appear that are sufficiently insensitive that they cannot be suppressed with the fungicide applied at the lowest labeled rate and longest spray interval. If the pathogen is able to continue becoming more insensitive, the fungicide eventually will become completely ineffective even at the highest label rate and shortest interval.

To address the question of what mobile fungicides are the best choices for powdery mildew, research has been on-going at LIHREC evaluating individual fungicides and examining pathogen sensitivity to these fungicides. Efficacy of fungicides is determined by applying them individually to plots using a tractor-mounted sprayer (these are not recommended or labeled use patterns). Fungicide sensitivity of the pathogen is assessed by conducting bioassays with fungicide-treated seedlings in fields where powdery mildew is developing and by testing isolates in the laboratory. Several concentrations of each fungicide are tested when resistance is likely quantitative.

Based on recent fungicide efficacy results, the new fungicide Quintec is the most effective. It provided 81-89% control of powdery mildew on lower leaf surfaces. Melons are the only labeled crop at this time. Efficacy of Pristine and Procure has been variable. Procure at 6 fl oz/A was more effective in 2005 and 2007, providing 75-76% control when Pristine at 14.5 oz/A was only providing 46-52% control. However, in 2006 Procure provided only 35% control while Pristine at 18.5 oz/A provided 89% control.
Bioassays conducted in 2007 revealed that the powdery mildew pathogen was able to tolerate higher doses of boscalid (one of the two active ingredients in Pristine), triflumizole (Procure), and myclobutanil (Nova) than of quinoxyfen (Quintec). Relating fungicide sensitivity results to field applications is not easy because pathogen assays are based on fungicide concentration in the solution whereas fungicides are applied in the field on an area treated basis (e.g. rate per acre). Fungicide concentration that a grower sprays depends on the gallonage used.

When these fungicides are applied at their highest label rate and at 50 gpa, the field spray dose for quinoxyfen is 212 ppm which is 21 times greater than the dose tolerated by some isolates late in the season. Whereas the field spray dose for the other 3 fungicides (300 – 698 ppm) is only 2 to 4 times greater than the high dose tolerated (175 – 200 ppm). Additional differences between the bioassays and field applications that need to be recognized include more thorough spray coverage with the bioassay and the fact pathogen spores land on the bioassay plants one day after treatment rather than over several days. Based on these results, Quintec is expected to be the most effective fungicide. Unfortunately it is only labelled for use on melons presently. Efficacy of Pristine, Procure, and Nova could be affected by fungicide resistance, especially when applied at less than the highest label rate and/or less frequently than on a 7-day interval.

A bioassay was conducted on 10 July 2008 at the start of powdery mildew development to obtain some information on fungicide resistance for this season. Based on results from this limited assay, the pathogen population this year on LI includes a low frequency of individuals able to tolerate high doses of boscalid (Pristine), triflumizole (Procure), and myclobutanil (Nova). There were more symptoms on seedlings treated with boscalid than triflumizole, suggesting that Procure might be more effective than Pristine this season. Surprisingly, the opposite was found in PA fields where the assay was conducted at the same time. Some powdery mildew also developed on seedlings treated with Topsin M and Flint indicating that pathogen strains resistant to those fungicides are present again this year. Nontreated seedlings were substantially more severely affected by powdery mildew than the fungicide-treated seedlings indicating that pathogen strains able to tolerate the doses tested were uncommon at the start of disease development on LI before mobile fungicides were used. Their frequency can increase quickly where crops are not treated with a good resistance management fungicide program. A good program consists of resistant varieties treated weekly beginning very early in disease development with mobile fungicides that are applied in alternation and tank-mixed with protectant fungicides. Additional bioassays will be conducted in 2008 to monitor the pathogen’s sensitivity to fungicides over the season.
In conclusion, effectively managing powdery mildew in cucurbit crops continues to be challenged by fungicide resistance. Clearly Quintec is the best fungicide choice for melons.

It should be used in alternation with Procure and Pristine for resistance management. Rather than a strict alternation among the 3 fungicides, an acceptable program would be Quintec, Procure, Quintec Pristine, Quintec. All these mobile fungicides should be tank-mixed with a protectant fungicide. Start applications very early in powdery mildew development when severity is so low that about 50 old leaves need to be examined to find symptoms. Another critical component of effectively managing powdery mildew is monitoring disease severity on the lower leaf surface to assess degree of control. Report poor control and discontinue use of mobile fungicides. These fungicides cannot ‘cure’ spots already present, and these spots will continue producing spores, thus once powdery mildew is severe, even fungicides not affected by resistance cannot be expected to be very effective.

Please Note: The specific directions on fungicide labels must be adhered to -- they supersede these recommendations, if there is a conflict. Any reference to commercial products, trade or brand names is for information only; no endorsement is intended.

Plectosporium Blight of Cucurbits
T. Jude Boucher, University of Connecticut, Cooperative Extension System, M. Bess Dicklow, UMass Extension, Compiled by Andrew Cavanagh, Umass Extension

Plectoporium blight (Microdochium blight) caused by Plectosporium tabacinum (Microdochium tabacinum) was first observed in Tennessee in 1988 and has since been reported throughout pumpkin growing regions of the United States. The most susceptible cucurbits to Plectosporium blight are pumpkin, yellow squash, and zucchini.
Plectosporium tabacinum is a common fungus in the soil and on decaying plant material and is favored by warm, wet weather. The spores are spread by rain-splash and wind. Plectosporium blight is known to cause damage to a variety of cucurbit crops in Europe and Asia, but the strain present in the U.S. seems to primarily damage pumpkins, summer squash, zucchini and a few varieties of gourds. Two years ago it showed up on Cucurbita moschata (butternut family) and Cucurbita maxima (hubbards, buttercup, giant pumpkins, etc), so it is possible that the US strains are jumping species and will become a threat to previously immune crops. In wet years, which favor disease development and spread, crop losses in no-spray and low-spray fields can range from 50 to 100%. Fortunately, this disease is easily recognized and can be effectively managed.

Description and Management
Plectosporium blight is favored by cool, rainy weather. The fungus can overwinter on crop residue and can persist in the soil for several years. Plectosporium has not been reported to be seed-borne. Tiny spores are formed in lesions on vines, stems, fruit, leaves and leaf petioles. Spores can be dispersed by wind over long distances. Lesions are small (<1/4>Important Things To Remember:
• When Plectosporium blight occurs, rotate away from summer squash and pumpkins for two years.
• Choose sunny, well drained sites for cucurbit production.
• No resistant cultivars of pumpkins have been reported.
• Scout for disease early and apply protectant fungicides when the disease first occurs. The disease is readily controlled
by fungicide applications. Thorough coverage of foliage, vines, and fruit is necessary for good control.

Chemical Controls
Chlorothalonil (i.e. Bravo) and strobilurin fungicides (Pristine, Cabrio, Flint, Amistar = Quadris) are the most effective at controlling Plectosporium blight. However there are several other important factors that must be considered when designing spray recommendations such as, control of other important cucurbit diseases, resistance management, and spray coverage. The strobulurin fungicides are also usually the best weapon against powdery mildew, and should only be used once per season to delay resistance. With that in mind, it is best to hold off on spraying the stobulurin fungicides for plectosporium until such time as it can also be used as your first spray for powdery mildew. In addition, systemic fungicides should be combined with a contact fungicide like Bravo or Maneb to help delay resistance. The following materials are available for controlling plectosporium in cucurbit crops.
•azoxystrobin (Quadris): 11.0 to 15.4 fl oz/A (o dh, REI 4 h). Apply at the first sign of disease and repeat with a fungicide
other than a strobilurin in 7-14 days. Do not rotate with Flint or Cabrio.
•chlorothalonil (Bravo): 1.8 to 2.7 lb/A (0 dh, REI 12 h). Apply when conditions are favorable for disease development.
Repeat no sooner than a 7 day interval. Do not apply more than 19.1 lb/A per growing season.
•maneb/ mancozeb (Maneb, Penncozeb, Manzate Dithane): Rates vary depending on formulation. See label. (5 dh, REI 24
h).
•pyraclostobin (Cabrio EG 20 %): 12 to 16 oz/A (0 dh, REI 12 h). Apply at the first sign of disease and repeat with a fungicide other than a strobilurin in 7-14 days. Do not rotate with Flint or Quadris.
Where trade names or commercial products are used, no company or product endorsement is implied or intended. Always read the label before using any pesticide. The label is the legal document for product use. Disregard any information in this newsletter if it is in conflict with the label.

Salmonella Source Found
Rosemary Grodon, July 31, 08 American Vegetable Grower Online

The Salmonella strain associated with the lastest foodborne illness outbreak has been found, according to a report from the Associated Press. Health officials said on Wednesday the Salmonella strain was found in irrigation water as well as in a sample from some serrano peppers at a Mexican farm. The farm is located in Nuevo Leon, Mexico.

In other related news, yesterday the House Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture held a hearing to review issues surrounding the traceability of fresh produce.

Subcommittee Chairman Dennis Cardoza (D-CA) called the hearing in the wake the recent outbreak of Salmonella Saintpaul illnesses first thought to be associated with tomatoes and later linked to jalapeño and serrano peppers from Mexico.

“Frankly, we want to know what in the heck went wrong with this outbreak investigation. Just last year, we had nearly the same conversation about spinach,” Congressman Cardoza said. “You could describe our current food safety system as ‘outbreak roulette.’ A spin of the outbreak wheel could bankrupt your industry or sicken a loved one. This is unacceptable, and we must do more to improve the response of government and industry to foodborne illness outbreaks.”

“The investigative procedure must be clear, all stakeholders must understand the process, and we must not divert scarce Federal resources away from true food safety programs,” Subcommittee Ranking Member Randy Neugebauer (R-TX) said. “Our food production, processing and distribution systems are extremely complex, and it is clear to me that a one-sized fits all traceback system is most likely impossible to implement.”

Written testimony provided by the witnesses is available on the Committee Web site: http://agriculture.house.gov/hearings/index.html. A full transcript of the hearing will be posted on the Committee Web site at a later date.

New York, U.S. Potato Acreage Decreases
Greg Lemmons, USDA, NASS

New York potato growers planted an estimated 18,000 acres of potatoes this year according to Stephen Ropel, Director of USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, New York Field Office. Acres for harvest is forecast at 17,300, down 5% from last year.
U.S. area planted to fall potatoes for 2008 is estimated at 929,100 acres, down 8% from last year. Harvested area is forecast at 916,200 acres, also down 8% from 2007. The decrease in planted acreage can partly be attributed to higher prices from competing crops. Idaho growers decreased planted acreage 14% from last year. Growers of potatoes for fresh sales were encouraged to decrease their 2008 planted acres by 20% from their 2004 base acres. Crop conditions in Idaho were 86% good to excellent. Washington producers planted 6% fewer acres than a year ago. Cool, wet conditions delayed planting in the northwest section of the State. Oregon growers decreased acreage 3% from last year and the crop was 1 to 2 weeks behind normal. Planted acres in Colorado dropped 4%.
A storm at the end of June caused wind and hail damage with reduced yields expected.
North Dakota’s planted acreage declined 14% from last year. As of July 6, crop condition was rated 73% good to excellent. When compared to 2007, planted acres decreased 4% in Minnesota, went up 5% in Michigan and remained unchanged in Wisconsin. Ohio producers reduced acres 22% from a year ago. Maine’s planted area is down 4% from 2007. As of July 6, crop specialists in the State rated the crop in good to excellent condition due to frequent rains, warm days, and cool nights. Acreage in Pennsylvania increased 5%.

Updated Fungicide Listings on Veg MD Online
Tom Zitter, Cornell

Updated Labeled Fungicide listings for several vegetable crops and potatoes have been added to the VEG MD web site under News Articles. They include listings for Cucurbits, TEP = Tomato, Eggplant, and Pepper, Leafy Vegetables, Onions and Potato. As before, the complete, summarized Rosters of Fungicides are given at the end of each listing, separated into Protectants, special groups like Strobilurins, etc., Greenhouse Uses and OMRI Listed/NYS registered materials. The ABCs of Fungicides for Multiple Disease Control for Cucurbits is found at the back of the Cucurbit Listing. Go to: http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/

Sap Beetle on Sweet Corn
Gerald M. Ghidiu, Rutgers Cooperative Extension

Many growers have had difficulties controlling sap beetles in sweet corn the past several weeks. Part of the reason has been the high air temperatures we have experienced.
The temperatures around the ear zone are generally much higher than the ambient air temperature, as the corn canopy traps the heat much like a small greenhouse. So when
the air temperature reads 95 degrees F on the thermometer, it could be well over 100 degrees F at the ear zone in the corn field. As the temperature increases at the ear zone, the sap beetles respond with a quicker metabolism and more activity. Also, the effectiveness of most insecticides, especially the pyrethroid class of insecticides, decreases as the temperatures increase for a number of reasons: volatility of the insecticide, degradations of the pesticide molecule, increased detoxification by the insect pest, increased insect metabolism, etc.

Tips to improve management of sap beetles:
1) Use sweet corn varieties that have a strong tip cover to protect the ear. This is especially true of the super sweet varieties. The stronger the cover on the tip, the more difficult for the sap beetles to penetrate it, and the more loose-husked varieties have more sap beetle damage.
2) Protect the ear tip as best as possible from caterpillar and bird or animal damage. Any damage to the silks or tip allows easy access for the sap beetles. Also, damaged tips attract the beetles, and are thus more susceptible to damage. Use a spray program that targets and is effective against fall armyworm and corn earworm to prevent damage to the ear tip. Other insects that cause tip damage are grasshoppers and Japanese beetles, so monitor fields as silks emerge for these pests.
3) For a spray program, don’t rely on just continual applications of pyrethroids (Asana, bifenthrin, lambda-cyhalothrin, Mustang, etc). Growers should alternate spray applications using different insecticide classes when possible, even though there are few materials to alternate with. Penncap-M can be used for sap beetles in machine-harvested corn, and Lannate
LV is labeled for sap beetles. Sevin 80S is labeled on sap beetles and Japanese beetles, and Thionex is labeled on earworms and Japanese beetles, and will also reduce sap beetle populations.
These materials can be used in a management program, and should be used when the temperatures are hot.
4) Use a sprayer that will penetrate the canopy and supply adequate coverage of the ear tip. Both the sap beetle and the corn earworm enter the ear via the ear tip, so target the ear tip with your sprays. A ground rig with drop nozzles would enable an applicator to apply the pesticide directly to the tip by targeting the ear zone and thus protecting the point of entry for these pests. Use high volume, high pressure to ensure the spray is deposited at the ear zone. Once the sap beetle is in the ear tip, nothing can be done to eliminate it or prevent damage.

Squash Bugs and Squash Vine Borer in Organic Production
Robert Hadad, CCE

Squash Bug (Anasa tristis) The squash bug sucks sap from the leaves and stems of squash and pumpkins and causes the leaves to wilt and then turn black and crisp. This insect can also feed directly on the fruit and cause severe damage. The adults are dark gray and about 5/8 inch in length. They live through the winter in protected areas both under debris in the fields and in buildings and lay eggs on the underside of leaves in the spring and summer. The eggs hatch into light green or gray nymphs that congregate on leaves or fruit.

Cultural Control:
- Different cucurbits vary in their susceptibility. Crop rotation and sanitation are very important. Avoid leaving cucurbit crop debris available for over wintering sites. Till debris under in the fall and plant a cover crop. Keep headlands mowed. Next year plant cucurbits in a new field.
- During the summer, adults tend to congregate under shelter at night. Place boards on the soil surface near the squash in the evening and the next morning collect and destroy the pest.
- Destroy egg masses on the underside of leaves. A parasitic fly, Trichopoda pennipes, affects adult squash bugs and several wasps parastize the eggs. Provide habitat for these in or near the field.
- If squash bugs are a problem on your farm, avoid heavy mulch or no-till in susceptible crops such as zucchini. Squash bugs like shelter, and appear more numerous in reduced tillage or mulched crop systems.

Materials Approved for Organic Production:
- Pyrethrum on young nymphs
- Neem (2 of 3 recent studies show good control)

Squash Vine Borer (Melittia cucurbitae) The squash vine borer is found only on squash and pumpkins. Keep a look out for wilting plant parts that may result from the burrowing of a white “worm” in the squash vines. The vine borer is the larva of a moth that lays its eggs at the base of the plant. It overwinters as a larva in the soil. For reasons that are unclear, squash vine borer tends to be less of a problem in large plantings than in smaller ones.

Cultural Control:
- Winter squash, pumpkins and zucchini are particularly susceptible. Butternut squash (C. moschata) is resistant.
- Soon after crop harvest, plow the vine debris deeply to
bury over larvae.
- Rotate fields.
- In small plantings, it may be possible to manually remove the larvae. Find the sawdust-like frass on the affected plant stem, and then locate the larva by slicing lengthwise along the stem until you reach it. Destroy the larva, and then cover the slit stem area with soil.
- Keep floating row covers in place after transplanting or direct seeding until flowering.

Materials Approved for Organic Production:
Application of approved products is not currently a viable management option. Once the larvae bore into the stems, insecticides are generally not effective, but treatments could be effective if applied to the base of the plant prior to the insect entering the plant.

Organic Powdery Mildew Products
Margaret Tuttle McGrath, Cornell

Biocompatible products evaluated for managing powdery mildew, active ingredient, whether exempt from tolerance and EPA registration as a fungicide, labeled diseases and insect pests, and company. Check to make sure products are OMRI listed. A few products are not labeled for use for powdery mildew on cucurbits (target pest must be specified on the label to be used in NY).
1. Organocide. Active ingredient=5% sesame oil; inerts = 92% fish oil + 3% emulsifiers. Labeled for several diseases and insects. Organic Laboratories, Inc. $47.50 at 2 oz/gal. OMRI listed. Exempt from EPA registration.
2. JMS Stylet-oil, organic formulation (note that there is another formulation). 97.1% paraffinic oil. JMS Flower Farms, Inc. $7.43 at 5 qt/100 gal applied at 50 gpa. OMRI listed formulation. EPA Reg No. 65564-1. Registered in NY.
3. Serenade. Bacillus subtilis. Labeled for several diseases. OMRI listed. AgraQuest. EPA Reg No.69592-11. Registered in NY.
4. Sonata. Bacillus pumilus. Labeled for several diseases. OMRI listed. AgraQuest. EPA Reg No. 69592-13. Registered in NY.
5. OxiDate. 27% hydrogen dioxide. Labeled for several diseases. OMRI listed. BioSafe Systems. $21.58 at 128 fl oz/100 gal. EPA Reg No. 70299-2. Registered in NY.
6. Armicarb. 85% potassium bicarbonate. Labeled for powdery mildew and other diseases. Helena Chemical Company. $12.69-16.92 at 1.5-2 lb/A. EPA Reg No.5905-541. Registered in NY.
7. Kaligreen. 82% potassium bicarbonate. Labeled for powdery mildew. $21.41 at 4 lb/A. OMRI listed. AgBio, Inc. EPA Reg No. 70231-1. Registered in NY.
8. Milstop. 85% potassium bicarbonate. Labeled for several diseases. BioWorks, Inc. EPA Reg No. 70870-1-68539. Registered in NY for use on nursery crops.

Hedge Bindweed "Wild Morning Glory"
By Chuck Bornt, CCE Capital District

This perennial weed can be found in many potato fields. Late May and early June applications of Matrix provided some control of this weed in potatoes. However, the material only suppressed the bindweed in most fields. The best time to control "morning glory" is with the use of between-crop (after rye or wheat) application of herbicides when the weed is actively growing and at or beyond the full bloom stage. If the weed is under stress, control will be reduced. A combination of 2,4-D plus Banvel or 2,4-D alone will provide good control of this very persistent weed.

The 2008 Cornell Vegetable Recommends is now available from you local Cooperative Extension office. On the web, the address is
http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/recommends/

The web version is updated continuously. Click on Index to find the subject you are looking for. What makes the web version even more useful than the printed version is the many links to other web sites with useful information for those interested in growing vegetables. There are links to a site with information on natural enemies of vegetable pests, links to Cornell vegetable fact sheets, links to an excellent Virginia Tech weed identification site, links to the New York IPM site with many pest pictures and descriptions, links to a site with local weather information and pest forecasts, and links to a site containing the latest pesticide labels.

Vegetable MD Online
Another really great web resource is the Vegetable MD Online. This is a site produced by the Plant Pathology Department at Cornell. It has great pictures. You can go through a selected crop and learn about any disease that might affect that crop. Did I mention it has great pictures? Check it out. The web location is:
http://VegetableMDOnline.ppath.cornell.edu/Home.htm

John Mishanic's Vegetable Pest Status Report August 1, 2008

2008-08-04T12:40:00.000-07:00

Vegetable Pest Status Report August 1, 2008

By John Mishanec, IPM Vegetable Program and Chuck Bornt, CCE Capital District Vegetable Program

General Conditions
Everyone is getting rain. Diseases are springing up and you need to be on the lookout for those diseases in your fields.

There will be no Pest Status Report next week as I will be out with Tom Zitter all week and will not have time to write a report. Plan to attend one of the twilight meetings in eastern NY and bring your questions to Tom.

If you see something, and you do not know what it is, take a sample and bring it in the house and go to Vegetable MD online. It's a great site.The address is http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/Home.htm

If you have questions about anything, just e-mail me (jjm27@cornell.edu) and I will do my best to answer your questions.

Sweet Corn
Every grower I talk to says birds are as bad this year as they have every seen. About the best thing is the audio distress calls but you cannot run them all the time as the birds get used to them. Change the calls and do not run them at night. A combination of other things like balloons, reflective tape, cannons, etc should be use as well. One technique that seems to work is when you have picked a planting, knock it down. Do not chop the old corn. Birds like to be protected on the ground. They will eat the ears not harvested in the older corn. This helps.

I often get nervous when I think we should be catching corn ear worm (CEW) or european corn borer (ECB). That is why I check trap results from NJ, western NY and Long Island. We are catching a low level of CEW down in Orange and Ulster counties but so far, we have not caught many in the traps north of those locations. Our catch numbers are very similar to NJ, western NY and LI.

ECB numbers are still low but we are catching a few. Expect them to pick up next week. Up until the first week of August, the grower is a manager of what he/she does in the field with sweet corn. Once we get CEW and ECB flying, that control of what we do disappears. Both CEW and ECB lay their eggs either on or near the ear. The grower has very little time to catch the larvae before they eat into the ear. At this point in the season, I would like to say something else but really options for worm control are limited. xxxxMorning, before dawn is the best time to make an application as the ECB will be out and you are avoiding honey bees.

Vine Crops
Powdery Mildew (PM) has arrived. I thought since we found it later than normal in early planted summer squash, it would be later in Pumpkins but that doesn't seem to be the case. It is possible to find PM in every pumpkin field where the fruit is the size of a basket ball. PM is not a very aggressive disease. Once the fruit start to size up, the plant is weakened as all the energy is going into the fruit. This is when PM moves in. For the latest recommends in PM Control check out the Vegetable IPM Newsletter attached to this message.

Flooding is very bad for vine crops, especially pumpkins. Hopefully any flooding in a field was only temporary. Studies have found that any flooding that last more than a couple hours can spread phytophthora. If you have a pumpkin field that had spots with long term flooding, you may be better served disking a track around those spots to safeguard the rest of the field. Phytophthora spreads very quickly from plant to plant in wet conditions. Generally, pumpkins were looking very good up to this week. Check your fields for flooding conditions and take precautions.

Cucumbers
It's funny. Most growers I talk to have way to many cucumbers and some are even giving the cucs to their animals. From what I hear, the whole-sale price of cucs is still high. In any case, cucumber Downy Mildew (DM) is going crazy in western NY. Tom Zitter reported finding DM in his test plots in Ithaca this week. Both Chuck and I have been actively looking for DM here in eastern NY for the last couple weeks. Fortunately, so far, we have not found it. I cannot stress strongly enough that you need to have a good protective fungicide cover on your cucumbers. What we are seeing is a lot of bacterial leaf spot on the cucumbers. A combination of copper and Bravo would be a wise thing to have on your cucumbers at this point in the season. Keep this up every 5-6 days to make sure all new growth is covered. Keep picking those cucumbers as I expect the shortage in western NY to drive up the price of cucumbers here in eastern NY.

From Meg Megrath, Cornell,,
Only cucurbit leaves can become infected by the downy mildew pathogen. Initially spots are pale green, then yellow before infected tissue dies. Spots become angular and are often delineated by leaf veins. Often several spots occur together in a coalesced group. Affected tissue in pumpkin can be more orange than yellow. On the underside of leaves, spots appear water-soaked at first. Extensive defoliation can occur rapidly when conditions are favorable. Leaf petioles often remain green and upright after the leaf blade has died and drooped giving the appearance of limp rags on sticks. In contrast with powdery mildew, spores of the downy mildew pathogen are darker (purplish gray) and develop only on the underside of leaves. Spores are not always present (they are most visible on humid mornings) and symptoms can vary greatly based upon variety and/or crop, thus diagnosis can be challenging. Photographs are posted at http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu. There is an article at this site on 'Identifying initial downy mildew symptoms in cucurbits is critical for successful management'.

Fungicides that have broad-spectrum contact and protectant activity (Bravo, Maneb, Dithane, copper) provide some downy mildew control. They are not as effective as mobile fungicides which can move to the under side of leaves. (But if you are actively picking you will need to check days-till-harvest on any product you use. This may limit your choice to the protectants) They should be used alone to provide protection before disease onset in a production area, and in combination with mobile products when downy mildew is present to manage resistance. Fortunately several effective mobile fungicides are now available. In university fungicide efficacy experiments, Ranman and Presidio have performed slightly better than Previcur Flex, followed by Tanos and Curzate, which are considered slightly better than Forum, Revus, Gavel, and phosphorus acid fungicides. Most treatments tested were fungicide programs with mobile fungicides tank-mixed with protectants and used in alternation with other mobile fungicides.

Peppers
With the start of the flight of ECB, grower should thing about protecting their peppers from ECB. ECB lay their eggs on the pepper fruit and when the larvae hatch, they eat a hole just at the edge of the cap. It is hard to see but water gets into the hole and rots the fruit from the inside. Two sprays of Orthene, 10 days apart should control the problem. For organic growers, about the only thing to use in Entrust. Unfortunately, there is very little residual with Entrust so you will need to make more numerous spray applications.

I have also been seeing some bacterial spot on peppers. You will see spots on the lower leaves about a quarter inch in size. If you touch the leaves with the spots, they fall off very easily. Copper sprays are the only thing to use to protect the fruit.

Potatoes
Late blight has been found in Conn. This is pretty close to us. Go out and scout your fields. Make sure you scout in low areas, along hedge rows and any place where moisture hangs on in the field. Late Blight likes high humidity. Late blight makes large, black spots on the leaves the size of a half dollar. If you see it, you will know it as nothing else looks like Late blight. If you think you have LB in your potatoes, give me a call at 434-0016 or Chuck at 859-6213.

Potatoes do not like flooding. It will make them rot in storage. If you have low spots in a potato field that still have water, you may want to disk around those areas and abandon the potatoes there.

Tomatoes
In about another week, there will be more tomatoes on the market than anyone cares about. With fruit sizing up, bacterial canker and spot is showing up. The disease looks like early blight but inspect the fruit for black spots. Bacterial disease is the only things that makes the spots on the fruit. If you find black spots on the fruit, regular copper sprays are called for. Turn the plants green.

We are starting to see septoria and early blight on tomatoes also. Septoria makes lots of small, eighth inch spots that move up the plant from the lower leaves. Early blight makes bigger, bronze colored spots that have concentric rings inside of the spots . Both diseases can be controlled effectively with Quadris.

Onions
The dry weather we had previously really helps the build up of thrips on onions. Look into the center of the onion plant. You will see very, very small black insects running around. They scrape off the surface of the onion leaf and turn it white. Spintor or Entrust has just be labeled in NY for thrip control and is very effective.

Cornell Vegetable Recommends

The online version of the 2008 Integrated Crop and Pest Management Guidelines for Vegetables is now available at http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/recommends/--

John Mishanec
Area Vegetable IPM Educator
Cornell Cooperative Extension
90 State Street6th Floor, Suite 600
Albany, New York 12207
Phone 518-434-0016
Fax 518-426-3316
E-mail jjm27@cornell.edu

John Mishanic's Vegetable Pest Status Report July 25, 2008

2008-07-26T19:50:00.000-07:00

Vegetable Pest Status Report July 25, 2008

By John Mishanec, IPM Vegetable Program and Chuck Bornt, CCE Capital District Vegetable Program

General Conditions

The story of the week has been the rain. Most everywhere in Eastern NY received at least 4 inches this past week. Field flooding has been very common. Let's hope we get some nice weather to follow all the rain to speed drying conditions in the field.

Do not try to get back into the field too early. Compaction is something that lasts a long time. Also, if there are wet spots in the field, be careful harvesting your crops as you can easily spread disease problems from one plant to another in wet conditions.

Lastly, make time to scout your crops. All this rain, if it hasn't directly brought disease problems from NJ or the south, will help increase fungal and bacterial diseases already present in your fields. Stop at five locations in each crop and look at 2-3 plants at each location. This will give you a good idea of what is happening in the field.XXXXXIf you see something, and you do not know what it is, take a sample and bring it in the house and go to Vegetable MD online. It's a great site.The address is http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/Home.htm

If you have questions about anything, just e-mail me (jjm27@cornell.edu) and I will do my best to answer your questions.

Sweet Corn

With the rain, about the only thing to be done was check the pheromone traps throughout Eastern NY. From checking the traps, you learn migratory insects like corn ear worm (CEW) are very localized. We are finding CEW in traps in Orange and Ulster county. Trap numbers there are averaging 2-3 moths per night. This calls for a 4-5 day silk spray schedule. In Orange county, we have 3 traps around Pine Island. The southern most trap caught a few CEW, the middle trap caught lots and the northern trap caught a few. The traps are only about a mile or two apart but they show very different results. Farther north, we found 4 earworms for the week in northern Schoharie county while none in the south. The only other place where CEW was found last week was one moth in Albany. When CEW hits, it hits with the traps so full the moths want to carry off the trap. I feel growers are fairly safe north of Ulster county not spraying for CEW. Continue scouting newly emerging tassels for european corn borer (ECB). A field I scouted on Thursday had over 25% infestation. Other fields are much lower. Later plantings generally have lower ECB infestation raters than early corn but it is important to scout a field to see where you stand.

Scout corn that is in late whorl. Stop at 5 random locations. It is important to look at random locations in the field If you just look for damage, this will weigh your evaluation higher and that is not a true picture of the field. Random locations will give you a truer picture of what is happening in the field. At each location, inspect five plants for ECB damage. You are looking for small holes in the leaves at the top of the plant, especially around the covered up tassel. If you open up a plant that has not tasseled but has the holes, you will find the ECB larvae in the flowers of the tassel. Keep a running count of how many you find. You will have looked at 25 plants total at 5 locations so just multiply the number of infested plants by four and you have the percentage of ECB in the field. If you are over 15%, than a control is called for when the corn comes into tassel.

Morning, before dawn is the best time to make an application as the ECB will be out and you are avoiding honey bees.

Vine CropsFlooding is very bad for vine crops, especially pumpkins. Hopefully any flooding in a field was only temporary. Studies have found that any flooding that last more than a couple hours can spread phytophthora. If you have a pumpkin field that had spots with long term flooding, you may be better served disking a track around those spots to safeguard the rest of the field. Phytophthora spreads very quickly from plant to plant in wet conditions. Generally, pumpkins were looking very good up to this week. Check your fields for flooding conditions and take precautions.

Three weeks ago, cucumber Downy Mildew (DM) was found in Michigan and Canada. Here in NY, we thought we had a couple weeks before we saw the disease. Wrong, we saw DM the next week in western NY. Chuck and I have been looking for DM here in eastern NY. So far, we have not found it. Tom Zitter, as of a couple days ago, has not seen DM in Ithaca. But, with the storms we had this past week, be on guard. Cucurbit downy mildew has been confirmed on cucumber in Cumberland County, NJ. This is the first report of cucurbit downy mildew in New Jersey this growing season! Downy mildew has also been confirmed in DE, VA and MD.

From Meg Megrath, Cornell,,

Only cucurbit leaves can become infected by the downy mildew pathogen. Initially spots are pale green, then yellow before infected tissue dies. Spots become angular and are often delineated by leaf veins. Often several spots occur together in a coalesced group. Affected tissue in pumpkin can be more orange than yellow. On the underside of leaves, spots appear water-soaked at first. Extensive defoliation can occur rapidly when conditions are favorable. Leaf petioles often remain green and upright after the leaf blade has died and drooped giving the appearance of limp rags on sticks. In contrast with powdery mildew, spores of the downy mildew pathogen are darker (purplish gray) and develop only on the underside of leaves. Spores are not always present (they are most visible on humid mornings) and symptoms can vary greatly based upon variety and/or crop, thus diagnosis can be challenging. Photographs are posted at http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu. There is an article at this site on 'Identifying initial downy mildew symptoms in cucurbits is critical for successful management'.

Fungicides that have broad-spectrum contact and protectant activity (Bravo, Maneb, Dithane, copper) provide some downy mildew control. They are not as effective as mobile fungicides which can move to the under side of leaves. (But if you are actively picking you will need to check days-till-harvest on any product you use. This may limit your choice to the protectants) They should be used alone to provide protection before disease onset in a production area, and in combination with mobile products when downy mildew is present to manage resistance. Fortunately several effective mobile fungicides are now available. In university fungicide efficacy experiments, Ranman and Presidio have performed slightly better than Previcur Flex, followed by Tanos and Curzate, which are considered slightly better than Forum, Revus, Gavel, and phosphorus acid fungicides. Most treatments tested were fungicide programs with mobile fungicides tank-mixed with protectants and used in alternation with other mobile fungicides.

Potatoes

Last week, we found the first leaf hopper damage on potatoes. This week, in fields not sprayed, the hopper burn continues to get worse. Hopper burn is when the tips of the leaves turn black. Eventually, the whole leaf dries up and turns black. Look on the undersides of leaves and you will see small, green nymphs, usually around the mid rib of the leaf. Leafhopper damage can decrease your yields quickly. Get out there and check your fields for leafhopper and do control the problem. Organic growers have few options. Organic insecticides normally do not have a residual. They are gone very quickly so this does not give you very much long lasting protection. Go out and check you plants. If you are organic, it is important to know the PLH are here. Pyganic is about the only product that is organic certified that will do the job. It is also very expensive so you want to use it wisely. You will probably need to make more than one application to control the pest.

For conventional growers, Phaser and Thionex are the insecticides least toxic to ladybird beetles This is important for aphid suppression.

Potato late blight has been reported in Western PA and in Maine. This means this disease is around. Check low spots where moisture hangs in the field. Also check along tree lines where shade may keep spots moist.

Generally Colorado potato beetles are under control. Most growers with the problem have taken steps to reduce beetle populations.

For conventional growers, do not use Provado more than twice and do not use it at all if you used Admire at planting.

Tomatoes

It wouldn't be a bad idea to get some protective sprays on your tomatoes. At the minimum, copper will help reduce bacterial disease problems.

Cornell Vegetable Recommends

The online version of the 2008 Integrated Crop and Pest Management Guidelines for Vegetables is now available at http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/recommends/
--
John Mishanec
Area Vegetable IPM Educator
Cornell Cooperative Extension
90 State Street6th Floor, Suite 600
Albany, New York 12207
Phone 518-434-0016

John Mishanic's Vegetable Pest Status Report July 16, 2008

2008-07-16T18:54:00.000-07:00

Vegetable Pest Status Report July 16, 2008
By John Mishanec, IPM Vegetable Program and Chuck Bornt, CCE Capital District Vegetable Program

General Conditions
Chuck and I are beginning to find some problems in the field. We have had some heavy rains and fruit is beginning to size up, putting stress on the plants. With stress comes disease problems. Go out and scout your crops. It doesn't take long and you cannot do it from your pickup. Walk through your various corps and look on the undersides of the leaves. Stop at five locations in each crop and look at 2-3 plants at each location. This will give you a good idea of what is happening in the field.

If you see something, and you do not know what it is, take a sample and bring it in the house and go to Vegetable MD online. It's a great site.The address is http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/Home.htm

If you have questions about anything, just e-mail me (jjm27@cornell.edu) and I will do my best to answer your questions.

Sorry about the length of this issue. As the summer goes on, more problems require more space. I hope it isn't a problem.

Potatoes
Leaf hopper nymphs are being found. At this point in the season, there are plenty of leaf hoppers around. Alfalfa has been cut and the leaf hoppers move into potatoes afterwards. Go out and scout your field. The adults will generally flay away when you touch the plant while the nymphs will stick onto the leaf. The nymphs do more damage than adult leaf hoppers. If you see blackening of the tips of some leaves and puckering of the leaf, look on the undersides of the leaves. The nymphs are smaller than the adults but the same bright green color. When you start to see leaf hopper damage, you have already lost up to a third of your production. This is a serious problem and you should go out and scout your potatoes.

Organic growers have few options. Organic insecticides normally do not have a residual. They are gone very quickly so this does not give you very much long lasting protection. Go out and check you plants. If you are organic, it is important to know the PLH are here. Pyganic is about the only product that is organic certified that will do the job. It is also very expensive so you want to use it wisely. You will probably need to make more than one application to control the pest.

For conventional growers, Phaser and Thionex are the insecticides least toxic to ladybird beetles This is important for aphid suppression.

Also look for second generation Colorado potato beetles (CPB). You will see adults and also eggs. It is very difficult to control second generation CPB as you have adults, eggs and larvae at the same time. The adults will continue to lay eggs and you will constantly have a new batch of larvae. Scout your field to see if you have spots or CPB throughout the field. If you are going to harvest soon, you will not need to control CPB if you need time for the tuber to size up, and they are through out the field, you will need to control the beetles. Spintor works very well on CPB (Entrust for organic growers) but there are reports from Long Island that it is loosing its effectiveness. What this means is you should be rotating your products (difficult to do if you are organic). Do not tank mix a couple different insecticides as this will speed resistance. With a good product like Spintor (Entrust) we want it to last as long as possible.

For conventional growers, do not use Provado more than twice and do not use it at all if you used Admire at planting.

Vine cropsChuck and I found the first powder mildew (PM) on summer squash we have seen this summer. This is pretty late. Usually PM can be found on the earliest summer squash as early as late June but because of the generally cool weather, it is late. PM is a stress disease. If it is cool and there is plenty of moisture for the plants the disease holds off. So far, no PM in pumpkins. If it is late in pumpkins as well, we may not see it for a while.

We have found a pumpkin field with phytophthora. This is a disease that is very hard to control once you have it. Flooding in the field brings on the disease. If you have spots in a pumpkin field that have experienced flooding, keep an eye on them. If you have long term flooding, you may want to disk a border around that area so as not to spread the disease to the rest of the crop.

Cucumbers
A week ago, we heard that there was Cucumber downy mildew (CDM) found out in Michigan and Canada and we expected to see it in NY in a couple weeks. Well, things move fast and we have confirmed locations here in western NY. Both Chuck and I have been looking at cucumber fields throughout eastern NY but have yet to find it. This is a disease that travels with storms. The other unique factor it that it only affects cucumber. A few years ago, we had pumpkin downy mildew and it was fairly serious. The last few years, we have only seen cucumber DM. The price of cucumber is high and is only going to get higher. Protect your crop. If you haven't already, go out and put a protective fungicide spray on your cucumbers. You don't need to protect your other vine crops yet.

From Meg Megrath, Cornell,,
Only cucurbit leaves can become infected by the downy mildew pathogen. Initially spots are pale green, then yellow before infected tissue dies. Spots become angular and are often delineated by leaf veins. Often several spots occur together in a coalesced group. Affected tissue in pumpkin can be more orange than yellow. On the underside of leaves, spots appear water-soaked at first. Extensive defoliation can occur rapidly when conditions are favorable. Leaf petioles often remain green and upright after the leaf blade has died and drooped giving the appearance of limp rags on sticks. In contrast with powdery mildew, spores of the downy mildew pathogen are darker (purplish gray) and develop only on the underside of leaves. Spores are not always present (they are most visible on humid mornings) and symptoms can vary greatly based upon variety and/or crop, thus diagnosis can be challenging. Photographs are posted at http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu. There is an article at this site on 'Identifying initial downy mildew symptoms in cucurbits is critical for successful management'.

Fungicides that have broad-spectrum contact and protectant activity (Bravo, Maneb, Dithane, copper) provide some downy mildew control. They are not as effective as mobile fungicides which can move to the under side of leaves. They should be used alone to provide protection before disease onset in a production area, and in combination with mobile products when downy mildew is present to manage resistance. Fortunately several effective mobile fungicides are now available. In university fungicide efficacy experiments, Ranman and Presidio have performed slightly better than Previcur Flex, followed by Tanos and Curzate, which are considered slightly better than Forum, Revus, Gavel, and phosphorus acid fungicides. Most treatments tested were fungicide programs with mobile fungicides tank-mixed with protectants and used in alternation with other mobile fungicides.

TomatoesWe found a field where some of the tomato plants had leaves that looked like slivers. This is a virus. Tom Zitter from Cornell suggested it was Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) as it is carried by aphids. The problem could also be Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), as they look very similar. TMV is spread by handling the tomatoes after smoking. Unfortunately, there is nothing to be done at this point after you have the virus. Pull out the plants with the virus. This will slow down the progression in the field. Check out Vegetable MD online, http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/Home.htm and read up what Tom Zitter has to say about this disease. You will find good pictures at this site as well.

Sweet Corn
We continue to luck out and have found no Corn ear worm (CEW) in the Capital District or north. CEW have been caught in moderate numbers in Orange and Ulster Counties. Checking all the traps throughout eastern NY, those are the only locations were CEW was found. CEW can be very localized. The moths are migratory and carried north on storms from the south. NJ and Penn have reported increased numbers as well. In orange county, we caught 18 CEW in the trap and New Paltz reported 20. This is an average of 3 per night. This gives a 6 day spray schedule on corn in silk.

Average CEW Pheromone Trap
CatchesPer Day Per Five Days Per Week Days Between Sprays <0.2 <1.0 <1.4 No Spray (for CEW)0.2-0.5 1.0-2.5 1.4-3.5 6 days0.5-1.0 2.5-5.0 3.5-7.0 5 days 1-13 5-65 7-91 4 daysover 13 over 65 over 91 3 days

Add one day to the recommended spray interval if daily maximum temperaturesare less than 80° F for the previous 2-3 days.

If you are in an area with CEW present, you need to make silk sprays as well as tassel emergence sprays. Any corn with fresh silk is susceptible to CEW. The CEW adult lays eggs on the silk and the hatched larvae go into the tip. Once the larvae are in the tip, they is impossible to control. You only have a small window with CEW so follow the time guidelines printed above. Other areas north of Ulster county, I think you can feel safe that CEW is not in your locations. We have 15 CEW traps in the Capital District and north and there was not a single CEW in any of those traps. Keep up with the tassel sprays. Timing is everything with european corn borer (ECB) control. With the overcast weather, we are lucky because the larvae will stay up in the tassel longer and not drop down to the ear as quickly. When it is hot, you only have a very short window to catch the larvae on the tassel. Your effectiveness is greatly increased when you make your control application when the tassel is just opening up and the tassels are still vertical but separated from one another (vertical tassel). If the tassels are still tightly held together, it is too early. If the tassels are completely open and horizontal, it is too late. When the weather turns hot, you need to be on top of the corn when tassel is coming on. Once full tassel arrives, you have missed the opportunity to control the larvae. Since tassel never comes on all at once, make your first application when 40% of the field is in vertical tassel. Wait 3-4 days till the rest of the field comes into vertical tassel and make your second application. Scout corn that is in late whorl. Stop at 5 random locations. It is important to look at random locations in the field If you just look for damage, this will weigh your evaluation higher and that is not a true picture of the field. Random locations will give you a truer picture of what is happening in the field. At each location, inspect five plants for ECB damage. You are looking for small holes in the leaves at the top of the plant, especially around the covered up tassel. If you open up a plant that has not tasseled but has the holes, you will find the ECB larvae in the flowers of the tassel. Keep a running count of how many you find. You will have looked at 25 plants total at 5 locations so just multiply the number of infested plants by four and you have the percentage of ECB in the field. If you are over 15%, than a control is called for when the corn comes into tassel.Morning, before dawn is the best time to make an application as the ECB will be out and you are avoiding honey bees. More and more organic growers are using Entrust to control insects. It is good to finally have a product that will do the job. In the past, organic growers did not have good options for ECB control. Spintor, the conventional version of Entrust for organic growers also works well on ECB.

The online version of the 2008 Integrated Crop and Pest Management Guidelines for Vegetables is now available at http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/recommends/
--
John Mishanec
Area Vegetable IPM Educator
Cornell Cooperative Extension
90 State Street
6th Floor, Suite 600
Albany, New York 12207
Phone 518-434-0016
Fax 518-426-3316
E-mail jjm27@cornell.edu

John Mishanic's Vegetable Pest Status Report July 11, 2008

2008-07-14T12:16:00.000-07:00

Vegetable Pest Status Report July 11, 2008
By John Mishanec, IPM Vegetable Program and Chuck Bornt, CCE Capital District Vegetable Program

General Conditions
Rain seems to be a limiting factor on many farms so far this summer. One area is getting rain and another area is dry. A problem is when it rains, it really rains hard. We have seen flooding in some fields. If you do have flooding in a field, keep an eye on it. Crops like pumpkins and potatoes, while they may look good at harvest, can have serious problems coming out of wet spots.

Generally, crops look good but we are starting to see a few problems on selected fields throughout the region.

On a good note, I have been scouting a few fields that were severely damaged by hail. At the time, it looked like many of the various crops were complete write-offs. Some of the crops like peppers, tomatoes, pumpkins and potatoes have grown out of the damage and are looking very good. Granted, they may be a little later than normal but at least they will make a crop. On the other hand, things like eggplant, summer squash, cucumbers, etc were pretty much destroyed and are not coming back very well. The hail was a serious setback for many growers but some of the crops we thought were completely lost are coming back.

Also, received an email saying the link to the Cornell Recommends was not working, I just checked and maybe it was down for a day but it is working now.

The address is:http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/recommends/ The address for Vegetable MD online is http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/Home.htm

If you have questions about anything, just e-mail me (jjm27@cornell.edu) and I will do my best to answer your questions.

Cucumbers
A week ago, we heard that there was Cucumber downy mildew (CDM) found out in Michigan and Canada and we expected to see it in NY in a couple weeks. Well, things move fast and we have confirmed locations here in western NY. Both Chuck and I have been looking at cucumber fields throughout eastern NY but have yet to find it. This is a disease that travels with storms. The other unique factor it that it only affects cucumber. A few years ago, we had pumpkin downy mildew and it was fairly serious. The last few years, we have only seen cucumber DM. The price of cucumber is high and is only going to get higher. Protect your crop. If you haven't already, go out and put a protective fungicide spray on your cucumbers. You don't need to protect your other vine crops yet.

From Meg Megrath, Cornell,

Only cucurbit leaves can become infected by the downy mildew pathogen. Initially spots are pale green, then yellow before infected tissue dies. Spots become angular and are often delineated by leaf veins. Often several spots occur together in a coalesced group. Affected tissue in pumpkin can be more orange than yellow. On the underside of leaves, spots appear water-soaked at first. Extensive defoliation can occur rapidly when conditions are favorable. Leaf petioles often remain green and upright after the leaf blade has died and drooped giving the appearance of limp rags on sticks. In contrast with powdery mildew, spores of the downy mildew pathogen are darker (purplish gray) and develop only on the underside of leaves. Spores are not always present (they are most visible on humid mornings) and symptoms can vary greatly based upon variety and/or crop, thus diagnosis can be challenging. Photographs are posted at http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu. There is an article at this site on 'Identifying initial downy mildew symptoms in cucurbits is critical for successful management'.

Fungicides that have broad-spectrum contact and protectant activity (Bravo, Maneb, Dithane, copper) provide some downy mildew control. They are not as effective as mobile fungicides which can move to the under side of leaves. They should be used alone to provide protection before disease onset in a production area, and in combination with mobile products when downy mildew is present to manage resistance. Fortunately several effective mobile fungicides are now available. In university fungicide efficacy experiments, Ranman and Presidio have performed slightly better than Previcur Flex, followed by Tanos and Curzate, which are considered slightly better than Forum, Revus, Gavel, and phosphorus acid fungicides. Most treatments tested were fungicide programs with mobile fungicides tank-mixed with protectants and used in alternation with other mobile fungicides.

Pumpkins
We have found a pumpkin field with phytophthora. This is a disease that is very hard to control once you have it. Flooding in the field brings on the disease. If you have spots in a pumpkin field that have experienced flooding, keep an eye on them. If you have long term flooding, you may want to disk a border around that area so as not to spread the disease to the rest of the crop. With the rains, I have been seeing some angular leaf spot in some fields. Look for small, brown spots that drop out and make the leaf look torn up. A copper spray will help slow the disease but generally, we haven't seen too much of a problem.

Sweet Corn
Corn ear worm (CEW) have been caught in moderate numbers in Orange and Ulster Counties. Checking all the traps throughout eastern NY, those are the only locations were CEW was found. CEW can be very localized. The moths are migratory and carried north on storms from the south. NJ and Penn have reported increased numbers as well. In orange county, we caught 18 CEW in the trap and New Paltz reported 20. This is an average of 3 per night. This gives a 6 day spray schedule on corn in silk.

Average CEW Pheromone Trap CatchesPer Day Per Five Days Per Week Days Between Sprays <0.2 <1.0 <1.4 No Spray (for CEW)0.2-0.5 1.0-2.5 1.4-3.5 6 days0.5-1.0 2.5-5.0 3.5-7.0 5 days 1-13 5-65 7-91 4 daysover 13 over 65 over 91 3 days

Add one day to the recommended spray interval if daily maximum temperaturesare less than 80° F for the previous 2-3 days.

If you are in an area with CEW present, you need to make silk sprays as well as tassel emergence sprays. Any corn with fresh silk is susceptible to CEW. The CEW adult lays eggs on the silk and the hatched larvae go into the tip. Once the larvae are in the tip, they is impossible to control. You only have a small window with CEW so follow the time guidelines printed above.

Other areas north of Ulster county, I think you can feel safe that CEW is not in your locations. We have 15 CEW traps in the Capital District and north and there was not a single CEW in any of those traps.

Keep up with the tassel sprays. Timing is everything with european corn borer (ECB) control. With the overcast weather, we are lucky because the larvae will stay up in the tassel longer and not drop down to the ear as quickly. When it is hot, you only have a very short window to catch the larvae on the tassel. Your effectiveness is greatly increased when you make your control application when the tassel is just opening up and the tassels are still vertical but separated from one another (vertical tassel). If the tassels are still tightly held together, it is too early. If the tassels are completely open and horizontal, it is too late. When the weather turns hot, you need to be on top of the corn when tassel is coming on. Once full tassel arrives, you have missed the opportunity to control the larvae. Since tassel never comes on all at once, make your first application when 40% of the field is in vertical tassel. Wait 3-4 days till the rest of the field comes into vertical tassel and make your second application.

Scout corn that is in late whorl. Stop at 5 random locations. It is important to look at random locations in the field If you just look for damage, this will weigh your evaluation higher and that is not a true picture of the field. Random locations will give you a truer picture of what is happening in the field. At each location, inspect five plants for ECB damage. You are looking for small holes in the leaves at the top of the plant, especially around the covered up tassel. If you open up a plant that has not tasseled but has the holes, you will find the ECB larvae in the flowers of the tassel. Keep a running count of how many you find. You will have looked at 25 plants total at 5 locations so just multiply the number of infested plants by four and you have the percentage of ECB in the field. If you are over 15%, than a control is called for when the corn comes into tassel.

Morning, before dawn is the best time to make an application as the ECB will be out and you are avoiding honey bees.

More and more organic growers are using Entrust to control insects. It is good to finally have a product that will do the job. In the past, organic growers did not have good options for ECB control. Spintor, the conventional version of Entrust for organic growers also works well on ECB.

Potatoes
Two important insects are present in potatoes this week. First, potato leaf hopper can be found in every field that has not been sprayed, especially organic potatoes. Numbers are over threshold but not excessively high like last year. Conventional growers have an easier time with leafhopper as any number of products will work on both beetles and leafhopper. For organic growers, you are limited to Pyganic. Organic insecticides normally do not have a residual. You will probably need to make more than one application to control the pest.

Go out and check your fields. If you don't have a sweep net, , grab a bunch of potato vines, flop them into the row and shake them. Flop them back the other way and inspect what you have on the ground. Leaf hoppers are bright green, about an eighth of an inch long and wedge shaped. They move pretty quickly so sometimes they are hard to spot.

For conventional growers, Phaser and Thionex are the insecticides least toxic to ladybird beetles This is important for aphid suppression.

I am finding second generation colorado potato beetles (CPB) both adults and eggs. Go out and scout your fields. This is a dangerous time. If you let the second generation go, you will be fighting them the rest of the summer and have a substantial population to carry over to next year. If you see adults, they are laying eggs. You will be able to kill the adults but eggs will be left and when they hatch, you'll have more larvae. So go out there and look for adult CPB and also look for eggs. At this point, you are going to have to make multiple applications fairly close together to have an impact.

Spintor works very well on CPB (Entrust for organic growers) but there are reports from Long Island that it is loosing its effectiveness. What this means is you should be rotating your products (difficult to do if you are organic). Do not tank mix a couple different insecticides as this will speed resistance. With a good product like Spintor (Entrust) we want it to last as long as possible.--
John MishanecArea Vegetable IPM EducatorCornell Cooperative Extension90 State Street6th Floor, Suite 600Albany, New York 12207Phone 518-434-0016Fax 518-426-3316E-mail jjm27@cornell.edu