Waiting for enough weeds in fall beet and carrot beds to [justify] kill[ing them] off before planting fall plantings.

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1 UConn Extension Vegetable IPM Pest Message & Reports from the Farm, Friday July 3rd, 2015 [Comments or answers in brackets are provided by Jude Boucher, UConn Extension] Fred Monahan, Stone Gardens Farm, Shelton, CT Brassicas are clean. Beans are clean, should be picking by weekend. Waiting for enough weeds in fall beet and carrot beds to [justify] kill[ing them] off before planting fall plantings. This year we tried something different with our potatoes. We prepped the land and broadcasted 800 lbs /acre custom veggie mix fertilizer. After discing in the fertilizer we drove back and forth with a tractor to mark the rows. Then we simply laid the cut potato pieces in between the tire marks. After laying out the seed potatoes we took our raised bed maker and hilled over the seed. I then sprayed a pre-emergent herbicide mixed with generic brigade for wireworm control. We did not plant until the ground warmed up and it did take a couple weeks to germinate (I was a little worried). But they came up well. We then used a shielded spray system to kill any lingering weeds in between the beds. The potatoes are now filling in the whole block and it looks like one solid block of potato plants. It looks pretty promising and I m guessing the yields will be way up/acre. ECB=1 down from 2 last week - but one of the lures fell off of the string so the count is probably off CEW=.5/night [6-day spray schedule on fresh silking corn] ECB in mid-whorl corn=40% ECB in pre-tassel corn= 26% [threshold is 15% at pre-tassel] Bruce Gresczyk, Jr., Gresczyk Farms, New Hartford, CT Tomatoes: We are spraying a Manzate type product to keep the Early Blight in check. Peppers: Any suggestions other than copper for BLS? [You might try alternating with Oxidate. Preventative options may be more effective: resistant varieties, hot water seed treatment, or streptomycin applications in the greenhouse, see NEVMG]. Squash: We continue spray for PM. Other than that the plants look great. Potatoes: The Potato Beetles are here and we will be spraying tonight, but I am not sure what I am going to use yet. [Besiege or Admire Pro will work for both CPB and PLH] Corn: I only just put up traps I will have data next week. Al Popp, Sport Hill Farm, Easton, CT This is my first year planting celery and a couple plants are starting to wilt sporadically in the field. Right now just the tops are wilting but the plant isn't dead. Any suggestions?

This is from the new England Vegetable Management Guide (www.nevegetable.

2 [The main problem folks have with growing celery is black heart and you just described the first symptoms. It is a calcium movement problem much like blossom end rot on tomatoes or bitter pit in apples. If you look in the center of the crown down low you will find some rot. This is from the new England Vegetable Management Guide ( Physiological Disorders Black Heart Blackheart is a physiological reaction of celery associated with poor calcium assimilation that occurs in most celery growing regions and is closely linked to growing conditions. Significant losses have been reported in Florida, California, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin. If conditions favorable for the development of blackheart persist the entire crown may be destroyed in a few days. In minor cases, the plants may recover or seem to recover, although symptoms can return. Symptom development is much more severe as plants approach maturity. The appearance of symptoms is closely linked to fluctuating water levels and available calcium. Environmental conditions that favor rapid growth such as heavy rain or irrigation subsequent to drought favor symptom development. High nitrogen, potassium, and sodium levels may also play a role. Certain celery cultivars are more susceptible to blackheart. Blackheart is prevented by ensuring steady plant growth, avoiding wide fluctuations in moisture and nutrients. Drench applications of soluble calcium can lessen or prevent the development of blackheart. Plant celery cultivars that are not prone to the syndrome. Drip irrigation which provides more even moisture levels can help reduce risk. Black heart of celery, wilting and rotting of heart tissue. Steve and Ben Berezc, The Farm, Woodbury, CT [reported by JB] Steve and Ben didn t capture any corn earworm moths in their pheromone traps this week, so will not need to spray silking corn until they start to capture them. Traps should be checked every 3 to 4 days. Their second block of corn was in the late-whorl stage and had 18% of the plants infested so it will exceed the 15% threshold this week when it reaches the pre-tassel stage.

Snap beans exceeded the threshold of 5 PLH per foot of row before the bud stage and will also be sprayed once before bloom.

3 Brassica crops had a mix of imported cabbage worm and diamondback moth larvae. 20% of the plants were infested, which is right at the threshold for conventional growers, so they will apply a spray. Snap beans exceeded the threshold of 5 PLH per foot of row before the bud stage and will also be sprayed once before bloom. Tomatoes: we discovered bacteria canker and early blight on one of their heirloom varieties. They will begin applying a fungicide program that will include copper for the bacterial disease and mancozeb for the early blight at 10-day intervals until the fruit begin to color. Early blight and bacterial canker

4 Sara and Dan, Daffodil Hill Farm, Southbury, CT Tomatoes: We found early blight while scouting their tomatoes this week and bacterial canker two weeks ago, so like the Berezc brothers, they will be applying copper and mancozeb. Brassica crops: 90% of their cabbage family plants were infested with ICW and DBM larvae and they will apply a B.t such as XenTari or Agree. Byron & Carolyn, Meetinghouse Farm, New Milford, CT The summer squash and tomatoes were free of powdery mildew and early blight. Kale and broccoli had 30% of the plants infested with DBM larvae. However, organic growers often use a higher threshold than conventional growers (i.e %), based on what they feel their customers will tolerate, and so they decided not to spray this week. They will scout again next week. Growers who sell to the commission houses at the regional market do not have that option. Byron is trying to get their cultivating tractor back up and running so that they don t fall too far behind the weeds. Mike and Megan, Autumn Oak Farm, Tolland, CT They found early blight on their tomatoes this week and as an organic farm elected to remove the bottom leaves to slow the spread of this disease in their planting. The other option would be to spray with something like copper or Double Nickle every 7-10 days. They also elected to hand crush the asparagus beetles on their small planting of asparagus. Cucurbit plants in standing water in the lower section of their fields were not doing well and they were cautioned not to plant cucurbit, solanacous, legume or brassica crops there in the future as they are vulnerable to Phytophthora blight in this situation and/or simply do not like wet roots. They should also improve the drainage in this portion of the field using swales to redirect the water. Steve Sheldon, Sheldon-Mel Farm in W. Suffield Steve used Armezon, a generic version of Impact, to get the crabgrass and other weeds out of his early sweet corn planting and it seemed to work well. These products should be mixed with a moderate to high rate of methylated seed oil (MSO) and liquid nitrogen (26-0-0) and applied to the proper growth stage of the weed for maximum performance (usually weeds less than 3 or 4 inches high). They don t really work at all without the two adjuvants. In his pumpkin fields, which are the heaviest soils and the weediest fields on his farm, he started by killing all the first growth of weeds with Roundup. He then used Strategy, with a half rate of Sandea to pick up the lambsquarter, as a pre-emergence application to hold the weeds down until the plants run. The strategy will not control lambsquarter, and the Sandea works much better on this weed when applied pre- rather than post-emergence. Donny Dzen, Dzen Farm, South Windsor, CT [reported by JB] Donny had several pumpkin fields that required cultivation for weeds before the plants start to run. He uses deep zone tillage and a pre-emergence application of Strategy on most of his pumpkin fields. Several of his fields had pretty good weed control and a few scattered mustard and ragweed plants that he will clean up with a post-emergence application of Sandea while

plants are in the 3 to 5 leaf stage. Sandea is stronger on ragweed and velvet leaf as a postemergence application rather than when used pre-emergence. Josh Vincent, Vincent Farm, W.

5 plants are in the 3 to 5 leaf stage. Sandea is stronger on ragweed and velvet leaf as a postemergence application rather than when used pre-emergence. Josh Vincent, Vincent Farm, W. Suffield, CT [reported by JB] Tomatoes: We found early blight and no bacterial diseases, so he will start applications of mancozeb every 10 days until fruit begin to color. Sweet corn: Josh found no CEW in his pheromone trap, so he is not spraying silking corn at this time. For ECB, we found just one moth in his traps and 18% infested plants on his pre-tassel stage planting, so that is ready for a treatment. He found high levels of cucumber beetles on his youngest planting of cucumbers and summer squash, so he used Warrior to clean up that problem. Corn earworm moth - note black dot in center of front wing. Jonathan Griffin, Oxen Hill Farm, W. Suffield, CT [reported by JB] Brassica crops: we found 60% of his broccoli infested with ICW and DBM larvae and only 20% of the kale. Only his broccoli will be sprayed with Entrust or B.t. His young cucumber, beans and potato plantings are being overrun by weeds so he needs to keep that basket weeder going to keep up with all the fields he is managing, and needs to hill those potatoes. They tried to apply row covers to half of one of their big potato fields to control potato leaf hoppers, but the high winds in a storm this past week blew it loose. If you are using row covers

6 consider burying the edges instead of trying to pin or weigh it down. One simple way that they use at the Anderson Farm in Wethersfield to cover large acreage of early sweet corn, is to pull a one bottom plow with a small tractor. The first pass opens a furrow down the length of the planting, you weigh the row cover down with a few shovels full of soil, then plow in the opposite direction to bury the edge. They are so fast at it that they even take the covers off to side-dress the corn and then recover them to get 4 th of July corn. Liz Cecarelli, Eve s Corner Garden, Bethany, CT Liz had a downy mildew problem on her basil way back in the greenhouse, and the plants looked terrible when she planted them out in the field and I visited two weeks ago. I advised her to take them out and replant with clean basil plants. She didn t, and instead had a worker remove all the lower infected leaves. To our surprise the plants made a complete recovery by this past week. I couldn t find any downy symptoms anywhere in the planting. That is a first for me. I have never seen badly infected basil plants recover from DM with or without a fungicide treatment. Usually wet weather favors DM development, but somehow her plants recovered during two weeks of rainy weather. Go figure! I always recommend that you sell basil as soon as you can and don t wait until September to make your pesto! Harvesting early will help avoid losses to DM. Brassica crops: her cabbage and kale had 60% of the plants infested with DBM and required a B.t. treatment. Her beans were almost at bud stage and the PLH were at 5/foot of row, with new nymphs, so they may still benefit from a single shot of PyGanic or Pyganic and neem before bloom. Willy Dellacamra, Cecarelli Farm, Northford, CT The traps in silking sweet corn fields in Northford and in the northern part of Wallingford failed to capture any CEW moths this week, but traps in the southern part of Wallingford captured 1.5 moths per night, which puts them on a 4-day spray schedule on fresh silking corn at that location. Nelson just called with that last number so the moths may have come in on the storm front yesterday. You may want to re-check your traps if you haven t checked them since before Wednesday s rain. Tomatoes: We found early blight, bacterial spec and pith necrosis on a few plants. He will start his copper plus mancozeb applications for the BS and EB. Pith necrosis is also a bacterial disease, but fungicide and copper treatments do not help. It usually only affects a few random plants scattered across the planting. It is associated with low night temperatures, high nitrogen and high humidity and may first appear as the fruit load increases before the fruit mature. The recommendation is to avoid excessive nitrogen applications. Hopefully, our night temperatures will get a little warmer too.

Pith necrosis, Photo s by Meg McGrath, Cornell University Jude Boucher, UConn Extension I set up a squash vine borer trap at the research farm two weeks ago in a summer squash planting and captured

7 Pith necrosis, Photo s by Meg McGrath, Cornell University Jude Boucher, UConn Extension I set up a squash vine borer trap at the research farm two weeks ago in a summer squash planting and captured 12 SVB last week. I will go to the farm today after I finish this message and expect to capture even more moths this week. The threshold for this insect for farms with small plantings of summer squash or other cucurbits with thick stems is to spray one week after you capture 5 moths per week. The female moth lays up to 150 eggs so small plantings and home gardens tend to get damaged if this pest builds up at the site, while larger plantings are not bothered because plants may only have 0-2 larvae per plant. When more than 5 larvae per plant are present, summer squash yields can be reduced by 35%. Even large numbers of larvae do not bother pumpkin vines which sprout adventitious roots from the nodes of the stem. Occasionally populations on a farm will get so high that fruit are attacked. Moldboard plowing buries pupae so deeply that the moths can t dig their way out, which lowers populations. I set up a pepper maggot trap in a maple tree at W. Suffield yesterday. If you do not wish to set a trap 20 feet up in a tree, you can monitor by planting a cherry pepper plant every feet in the outer row of peppers closest to the wood lines. The flies move from the tree canopies into the field to mate and lay eggs in fruit, and they are highly attracted to cherry peppers. Look for small, round, white scars or stings on the glossy cherry peppers. If the peppers have grown since being stung, the scar will be at the bottom of a slight dimple or indentation. Conventional growers use one or two applications of dimethoate or Orthene, at 10 day intervals to kill the flies once they show up on traps or start stinging fruit. Organic growers can spread Seduce (spinosad bait) under the plants or spray with GF-120 Fruit Fly Bait, but the liquid bait is very difficult to apply correctly and requires special preparation and equipment. Both organic and conventional sprays work best if you use perimeter trap cropping by planting a full row of cherry peppers all the way around your planting and limiting your spray to the outer row or rows. Most farms do not have this pest, but when you do, you must treat or keep the plants covered with row covers until mid-august, or the population will continue to increase on your farm. Horse nettle is the alternate host and should be controlled to eliminate the population on a farm.

8 We will be setting up plastic green Unitraps in very young corn fields this coming week to monitor for the arrival of fall armyworms. These traps can save a lot of scouting on large farms between the two generations of corn borers. Having trouble identifying the common pests on your crops? There are great pictures of pests for the following crops up on the UConn IPM Web Site ( sweet corn, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, legumes, cucurbits, and Brassica crops. When you go to the site open vegetables and specific crops. The photos galleries are the first file under each crop. I m hoping to post pests for some of the minor crops in the near future so if you have a great photo of a pest on carrots, leafy greens, Alliums, etc. send them my way and we ll expand the photo galleries next winter. That s all for this week. I ll send another update next Friday, July 10th.

UConn Extension Vegetable IPM Pest Message & Reports from the Farm, Friday August 21th, 2015

UConn Extension Vegetable IPM Pest Message & Reports from the Farm, Friday August 21th, 2015 [Comments or answers in brackets are provided by Jude Boucher, UConn Extension] We are currently under a late