Still low corn earworm (CEW) pressure. Only 1 moth caught in 4 nights resulting in per night. No spray for now.

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Estella Hodges
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UConn Extension Vegetable IPM Pest Message & Reports from the Farm, Friday July 17th, 2015 [Comments or answers in brackets are provided by Jude Boucher, UConn Extension] Steve Bengtson, Cold Spring

1 UConn Extension Vegetable IPM Pest Message & Reports from the Farm, Friday July 17th, 2015 [Comments or answers in brackets are provided by Jude Boucher, UConn Extension] Steve Bengtson, Cold Spring Brook Farm, Berlin, CT ECB traps were both empty this week. No change from last week. Still low corn earworm (CEW) pressure. Only 1 moth caught in 4 nights resulting in per night. No spray for now. Pepper maggot trap was set up in a maple tree. One fly was caught after 3 nights. We found a few stings in bell peppers around field perimeter. Plan to spray dimethoate for PM control. FAW trap was empty. Our new squash field is showing some powdery mildew. This field is close to our winter squash fields which are also beginning to show pm. I will use a new product called Torino on both fields. This will be the only application of Torino on the farm this year to slow resistance. Tomato harvesting starts tomorrow. All future early blight sprays will be low day to harvest products like Bravo. Three pepper maggot flies on trap (with yellow stripes and banded wings), Brian Shultz, Hampshire College

2 Bob Handel, Handle Farm, E. Hartford, CT Early in the week my pheromone traps were capturing 0.2 corn earworm moths per night. For the last couple of nights they have failed to capture any moths. [Which tells Bob to stop spraying until he begins to capture moths again (>0.2m/night)]. [For those of you that are unfamiliar with CEW Heliothis pheromone traps, they are placed in blocks of corn with fresh silk and moved when the silk turns brown. You check and empty the traps twice each week (every 3-4 days). The thresholds call for spraying every 6 days if you capture between moths/night, 5 days if between m/n, 4 days if between 1 and 13 moths, and 3 days if you capture more than 13 moths. Extra lures are kept in the freezer until needed and replaced on the traps every 3 weeks. Bruce Gresczyk, Jr., Gresczyk Farms, New Hartford, CT Corn: CEW per night (1 between 2 traps over 4 nights. From field to field what distance is a trap accurate)? [If a field a mile up the road gets hit by a thunderstorm that drops lots of moths, and your farm doesn t, the readings can be quite different. On large farms with many scattered fields in silk we use 2-4 traps, all in separate fields]. Summer Cucurbits: still fighting back powdery mildew. Fall Cucurbits: this is when a large distance between cucurbit crops pay off. We farm in several locations so we are able to isolate plantings. All of our fall Cucurbits are pm free and are looking great. Tomatoes: still spraying with copper every 7-10 and throwing in a manzate type product to fend off early blight which mainly seems present in one block of early tomatoes. Peppers: still spraying copper every 7-10 days for bls. Only 2 varieties have it, and we are keeping it back. In past years we had been using black plastic for our lettuce and we switched to white plastic this year and have been very happy with the results. Paul Bucciaglia, Fort Hill Farm, New Milford, CT A little late getting my corn borer trap up, installed it last night with the NY strain lure. [IO strain lure has been catching more this year very unusual. We recommend growers use two traps with NY in one and IO in the other, about yards apart, in the weeds along pepper or sweet corn fields]. Caught 8 moths in 24 hours and had a couple trying to get in my pocket this afternoon where the lure wrapper was! [These were determined to be gypsy moths. GM are much bigger moths with black and brown markings and large feather-like antennae. They come to all pheromone lures and even the ammonia in the pepper maggot traps. Don t mistake them for CEW or ECB. It will be another week or two before second generation borer really gets going].

3 I plan to try BT [Agree] instead of Entrust this year since we have been releasing Trichogramma ostriniae and I don't want to hammer them. Will try to get on every 4 days if I can manage it. At what trap number do you suggest stop spray? [less than 7 ECB moths/week]. We had very good luck in our first planting of corn - just one application of Dipel BT at tassel emergence and have seen less than one borer every 50 ears (approx). At least 20% of tassels showed damage so I know they were in there. Also found first stings from pepper maggot flies last week and did first shot of Naturalyte [GF- 120 Fruit Fly Bait via a] back pack sprayer on our approx. 1/3 ac of peppers. I see the problem with getting it on at labeled rate it s a ridiculously small amount of material. Going to reapply next few days and plan to spot spray with backpack sprayer (ie. give a shot under plant leaves) every 8-10 feet to lure in flies and still use recommended amount of material. Any thoughts? [It may work even better with a perimeter of hot cherry peppers to act as a double bait in the area where the Naturalyte is applied]. Also wondering has anyone tried Naturalyte [spinosad] for apple maggots? We finally have a crop on the 40 hobby trees I planted about 5 years ago. Thinking I could do same thing--just spot spray a few spots in each tree to lure in flies. I read this works in cherries and I think olives too. [Not in CT, but it is registered for that purpose]. Josh Vincent, Vincent Farms, W. Suffield, CT [reported by JB] Traps in different fields/locations (W. Suffield and Agawam) captured 0 and 0.25 moths per night, respectively. The Suffield field probably doesn t need to be sprayed but many growers use the most conservative catch to determine their spray interval (i.e. 6-day spray interval from Agawam). Two ECB moths were captured in pheromone traps this week up from zero, which probably means we will catch more next week as the second generation begins. It takes two weeks before larvae start to show up in pepper pods or whorl stage corn. Tomatoes and peppers look great. He s picking peppers. The first planting of summer squash will be sprayed with sulfur for powdery mildew one last time and he will move to the second field for harvest within a week. Willy Dellacamra, Cecarelli Farm, Northford, CT [reported by JB] Traps at two fields in Wallingford captured 0 and 0.2 CEW moths per night. He will stay on a 6- day schedule on fresh silking corn. No ECB or FAW moths were captured in traps and there were no larvae detected in pre-tassel or whorl stage fields. Tomatoes look great and he is closing in on harvest.

Steve and Ben Berezc, The Farm, Woodbury, CT [reported by JB] No CEW moths were captured in two separate fields. They are not spraying silking corn at this time.

4 Steve and Ben Berezc, The Farm, Woodbury, CT [reported by JB] No CEW moths were captured in two separate fields. They are not spraying silking corn at this time. No FAW were captured and no larvae were present in Pre-tassel or whorl stage corn. Peppers and eggplant look good. No pests this week. Brassica are overdue for a spray. Liz Cecarelli, Eve s Garden, Bethany, CT [reported by JB] We found a few adult Mexican bean beetles on her beans, but not enough to worry about, so she is just hand crushing them as she sees them. She culled a tomato plant earlier in the week which had black stems and leaves near the new growth. I brought it to Dr. Li at the CT Ag Experiment Station, and he diagnosed it as tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV). This virus is often transmitted from ornamental cuttings (i.e. impatiens) that arrive from the south by thrips in the greenhouse when vegetables and ornamentals are grown in the same house. Always use separate GH s for your vegetables. Photo by R. Wick, UMass Question: how do you get an entomologist excited? Answer: find something new. When I first arrived in CT 29 years ago, my colleagues told me that CT had a lot of pepper weevils. I searched and searched and never found any. I thought that it was strange that they would be

here because this is a Southern pest that overwinters in FL, TX and S. CA. However, in recent years, folks in NJ have trapped this pest around points of entry like airports and active harbors.

This is the only pest I know that will make a hole in the pepper at this time of year without leaving silk.

5 here because this is a Southern pest that overwinters in FL, TX and S. CA. However, in recent years, folks in NJ have trapped this pest around points of entry like airports and active harbors. Well, Liz may have the first infestation in CT a dubious honor at best. The immature pods have exit holes and the peduncles (fruit stems) are almost girdled, and at least one small fruit had fallen. This is the only pest I know that will make a hole in the pepper at this time of year without leaving silk. We haven t yet confirmed this finding because we haven t found any of the adults or larvae in the pods. I ll let you know if we find them. At any rate, they will not overwinter, so her peppers should be fine next year if she grows her own transplants. She bought these from FL! That is another example of why we encourage you to only use locallygrown transplants. Photos by G. Ghidiu, retired from Rutgers University Byron Graham and Carolyn Cranfield, Meetinghouse Farm, New Milford, CT [reported by JB] We found Plectosporium blight on one of their summer squash plants. They said they had been fighting it for a couple of years. It will overwinter in the soil for 2-3 years, even in the absences of crop residue, so a little longer crop rotation is warranted. It appears as small, white, diamond-shaped spots on the stems and sometimes as tiny, round, white spots on leaves or fruit. They removed the infected plants and the ones on each side that may already be infected. Conventional growers can use Cabrio or Quadris. Bravo will provide some protection. This was also found this week on squash at Dave and Joyce Hart s Farm in Canterbury, CT.

Plecto Blight Mike and Megan Grogan, Autumn Oak Farm, Tolland, CT [reported by JB] We found the bacterial disease black rot on one of their two varieties of cauliflower this week.

6 Plecto Blight Mike and Megan Grogan, Autumn Oak Farm, Tolland, CT [reported by JB] We found the bacterial disease black rot on one of their two varieties of cauliflower this week. All the plants of one variety had the disease and none of the plants in the other variety. It was very evident that the bacteria came in on the seeds. Next year they will use hot water seed treatment on all their Brassica crops, peppers and tomatoes. There is a fact sheet on the UConn IPM web site, in the vegetable section, under general articles, that tells you how to do this ( For this year, they will treat weekly with copper. You can also order a Cole Crop IPM manual from UConn Publications. Jonathan Griffin, Oxen Hill Farm, W. Suffield, CT [reported by JB] We found BLS in a second pepper field this week and pepper maggot stings in the home farm field. Max and Kerry Taylor, Provider Farm, Salem, CT They had tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) diagnosed on one of their heirloom tomato varieties. Modern hybrids are usually resistant to TMV. Leaves on young growth is often mottled light and dark green, is misshapen, and small. Sometimes fruit develop brown discoloration or yellow corkyness inside (not common). This can be spread on seeds or on the hands of workers while tying or pruning plants. Do not let workers that use tobacco work on tomatoes. Do not continue to tie up plants if TMV is detected. It can also overwinter in the roots of tomato plants, so crop rotation is important. That s all for this week. I ll send another update next Friday, July 24th.

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