Month: August 2024

Using Each Season and Crop as Preparation for the Next in High Tunnel Production

Tomato production dominates main season, summertime high tunnel use but presents challenges. Like an increasing number of growers, we experiment with ways to maintain high tunnel soil productivity and profit potential for the long-term. Our operating principle is that crop and market diversity are useful and while some crops offer less income potential, their contribution to the success of the farm may not rest entirely in their specific balance sheet. Our posts on 10/28/23, 2/17/24, and 7/27/24 provide additional information and highlight some of our recent and ongoing work focused on ensuring year-round success in high tunnel production. Recent activities involving butternut squash, a mixed-species summer cover crop, and various vegetable and flower crops are summarized below.

Three panels focused on a mixed-species summer cover crop (cowpea, Italian ryegrass, pearl millet, and sorghum-sudangrass) seeded on 6/5/24 and terminated on 8/20/24.

As before, other HTs at our location are also being used to test and illustrate additional year-round production options involving crop selection and HT environmental management. Pictured is a small subset of the crops harvested or soon to be harvested since March-2024 (see https://u.osu.edu/vegnetnews/2024/02/03/a-minimalist-approach-to-ensuring-fall-through-spring-vegetable-harvests/) for a summary of crops harvested 11/23-3/24.

 

Supporting Farmers Through Dry Conditions

With an estimated 2,709,128 Ohioans currently living in some sort of dry or drought conditions, times are not easy. Unfortunately, with no relief in sight, we could be sitting in this position for quite some time. The map below indicates where each county in Ohio stands in its current dry/drought condition.

Our team at OSU Extension and other professionals around the state of Ohio are working around the clock to monitor the situation and provide resources for on-the-ground support and daily observation of the weather outlook. Click here for more information and resources.

We often forget to check in on our mental health during this time of high stress and anxiety. While many people can cope with the everyday stress of farming, it is important to know it is okay not to be okay. Especially with extreme weather conditions, it can be difficult for any farmer.

There may be no way to control this drought, but we can control how we manage our stress. Here are a few simple ways:

  • Recognize the signs of it, which manifest differently in everyone.
  • Acknowledge and share with someone that you are feeling
  • Ensure that you are getting enough sleep, eating properly, and maintaining good physical
  • When you have the time to connect with loved ones, Spending quality time with others boosts your mental health.

What are some of the signs of stress:

  • Poor sleeping and/or eating habits
  • Feeling overwhelmed by life
  • Overly anxious or stressed
  • Increased use of drugs and/or alcohol
  • Increase in risky behavior
  • Overly tired and/or forgetful
  • Thoughts of hopelessness

If you have been feeling any of these for more than a few weeks, please reach out to someone. We have your back, and you are not alone in these thoughts. Please talk with someone.

Resources that are available to you:

go.osu.edu/farmstress   go.osu/educountyresourceguide

988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline Call, Text, or Chat 24/7 365 Ohio Care Line 1-800-720-9616

Please reach out if you have any questions or need more information to Bridget Britton at 330-365- 8160.

Bridget Britton, MSW, LSW Behavioral Health Field Specialist

Q & A Session for Proposed Interim Decision Mancozeb Registration

Join us on September 3, 2024, for a question and answer session with Dr. Julius Fajardo from the USDA to review the proposed interim decision for mancozeb with fruit and vegetable stakeholders.  The session will be recorded and distributed to stakeholders in order to reach as many stakeholders as possible.

If you want to review the proposed interim decision, you can access the documents at this link. The current comment deadline is September 16th. After you attend the session and review the document, if you wish to write a letter, please write to EPA as soon as possible for an extension to Ben Tweed, Chemical Review Manager, at tweed.benjamin@epa.gov.

Mancozeb QA Flyer

Insect Monitoring Network Update – 3rd Week of August

The Integrated Pest Management Program along with OSU Extension educators across the state are monitoring five key pests this season. Monitoring sites are set up on farmer’s fields across the state and will be updated weekly.

Brown Marmorated Stink Bug – Traps have been placed in Greene, Knox, Loraine and Ross counties. Adults are currently active on a broad range of specialty crops including berries, apples, tomatoes and peppers. The only crop with an action threshold is apple based on 10 bugs cumulative per trap placed at the edge and interior of the block. This threshold has not been tested in Ohio.

Spotted wing Drosophila – A total of eight sites have been set up in Greene, Geauga, Loraine, Adams and Ross counties. SWD has been detected in all counties with individual trap counts ranging from 17 to 44 flies. The threshold for this pest is 1 fly per trap. Expect untreated adult populations to build and cause damage through final harvest. Insecticide treatments and other cultural methods such as proper pruning and weed fabric will help to manage the infestation through final harvest. Growers with ripening brambles, blueberries, peaches and other soft skinned fruit should be aware this pest is likely present in all 88 counties at this point in the season. Refer to this factsheet for more information on control measures  https://bpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/u.osu.edu/dist/1/8311/files/2020/11/SWD_Ohio_handout_V20.pdf 

European corn borer – Five monitoring sites are set up in South Charleston (Clark Co.), Fremont (Sandusky Co.), Geauga and Huron Counties. All sites are reporting zero moths for the past week. Although the traps are not detecting moths, given the accumulation of heat units we have had if there are pockets of ECB out in the state, it is possible a third generation may emerge in late August.

Corn earworm – Eight monitoring sites are set up in Clark, Sandusky, Fayette, Huron, Pike and Crawford counties. Moth counts have fluctuated in the past two weeks between 0-29 moths per trap per week, with the highest moth count in Clark county. As we get later into the season, expect larger migratory flights of CEW to be present in the state, especially around silking sweet corn. If you have a trap that is located near a mature sweet corn field, move it to a soon to be silking field, as CEW moths are preferentially attracted to silking sweet corn over young or mature sweet corn plants. If you have a trap set near a mature sweet corn field, expect lower CEW moth catch but possible damage.

Squash vine borer – There are 11 counties currently trapping for this pest in Clark, Greene, Montgomery, Fayette, Geauga, Ross, Pike, Seneca, Morrow, Summit and Williams counties. Clark, Greene, Seneca, Williams and Montgomery. Reports for the last week show a general reduction of moths captured per trap per week, ranging between 1 and 6. This insect should continue to decline through the rest of the season. As growers walk and scout fields, be vigilant to identify potential SVB damage on plants to estimate injury.

Growers can access and view the monitoring data directly at this site.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1T4Uk8VKH-fY4qms4FlEwQvz8o1Lxk-t8LLHVz97kxNU/edit?usp=sharing

A Better High Tunnel Poly Covering?

High tunnel growers have long used standard 6 mil poly film to cover their structures. Standard 6 mil poly film is the “covering” workhorse of the high tunnel industry. However, as most high tunnel growers know, standard 6 mil poly film can be punctured easily, will continue to tear if cut, eventually becomes brittle and less transparent, retains very little heat energy, and allows sunlight to escape the high tunnel without contributing to photosynthesis, which hampers growers wanting to maximize growth fall-to-spring. Regardless, standard 6 mil poly film needs to be replaced every three to five years in many locations. While many growers may not give the film that covers their high tunnels much thought, it is usually the only thing that separates their crops from the outside and it influences their success in many obvious and not so obvious ways. Therefore, it is reasonable for growers to seek and expect improved high tunnel coverings just as they expect better versions of all other materials used on the farm.

We are pleased to be cooperating with the Seaman Corporation of Wooster, Ohio (https://www.seamancorp.com/), long known as an industry leader in high performance industrial fabrics. Together, we are evaluating the company’s exciting new experimental reinforced poly film which is far stronger and more puncture and tear resistant than standard 6 mil poly film and has other interesting properties that may, for example, allow it to supplement or replace hard polycarbonate in some applications.

As depicted below, HT 103 on the CFAES-Wooster campus currently contains a crop of butternut squash and was covered with the new film on 8/12/24. HT 204 is about 100 ft east of HT 103, identical in shape and age, covered with standard 6 mil poly film, and holding butternut squash. Going forward, cropping, ventilation, and other practices will be the same and environmental conditions will be monitored in both high tunnels. Therefore, overall, differences in environmental conditions and/or crop status in the two high tunnels are likely to result from their different coverings. Monitor temperature and relative humidity in high tunnels 103 and 204 and six other structures at the same location at https://u.osu.edu/vegprolab/resource-1/ and stay tuned for updates on this important evaluation.

OSU Extension Fruit & Vegetable Report – August 17th, 2024

This edition of the OSU Extension Fruit & Vegetable Report was written using field observations and expertise from the following OSU Extension staff: Frank Becker, Thomas Becker, Chris Galbraith, Matt Kleinhenz, Ashley Leach, Carri Jagger, James Jasinski, Logan Minter, & Francesca Rotondo. 

Vegetables

Much needed rain has fallen across parts of Ohio to alleviate the dry weather – too much in some areas, which has caused standing water in fields that has harmed some plantings. This provides a good opportunity to discuss how to treat produce that may come into contact with floodwaters. 

One thing that might be good to clarify up front is the difference between floodwaters and pooling. Pooling occurs when there is a depression in the topography of the land where irrigation or rain water may collect. Standing water from pooling is not considered to be high-risk with regard to produce safety. Flood water comes from water that is flowing or overflowing from heavy rain events that may pick up contaminants and other things as it moves across the landscape. These contaminants include, but are not limited to bacteria, molds, human and animal waste, fungi, and other pathogens. Not only could these contaminants lead to rot issues in produce, there is also a significant food safety concern with produce that comes into contact with floodwaters. Any produce that comes into contact with floodwaters should not enter the food chain. If there are any questions or uncertainty, you can do a risk assessment of your flooded field. More information on flood risks and conducting a risk assessment can be found in this fact sheet on Ohioline: https://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/anr-27 

Necrosis beginning along leaf edges is one symptom of bacterial canker in tomato. Photo source: Dan Egel, Purdue University.

Bacterial diseases are still being reported, including bacterial canker in peppers and tomatoes. Reports of severe feeding from cucumber beetles and squash bugs is ongoing – some squash varieties such as Taybelle seem to be particularly attractive to these insect pests. Populations of spider mites and brown marmorated stink bug have seen an uptick. According the the recent OSU C.O.R.N newsletter, trap counts for the sweet corn caterpillar pests corn earworm and western bean cutworm are fairly low across the state at this time.

Late blight has been confirmed in tomatoes in Western New York and Western Pennsylvania. Now is a critical time to be scouting for late blight in potatoes and tomatoes. You can utilize the University of Wisconsin late blight disease risk model for the upper Midwest to help determine if conditions have been favorable for disease to occur. This model can also be used for several other disease and pest issues in our area. 

Example of a late blight lesion on potato foliage. Photo Source: Gerald Holmes, Strawberry Center, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Bugwood.org

 

Fruit

Educators are trapping for spotted wing drosophila (SWD) in blackberries and other small fruits. Populations were high and have only dropped off just recently. During periods of high SWD trap catches, it can be beneficial to do a salt test to get a sense of the level of infestation. You can conduct a salt test by placing a number of fruit in a small container with some water and salt. It can help to mash the berries a bit to help coax out any SWD larvae. Any larvae that were in the berries should be drawn out and will float to the surface of the water. A salt test can help growers determine how effective their pest management program is compared to just going off of trap counts. With SWD, we will likely see decent numbers in traps once they are present throughout the season. High trap counts can be alarming, but aren’t always what we want to base the success of our spray programs on. The salt test can help us see if we are managing populations enough to prevent berries from becoming infested with larvae. If we don’t see any larvae after conducting a salt test, this could be a good indicator that our pest management program is effective.  

Anthracnose crown rot has been confirmed on the crown and runners of strawberries. Anthracnose is a fungal disease caused by several species of Colletotrichum. Crown rot of strawberries is typically the result of infection by Colletotrichum fragariae. Mild winters have allowed for continued northward expansion of this disease. Accordingly, we have continued to see an increased impact on strawberry plants, with losses due to anthracnose crown rot. In an OSU Fact Sheet written by Mike Ellis and Omer Erincik (PLPATH-FRU-16), several strategies are recommended for prevention and management. First, it is important to start off with disease-free plants. It is also important to irrigate correctly, reducing overhead irrigation if possible, but also providing moisture to plants after harvest to prevent stress on the plant from excessively dry conditions. Mulching can also help reduce disease incidence by reducing soil splash. If you have infected plants, remove them from the planting, including berries and as much of the plant as possible. Weed control can also be impactful in reducing disease inoculum as several weed species can serve as alternative hosts for this disease. Overall, sanitation is highly important for successful prevention and management of anthracnose in strawberries. 

Excess fertility and heat caused fruit abortion in strawberries and other small fruit. It is recommended across all crop types that fertilization is not done during times when plants are under heat and drought stress. Not only can this burn and stress plants, but without adequate soil moisture, the nutrients applied will not be available for uptake via the root system. There needs to be moisture available to allow for the nutrients to enter the soil solution and move into the roots through mass flow.  

Dr. Ashley Leach, Assistant Professor of Specialty Crop Entomology with OSU, has provided the comprehensive fruit insect pest update below, including figures and tables:

Stink bugs are here. Some sites with large influxes (>20/bugs per trap). BUT, most sites have only a few bugs (0-3 bugs/trap). Codling moth counts are lower, but not at zero. Oriental fruit moth is hitting its third generation throughout the state – treat if you catch >8 moths/trap. Mite and aphid populations are pretty low this week. We noticed a HUGE natural enemy population with lots of “good” guys (ladybugs, lacewings and minute pirate bugs).

For those of you near the Northeast side of the state or receiving bins from the Mid-Atlantic, watch out for Spotted Lanternfly. This new invasive insect has a limited impact on tree fruit, but will harm grape.

**These updates include NEWA weather modeling which estimates insect development based on growing degree days. If you’re interested in how that works, you can follow this link: https://newa.cornell.edu/crop-and-pest-management. **

As mentioned, stink bugs (Brown marmorated stink bug and green stink bugs) are present in orchards. If you see an influx, consider one of the products in the table below, but apply sparingly since certain products will make mites and aphids worse (below).

Mites seem to be held in check recently. If needed, consult the miticide chart below. Make sure to take the product efficacy into account (****=best control,***= good control, **=fair control, *=poor control).

Oriental Fruit Moth is in its 3rd generation in the south – applications may be needed in higher pressure areas. Options for applications are in the chart below. Make sure to take the product efficacy into account (****=best control,***= good control, **=fair control, *=poor control).

Codling Moth –  If treating the second generation, rotate insecticides to feature a different active (IRAC code) than what you sprayed in May. If facing high pressure, >5 moths/trap, make additional insecticide applications. Some options are also included in the chart below.

As a reminder, be sure to always consult your pesticide label and regional pest management guides.

For more information or if you have questions, please reach out to a member of the Fruit & Vegetable team or your county extension educator.

July Issue of Ohio Fruit News

The July OFN issue is now available.  The feature articles include:

  • Impact of heat and drought on apple trees and fruit
  • Characteristics of apple rootstock
  • Mancozeb proposed interim registration review – crop cancellations and REI changes
  • Central State Univ offers a new climate-smart commodities program.

Mancozeb information

The proposed cancellation of Mancozeb on grape crops will have a profound impact on the Ohio grape industry. Please read the Mancozeb docket at this link. The deadline for comments is September 16. Changes to REIs will also impact apple and pear producers in the state.