Wayne County IPM Notes
(From the Week of September 6 – September 12)
Frank Becker, OSU Extension Wayne County
Vegetable Pests
After seeing the adult butterflies flying amongst cabbage, kale, and broccoli plantings for the past week or so, I am now finding imported cabbageworms feeding on these plants. Scouting your latest plantings of cole crops is recommended to make sure that these worms do not get out of hand. It can be easy to let your guard down as the season winds down, but if you want to have a marketable crop, you need to keep an eye out for the imported cabbageworms doing damage.
Corn earworm numbers continue to increase in our traps in Wayne County, as well as across the state. Since late planted sweet corn has green silks and is an attractive crop for the moths to lay their eggs on, we typically see an increase in moths this time of year in, or near, sweet corn plantings. This time of year, field corn may be responsible for the large increase in moths, as the lack of green silks leads them to find alternative sites to lay their eggs.
Vegetable Diseases
At this point in the season, it is of your best interest to consider the cost of any fungicide application in respect to how much more you expect to get out of a crop. With pumpkins, for example, as the plants are beginning to die off at this point in the season, it is not likely that any fungicide application will be effective or result in any increase of yield or crop value. For a crop like cole crops that are just a few weeks in the ground, then you may have opportunity to apply fungicides, should the need arise. As always, follow the label and pay close attention to the pre-harvest interval when applying a fungicide.
Fruit Pests
All of the traps out for codling moth and oriental fruit moth continue to decline, and in some cases are dropping to no moths being found in the traps.
Stink bugs are still active and can be found along wood-lines and field edges. I am still finding the occasional fruit that has been damaged by a stink bug. The damage is typically occurring in trees along the edges of orchard blocks, especially near wooded areas.
Fruit Diseases
As fruit continues to ripen and be harvested, we continue to move forward through the growing season without many disease issues in our area. If you are doing any final treatments for fruit diseases, pay close attention to the PHI on the product label. The pre-harvest interval determines how long after you applied that product that you may harvest the crop. This is especially important to pay attention to as many varieties of orchard crops as well as grapes are maturing and nearing harvest.