Scouting Summary Week of August 25-29, Final Report of the Season

VEGETABLES:

Cole crops: Cabbage, Cauliflower and Broccoli:  Imported cabbage worm numbers were over economic treatment thresholds in many late plantings.

High tunnel tomatoes: Early blight is present in many high tunnels, growers are encouraged to maintain a regular and consistent spray program.  Yellow shoulder and blossom end rot, primarily abiotic conditions are also being noted by scouts.  2-spotted spider mite populations were increasing in several high tunnels.

Field tomatoes:  Bacterial speck, spot and canker all being found on plants.  In some plantings bacterial spot, speck, and canker are being found on the tomato fruit.  Early blight and septoria leaf spot are found in many plantings.  Stink bugs continue to damage tomato fruit.  Some light aphid numbers were noted in a couple of plantings.

Sweet corn:  Corn earworm moth numbers continue to be low, only 1was found between 3 trapping locations.  Eastern corn borer moth trap counts declined from the previous week with 10 moths recorded across 3 trapping locations.   Fall armyworm feeding damage was seen in some fields but at levels below economic treatment threshold.  In many fields, deer are a much bigger problem than insects or disease.

Cucumbers:  Downy mildew was noted in a couple of locations this past week,  and growers in the region should be on a protective spray program against downy mildew from now until the end of harvest.  Harvest is under way in some plantings and there have been some plantings made for intended fall harvest.  In most fields the bigger disease issue is powdery mildew and growers need to be managing with fungicides.

Zucchini and Summer Squash:  Cucumber beetle damage was noted on squash and zucchini fruit this past week.  Angular leaf spot, and powdery mildew are being found.  Powdery mildew is heavy in a lot of plantings and growers need to work at control of this disease.  Some bacterial soft rot is being found where fruit has been damaged in previous handling.

Winter Squash and Pumpkins:  Cucumber beetles and squash bugs were noted in some plantings.  Angular leaf spot, anthracnose, and powdery mildew are present in many plantings, with powdery mildew probably exhibiting the most disease pressure currently.  Bacterial soft rot is showing up on plants that have had some handling damage or injury.  Phytophthora blight can be found in some plantings.

Melons: Angular leaf spot, alternaria target spot, and phytophthora blight have been found. However, powdery mildew is currently the disease of most importance that growers need to control.  Some cucumber beetle damage to melon fruit was noted.

Potatoes:  Potato harvest is on-going.   Early blight was noted in some plantings. Colorado potato beetles (CPB) were heavy in some localized spots in some fields.

Peppers:  Bacterial spot and cercospora spot are being found in some plantings.  Blossom end rot can also be found.  A few plantings had fruit with bacterial soft rot.  Some of the soft rot can be attributed to fruit damage caused by corn borer larvae.   Aphids were present at low numbers in some plantings; stink bug damage on pepper fruit was noted by scouts.

Eggplant: Anthracnose found on some plants.  Phytophthora blight was identified on some eggplant fruit.   Colorado potato beetle numbers were light but flea beetle feeding was heavy in some plantings.

Green/Snap Beans:  Beans generally look very good, some light defoliation by Japanese beetles was noted by scouts in some plantings.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *