All/multiple crops
Flooded produce: Please remember that any edible plant portion that has contacted flood water is considered unmarketable, including underground plant parts. Plant parts which were above flood waters may be harvested if food safety risk is low (I.e. considering flood water splash potential, contaminants in the water, and whether the produce is commonly consumed raw). The longer plants remain in flooded/saturated soils, the higher the likelihood that these plants will die from exposure to anaerobic conditions.
Ponding in fields from heavy rain is considered different than flooding from moving water, and is not subject to the same rules. However, make sure to consider whether localized ponding may carry contaminants to produce.
From NECAFS: https://foodsafetyclearinghouse.org/resources/resources-flooding
New: Revised Factsheet from UVM on flooded produce
Hail damaged produce: There have been isolated hail incidents throughout the region, with hailstones up to one inch causing significant damage. For more information on how to respond to hail, please see this previously published article from our team.
What to do if you have a disaster (flood, hail, unexpected disease or pest, drought)
- Get pictures and document your loss, how many acres of a crop or how many plants are affected? (ex. 2 100’ rows with 50 plants per row). I also recommend getting a picture of high-water marks next to a ruler or something where the scale can be determined, if possible, if you don’t have a picture of the field actually being flooded (i.e. the water went down fast). That helps to establish the height of the flood.
- Contact their crop insurance agent ASAP if you have crop insurance (or FSA if you have NAP). Even if you aren’t sure of how bad the damage will be, you usually need to notify them within 72 hours of an event that could result in a covered loss.
- Contact your county USDA FSA (Farm Service Agency) office as soon as possible so that USDA FSA is aware that growers are experiencing flood damaged crops (even if they don’t have crop insurance or NAP (Non-insured Crop Disaster Assistance Program). If you don’t know your County FSA office # you can find it here: https://offices.sc.egov.usda.gov/locator. The purpose of contacting FSA is to help demonstrate the amount of loss to help get the county declared a disaster area, which makes disaster assistance possible.
If you are a diversified farm with gross revenues below $350,000 and you do not have crop insurance or NAP because it is too complicated to keep good yield records on all of your crops, there is a new form of crop insurance called the Whole Farm Revenue Micro Farm Program. It is designed for smaller diversified farms that have been put off from buying crop insurance or NAP because the recordkeeping bar is too high. It also insures your revenue, not your crop yield. The one catch is you do need 3 years of schedule Fs, or their equivalent, which form the basis of the amount of revenue you can insure. You can learn more about the Whole Farm Revenue Program Micro Farm Option here: https://www.rma.usda.gov/en/Fact-Sheets/National-Fact-Sheets/Micro-Farm-Program.
Alliums: Early maturing onion varieties like Outlander and Highlander are nearly ready for harvest. Waiting for onions to lodge (when the leaves bend over from a point about an inch above the bulb) helps to promote longer storage as necks begin to tighten at physiological maturity. Bulbs will continue to grow after lodging assuming that there is adequate soil moisture. Growers with onions on black plastic mulch should consider cutting vent holes in the plastic to reduce temperatures, humidity, and the risk of bulb rot. As onion leaf tips begin to dry at or around lodging, Stemphylium leaf blight (SLB) often colonizes the necrotic tissue and onion thrips look to migrate to nearby host crops. Be sure to continue to scout for onion thrips levels nearby crops approaching harvest and maintain a targeted SLB fungicide program.
Brassicas: Nothing new this week!
Cucurbits: As of last week, cucurbit downy mildew (CDM) has been confirmed in Clinton County as well as more sites in Canada and Camden, New Jersey. Suspected CDM was found yesterday in Rensselaer County, but has yet to be confirmed. With the current weather forecast and the amount of CDM surrounding us, targeted CDM fungicides are being recommended especially for cucumbers and melons. Orondis products (Opti and Flex), Ranman, Zampro and Omega are all good conventional options tank mixed with a protectant like chlorothalonil or mancozeb if not harvesting the crop (5 day pre-harvest interval with mancozeb containing products). Organically, results from our retired Plant Pathologist Dr. Margaret McGrath indicated that maintaining a protective program with Sporan EC2 (1.0-3.0 pints per acre) plus the adjuvant Biolink 2 fl oz/gal was 1 of the 3 most effective treatments in 2022. Results with other products can be found at Organic CDM Results This treatment is also labeled for Cucurbit Powdery Mildew as well.
Continue scouting for aphids as the heat and humidity will continue to drive those numbers up. Symptoms can include crinkled looking leaves, especially on the growing points which are out on the ends of the runners. If populations are low, Fulfil continues to provide good control, but needs to be followed up by a second application a week later. Beleaf and Assail are also very good options for aphid control and have a wide crop use label.
Angular leaf spot and Xanthomonas leaf spot are common sights on cucumber foliage; both are caused by bacterial pathogens and can be managed by including labeled copper formulations in a spray program.
Nightshades
As if we didn’t have enough to worry about with all of the wet weather recently, now we can add the threat of Late Blight in tomatoes and potatoes. Late last week Late Blight was found on potatoes in Ontario, Canada. If you suspect Late Blight (LB) in your potatoes/tomatoes, please contact your closest CCE ENYCHP Vegetable Specialist. With that said, LB can look like several other common diseases. Here is a link to a past newsletter article by former Extension Educator Justin O’Dea that describes LB symptoms and some of the look-alike diseases or environmental issues that can be mistaken for LB: Late Blight and its Look-a-Likes For now, maintain a consistent protective program with conventional materials like chlorothalonil or organic materials like copper, on your tomatoes and potatoes. If LB is found in the region, alerts will be sent out and products like Orondis, Ranman, Zampro and Tanos will need to be incorporated into the fungicide program. Coppers (NuCop 50 WP and Champ) will provide some control, but will need to be applied frequently to maintain new growth coverage and will certainly not stop the disease completely. There is also some evidence that Sporan EC2 with copper and a spreader may also provide some control.
With fruit maturing, the wet weather and tomato harvest around the corner, Early Blight has begun to show up and chlorothalonil products provide some of the best preventative control. Approvia Top and Revus Top have been providing decent control for many, but if you have used these in the past and have noticed a reduction in control, think about using either Luna Flex (FRAC Groups 3+7) or Luna Tranquility (FRAC Groups 3+9). Another option is Switch (FRAC Groups 9+12). Just as a reminder, the FRAC Group means that products with the same number are in the same family of fungicides and have the same if not similar modes of actions. By paying attention to these numbers, you can more easily avoid using the same family of products and reduce the onset of disease resistance to these products. Many of the Early Blight materials are pre-mixes of several FRAC Groups, which can be confusing.
Bacterial leaf spot of peppers has been found on multiple farms growing susceptible varieties. Labeled copper formulations can help reduce the spread of this disease to neighboring plants and new foliage while reducing lesions on fruit.
Corn Trap Counts
Western bean cutworm (WBC) trap counts continue to rise in the north, but numbers are still low. Scout for WBC in the field by searching for egg masses, which appear on the upper surfaces of the leaves. Aim to spray when eggs are ready to hatch, which can be determined when the eggs change color from off-white to dark purple/gray. The threshold for WBC in sweet corn is 1 egg mass per 100 plants.
