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Illinois Fruit and Vegetable News:A Newsletter for Commercial Growers of Fruit and Vegetable Crops Vol. 10, No. 1, February 13, 2004 |
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"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." --Aristotle Address any questions or comments regarding this newsletter to the individual authors listed after each article or to its editor, Rick Weinzierl, 217-333-6651, weinzier@uiuc.edu. To receive email notification of new postings of this newsletter, call or write the same number or address. This issue's words of wisdom... which usually means the jokes ... are at the end of newsletter ... check the last page. In This Issue:Upcoming Programs (Feb. 26 Stateline (IL-WI) fruit and veg conference; Mar. 2-3 Small Fruit and Strawberry School) Vegetable Production and Pest Management (Another quick note on aphids and viruses; reflective mulches; trials of organic insecticides) Information Sources for Fruit and Vegetable Growers (an incomplete list of web sites, publications, etc.) University of Illinois Extension Specialists in Fruit & Vegetable Production & Pest Management An Illinois Produce LogoThe Illinois Department of Agriculture, with help from the Illinois Specialty Growers Association and HIP Advertising, has created a new logo to help Illinois growers to be more effective at marketing their specialty crops. The United States Department of Agriculture's Specialty Crops Grant provided the funds to create and promote the logo.
The logo is available for use by every Illinois specialty crops grower at no charge. The only requirement is a signed agreement between the producer and the Illinois Department of Agriculture, stating the producer promises to use the logo on fresh, Illinois-grown specialty crops. Copies of this agreement can be obtained by contacting Kent McFarland, Illinois Department of Agriculture, P.O. Box 19281, Springfield, IL. 62791-9281, phone 217-524-9131, or email kmcfarland@agr.state.il.us. A campaign to promote the new logo is scheduled for this summer. The campaign includes billboards in major Illinois cities, banners sent to Illinois Community Farmers Markets at no charge, a public relations blitz, and point-of-purchase materials. The point-of-purchase materials, such as package labels, produce labels, and shelf talkers or banners, can be purchased from the Illinois Specialty Growers Association at cost. Upcoming Programs
Vegetable Production and Pest ManagementOn aphids and viruses in cucurbits and green beans ... pumpkins in the middle of corn fields??In last month's issue of this newsletter, I included a fairly lengthy article on aphid transmission of viruses to pumpkins, squash, melons, and green beans, and I suggested that the soybean aphid may have been a key vector in 2003. (I also noted that there are other possibilities for increased problems with virus diseases in northern Illinois and Indiana last year.) Given the way in which soybean aphids move to and from buckthorn and from heavily infested soybean fields to other fields (see Volume 9, Issue 20, from January, 2004), a grower asked me earlier this week if planting his 10 acres of pumpkins in the middle of his 60-acre field of dent corn might reduce the likelihood of virus transmission to the pumpkins. I'll not go through a long discussion of transmission dynamics again in this article, but the answer is yes. There is no guarantee that this approach will work, and certainly not everyone who grows pumpkins can choose planting sites in this way, but if it is possible to plant the virus-susceptible crop (cucurbits or snap beans or peppers or tomatoes) in a location that is surrounded by a crop that is not a host to the virus (corn, with good weed control) instead of next to weedy ditches, fence rows, or soybeans, the likelihood of soybean aphids moving from their hosts, picking up viruses on weeds, and transmitting them to the planting of susceptible vegetables should be reduced. Rick Weinzierl (217-333-6651; weinzier@uiuc.edu) Reflective Mulches for Virus ManagementOne of the most challenging pest issues growers face can be virus management in crops. Pathogenic viruses are usually, though not exclusively, transmitted to crops by insects. Once in the crop, there is no remedy available to growers for eradicating the virus from the crop. Susceptible crops, once infected, begin to deteriorate, resulting in modest to serious losses due to distorted and unpalatable fruit or even no production of a marketable crop. The key to virus management would seem to be managing the insect that vectors the virus. But even that can be insufficient. Research done by Weinzierl, Eastburn, and others at the University of Illinois, as well as entomologists and plant pathologists from around the world, has found that standard approaches to insect management are not enough to prevent virus infection, even when the insects are killed by pesticides. This is because the insect vectors feed briefly on the crop before being affected by the insecticide. For the many viruses transmitted by aphids in what is called a "nonpersistent" manner, even a brief period of feeding allows the virus to be transmitted into the plant, regardless of the fact that the insect dies later from insecticide exposure. Many of the insects that serve as virus vectors, including whiteflies and aphids, are difficult to control with currently available insecticides anyway. This means alternative strategies may ultimately be needed for virus management in specialty crops. One such strategy which has begun to receive a lot of attention in recent years is the use of reflective mulches. These mulches, though much like typical black plastic mulch, have a reflective character built into the surface, making them look aluminum foil-like. They reflect a large portion of the light spectrum hitting the mulch surface, and the increased level of reflected light, including UV light, deters aphid from landing on the plants growing in the mulched rows. To the degree that the virus-carrying insect is deterred from landing and feeding even briefly in the crop, a reduction in virus transmission may result. Early efforts at developing reflective mulches for growers resulted in products in the '60's and 70's that were expensive and had little efficacy. These products had modest reflectivity and their reflective coatings often deteriorated too quickly. But technology in coating plastic films with reflective surfaces has improved, and more reflective and more durable mulch products have come to the market. In the late 1990's I began working with a reflective mulch film from Repelgro of Lake Zurich, IL. This product has blinding reflectivity, which I soon experienced on a sunny day in the field. The goal of the project was to determine if the reflective mulch film could be an effective tool for reducing virus incidence in cucurbit crops, particularly fall zucchini and pumpkins. The work was plagued by lack of cooperation by virus-infected aphids and other stand establishment problems with pumpkins. But 2003 turned out to be a good year for such an evaluation. Briefly, I evaluated the reflective mulch, Admire insecticide applied in the furrow at planting, a combination of the two, and an untreated check. The study was replicated four times and used transplants of 'OZ' pumpkin, a susceptible cultivar. 2003 turned out to be a year characterized by a multi-virus epidemic in pumpkins in northeastern Illinois, and virus symptoms did develop in the trial plots. Unfortunately, we did not have the funding or staffing to do aphid counts or identifications or take tissue samples to identify the viruses involved. However, pumpkins were sorted at harvest for expression of virus in mature fruit. In summary, there was no difference in virus expression among the treatments except where a combination of the systemic insecticide and the reflective mulch were used. In that treatment the percent virus expression was reduced by about 50% from the best of the other treatments. Additionally, the treatments including the reflective mulch had significantly higher production levels of mature pumpkins, probably resulting from a basic mulch effect and from the additional light exposure provided by the reflective properties of the mulch. More details can be found in the report published in the 2003 Illinois Fruit and Vegetable Research Report. Growers have been expressing interest in reflective mulch products and may be looking for references to other research into the reflective mulches in vegetables crops, as well as sources for purchasing samples for their own tests. Some sites available on the internet for learning more about these products include the following:
http://www.bioone.org/bioone/?request=get-document&issn=0022-0493&volume=093&issue=03&page=0828 To learn more about the Repelgro reflective mulch film, you can visit their website at http://www.repelgro.com. Other products are available on the market, including white films. It is important to remember that the reflectivity of the product may determine it's value as an insect deterrent. Of the products I've tested over 20 years, the Repelgro product has the greatest reflectivity. More work needs to be done to determine what reflective properties have the greatest effect on target insects, and how to use those properties most effectively in an IPM strategy. Work with reflective mulch films will continue at St Charles. (Thanks for letting me shed some light on the subject.) Bill Shoemaker (630-584-7254; wshoemak@inil.com) Trials of Insecticides for Certified Organic ProductionIn the upcoming 2004 season, John Shaw of the Center for Economic Entomology of the Illinois Natural History Survey will be conducting small plot trials of a number of plant-derived and other OMRI-listed insecticides that are available for use in certified organic production systems. John is seeking organic growers and conventional growers who might like to "host" a trial on their farms; he is particularly interested in testing available products for control of key pests in cabbage (and related crucifers), tomatoes, peppers, vine crops (cucumbers, melons, squash, or pumpkins), and sweet corn. Please consider working with John to develop these trials ... he will do the applications and evaluations, but he needs farm sites from around the state to do the work. If you are willing to cooperate in these evaluations, please contact John at jtshaw@uiuc.edu or 217-244-5124. Rick Weinzierl (217-333-6651; weinzier@uiuc.edu) Resources on the WebWe often devote an early issue of this newsletter each year to pointing out good references for additional information, and that's what the remainder of this issue is devoted to. We make no claim that the listings below are complete, but they represent a good core of resources. Feel free to send us other sites for listing in future issues. "Google it" for imagesForgive me if this is too simple and therefore a little insulting, but I'm not sure everyone knows how easy it is to gain access to good images of pests, weeds, etc. on the web. We include illustrations of insects, diseased plants, weeds, and other organisms or topics with many of the articles that we publish in this newsletter, but we cannot include images of everything in each issue. If we include a story on an insect, an apple variety, or a fungal disease of a certain crop, and you are uncertain what it looks like, there are lots of search engines on the web that can lead you to numerous photos or diagrams of the bug, the fungus, or the fruit. I like "Google" because it delivers pertinent results, includes a quick-to-see image search function, and is easy to use. For example, if you want to see what the squash vine borer really looks like so that you can recognize adult moths flying around in a field of summer squash, simply type in http://www.google.com in the "address" bar of your internet browser. In the screen that appears next, just under the name "Google," you'll see a list that includes the word "Images." Click on "Images" and then type the name of what you're looking for (squash vine borer) in the box in the middle of the screen; then click on "Search." I just did this, and the search generated 113 images; click on any one of the "thumbnails" on your screen to display a full-sized image. If you want articles and background information instead of just images, click on the "Web" box instead of "Images" when you start your search. If you do not have access to the web ... check out the many printed references listed below. Rick Weinzierl (217-333-6651;weinzier@uiuc.edu) A Variety of Web ResourcesMaurice Ogutu from the Countryside Extension Center provided many of the listings that follow ... Field and Orchard Equipment and Supplies:
Nurseries:
Packing/Storage Equipment/Supplies:
Marketing and Promotion:
University Newsletters and Related Publications: University of Kentucky:
Clemson University (South Carolina)
Michigan State University:
University of Minnesota:
Purdue University:
The Ohio State University:
Cornell University (New York):
Rutgers (New Jersey):
Washington State University:
West Virginia University, Kearneysville Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center:
Miscellaneous Vegetable Production Sites
Organic Standards
Additional Web Sites and News Groups for Fruit GrowersThe applecrop news group ... you subscribe, then questions and answers from the group come directly to your email address. You can be an active participant or just a reader. To subscribe, send an email message to In the subject line of your email message header, type the word "subscribe" (without the quotation marks), then send the blank message. You should receive confirmation that you have subscribed, and email messages will come to you as they are posted to the group. The Virtual Orchard ... information on tree fruit production and insect, disease, and weed management, along with links to several newsletters ...at http://virtualorchard.net/default.html The "Popular Press" for Fruits and Vegetables
Books on the Web ...
Maurice Ogutu (708-352-0109; ogutu@.uiuc.edu) and Rick Weinzierl (217-333-6651; weinzier@uiuc.edu) Printed Materials Available for PurchaseFrom the University of Illinois ... Order the following Illinois and Midwest publications from Information Technology and Communication Services, University of Illinois, 1917 S. Wright Street, Champaign, IL 61820. For orders of $5.00 - $19.99, add a shipping charge of $3.00; for orders of $20.00 - $99.99, add a shipping charge of $6.00. Make checks payable to the University of Illinois. For more information or to order by phone, call 1-800-345-6087. (The commercial horticulture portion of the publications catalog is on-line at: https://webstore.aces.uiuc.edu/shopsite/browsecommhort.html. 2004 Illinois Commercial Tree Fruit Spray Guide --updated insecticide, fungicide, and herbicide listings for commercial orchardists. Available for $8.50 plus shipping. Midwest Tree Fruit Pest Management Handbook -- practical background information on insects, diseases, weeds, scouting practices, pesticides, and more. Covers apples, peaches, cherries, and pears. Available for $8.50 plus shipping. 2004 Illinois Commercial Small Fruit and Grape Spray Guide -- updated insecticide, fungicide, and herbicide listings for commercial plantings. Available for $8.50 plus shipping. Midwest Small Fruit Pest Management Handbook -- practical background information on insects, diseases, weeds, scouting practices, pesticides, and more. Covers strawberries, brambles, blueberries, and grapes. Available for $8.50 plus shipping. 2004 Midwest Vegetable Production Guide for Commercial Growers -- varieties, fertilization, and insect, weed, and plant disease control recommendations. Available for $14.50 plus shipping. 2004 Agricultural Pest Management Handbook-- with up-to-date chapters on vegetable insect, disease, and weed control (as well as information on pesticides and pest management in agronomic crops). Available for $22.00 plus shipping. Common Weed Seedlings of the North Central Region -- for identification of weeds at the seedling stage, when it's still possible to do something about them. Available for $3.50 plus shipping. The 2004 Midwest Vegetable Variety Trial Report is available for $10.00. To order a copy, contact Chuck Voigt at 217-333-1969, or email Chuck at c-voigt@uiuc.edu. Meister Publishing Company publishes the monthly magazines American Fruit Grower and American Vegetable Grower.Meister also publishes and distributes Vegetable Insect Management (with Special Emphasis on the Midwest), a 200+-page book with lots of scouting recommendations and identification aids. The hardcover edition now sells for $44.00 (a bargain). Contact Meister by mail or phone at : 37733 Euclid Avenue, Willoughby, Ohio 44094; phone 1-800-572-7740 The Fruit Growers News (now simply Fruit Growers News) is a monthly newspaper for the fruit industry; the Vegetable Growers News (similar in format) is a monthly newspaper for the vegetable industry. For subscription information, contact the editor at subscription rates for this publication also are $9.50 for one year and $24.50 for three years. Contact the editors of these publications at (616) 887-9008 or 75 Applewood Drive, Suite A, Sparta, Michigan 49345. Plant Disease Compendia
Several other compendia cover field crops and ornamental plants; growers in Illinois may also be interested in the compendia on chrysanthemum diseases and foliar diseases of ornamental plants. For more information or to order, check the APS web site at: http://www.apsnet.org or contact the APS by phone or email at: APS PRESS Headquarters, 3340 Pilot Knob Road, St. Paul, MN 55121-2097 U.S.A., Tel: 1-800-328-7560, email: aps@scisoc.org Rick Weinzierl (217-333-6651; weinzier@uiuc.edu) This issue's words of wisdom ...Guidelines for living with men ...
University of Illinois Extension Specialists in Fruit and Vegetable Production & Pest Management
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 Integrated Pest Management College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences Crop Sciences | Entomology Natural Resources & Environmental Sciences Illinois Natural History Survey |
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