Illinois Fruit and Vegetable News:

A Newsletter for Commercial Growers of Fruit and Vegetable Crops
A Publication of University of Illinois Extension and the College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences

Vol. 11 , No. 14, August 17, 2005

Download this newsletter in pdf format
You will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this file.

"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:

Crop and Regional Reports (from Elizabeth Wahle and Maurice Ogutu)

Upcoming Meetings and Programs (Pumpkin Field Day – September 8; dates for the 2006 Illinois Specialty Crops Conference)

Degree-Days

Notes from Chris Doll (phenology updates, rains, codling moth counts down, state fair exhibits, death of Tom Vorbeck)

Vegetable Production and Pest Management Update (cucurbit viruses, powdery mildew on pumpkins, watermelon anthracnose, cercospora leaf spot of muskmelons, downy mildew on pumpkins, surge in corn earworm moth counts in central Illinois)

University of Illinois Extension Specialists in Fruit & Vegetable Production & Pest Management

Crop and Regional Reports

In southern and southwestern Illinois, most of the area received much needed rain over the past weekend, usually in excess of 2 inches in total.  High winds, some damaging, accompanied the rain in counties surrounding the St. Louis area.  The entire area is still running at a deficit, so more rain is needed -- as long at it doesn't significantly hamper spray and harvest operations.  Temperatures continued to soar near the 100-degree mark the first week of August throughout the region but have since moderated with the coming of rain.  Weeds are becoming a problem across the board. 

Peach growers have another 2 to 3 weeks of harvest, and the market is still strong. Growers are finishing up Cresthaven, Summer Pearl, Jerseyglo, Rio Oso Gem, Encore, O'Henry, and Sweet Sue.  Coming up are White Hale, Laurol, Fayette, and Parade.  Gala apples are in harvest, with Ozark Gold coming on.  After all the dry weather, cracking will be a concern for some varieties.  Jonathans are starting to size and color.  Growers are advised to continue calcium sprays to avoid bitter pit development.  Cider pressing should start in the next 2 weeks.  Remember to save back your best blend for the cider contest held at the annual Illinois Specialty Crops Conference in January.  For those who need pre-printed labels on their cider jugs, get your order in now as it takes 2-3 weeks lead time.  Expect an increase in jug prices due to the soaring costs of petroleum.   Southern FS also has Retain in stock for those needing to stick Reds or Johnathans.  I also hear that Assail will be available in a new water-dispersable granule formulation next year -- 30 WDG.

Vegetable harvest is still in full swing, with watermelon, sweet corn, eggplant, cucumber, zucchini, tomatoes and okra among the crops headed to market.  Remember that the Illinois Pumpkin Field Day is scheduled for Thursday, September 8th, at the Southern Illinois University Belleville Research Center.  For more details and directions, check http://web.extension.uiuc.edu/regions/hort/ or contact Elizabeth Wahle (wahle@uiuc.edu, 618-692-9434) or Alan Walters (awalters@siu.edu, 618-453-3446).

Elizabeth Wahle (618-692-9434; wahle@uiuc.edu)

In northern Illinois, the last two weeks have seen mostly sunny days with day temperatures in the upper 60s to mid 90s, and night temperatures in the upper 50s to low 60s. The region received 1to 5 inches rainfall during the August 13-15 period, and the Kankakee area received the highest amount of 3-5. 

Orchardists are continuing with summer spray programs to control apple scab, fruit rots, sooty blotch and flyspeck, powdery mildew, aphids, codling moths, Japanese beetles, apple maggot, mites, leafhoppers, and leafrollers. Increasing calcium chloride sprays to 12 lb/acre to control cork spot, bitter pit and Jonathan spot in apple fruits is recommended. Picking of early apple varieties such as Red Free, Pristine, William's Pride, and Prima is going on in pick-your-own apple orchards that were not affected by spring frost.

Harvesting of sweet corn, muskmelons, tomatoes and other vegetables continues.  Corn borer & earworm moth counts have been low but may start increasing very soon.  On tomatoes and peppers I have observed blossom end rot, sun scald, bacterial spot on peppers, and bacterial canker on tomato fruits.  Western corn root worm beetles and cucumber beetles are a problem in vine crops and other vegetable crops, so growers need to scout their fields and spray when necessary.  In pumpkins and squash, mosaic virus on new growth has been observed in some farms, as has powdery mildew and downy mildew.  In the Kankakee area, a lot of phytophthora infection on vine crops and peppers is following the heavy down pour that occurred recently.

Maurice Ogutu (708-352-0109; ogutu@uiuc.edu)

Upcoming Meetings and Programs

September 8,  2005, Illinois Pumpkin Field Day
SIU Belleville Research and Education Laboratory, Belleville, Illinois.  10:00 a.m. -2:30 p.m.  Contact Elizabeth Wahle at 618-692-9434 or wahle@uiuc.edu.

January 17-19, 2006, Illinois Specialty Crops Conference
Crowne Plaza, Springfield, Illinois.  Details will follow in upcoming weeks.

Elizabeth Wahle (618-692-9434; wahle@uiuc.edu) and Rick Weinzierl (217-333-6651; weinzier@uiuc.edu)

Notes from Chris Doll

As of August 15, Back 40 varieties of grapes, peaches, nectarines, plums, grapes,and apples are being harvested on the same day as last year.  And in SW Illinois, the commercial peach crop has moved from Loring season into Cresthavens and later varieties.  Gala apples are ready and Jonathans will follow shortly.

Some nice rains during the past week have alleviated some of the drought stress and should help improve the quality of all crops if new problems don't show up.  As I'm writing this, more than 2 inches of rain has fallen in the past 60 hours, and the relative humidity has been in the 90 percent range for many of those hours.  That is great weather for the makers of fungicides that control all the summer apple diseases and brown rot in peach and plum.  Wetting hours for sooty blotch infections were accumulated here in mid-July in the home planting.

Good news came in this week from a local orchard.  The weekly codling moth trap count dropped to 1.3 per trap from an average of 10.3 per trap two weeks ago.  The numbers have not been this low for several years. Three years ago, the numbers were in the 30's and 40's. 

However, I recorded 10 in my trap last week, so spraying must continue.  Other apple insect pests were literally non-existent in six blocks of apples surveyed last week.

For strawberry growers, the rains will help plants immensely but will favor germination of all the fall weeds like chickweed, henbit, and the annual grasses. There is still time for an application of nitrogen at 35-50 pounds actual per acre to benefit the crop if it has not been applied since renovation.

The Illinois State Fair fruit exhibits were excellent this year.  It was hard to tell that it has been a hot and dry summer.  The winner of the orchard display and the Governor's Basket was Braetigaum's Orchard of Belleville. There were more plum and grape entries at both the Illinois State Fair and the Adams County Fair this year than in years past.  We know the grape acreage has increased, but I was surprised at the number and quality of the plums.

And another Memoriam: Tom Vorbeck of Chapin died August 3, 2005.  Tom and his wife Jill moved from the Chicago area to the orchard site west of Jacksonville in 1977 to become orchardists specializing in antique and new apple varieties.  Tom was an avid collector of varieties, which led him and Jill to form "APPLESOURCE", a mail order business of specialty apples.  Tom was an expert in apple variety identification and conducted numerous taste testings of varieties in Central Illinois.  He is survived by his wife Jill, who will continue the APPLESOURCE business, and a sister.

Chris Doll

Degree-Day Accumulations

Degree-day accumulations, base 50 F, for January 1 through August 15 (left) and projected through August 22 (center) and August 29 (right), 2005.

Degree-day data are summarized from records provided by the Midwestern Climate Network, Illinois State Water Survey, Champaign, IL. For more information, consult the Midwestern Climate Center at http://sisyphus.sws.uiuc.edu/index.html and the Degree-Day Calculator at http://www.sws.uiuc.edu/warm/pestdata/ .

Kelly Cook (217-333-4424; kcook8@uiuc.edu); Rick Weinzierl (217-333-6651; weinzier@uiuc.edu)

Vegetable Production and Pest Management

Vegetable Diseases

Last week (August 8-12) I observed the following diseases on cucurbit plants.

• Virus diseases: Cucumber mosaic, watermelon mosaic, squash mosaic, and zucchini yellow mosaic in pumpkin and squash fields are widespread.  Effective control measures: almost none, just keep insect populations under control as much as possible.
• Powdery mildew: Powdery mildew is present in almost all pumpkin and squash fields.  It is building up quite fast, and fungicide spray applications are needed to control this disease. There are several fungicides (including Pristine, Quadris, and Procure) that are effective against this disease. You can see the symptoms of the disease and signs of the pathogen on vines and the undersides of leaves. 
• Anthracnose:  Severe infection of anthracnose was observed on watermelon leaves.  The fungicides Quadris, Amistar, Cabrio, Pristine, and Tanos should be effective against anthracnose.
• Cercospora leaf spot:  Cercospora leaf spot was detected on muskmelon leaves from northeastern Illinois.  Most of the fungicides effective against Alternaria and Anthracnose diseases should be effective against Cercospora leaf spot.
• On August 12 I was informed that downy mildew has been observed on pumpkin leaves in southern Indiana. Application of fungicides against downy mildew is necessary at the first observation of this disease.  Maneb, Quadris, Amistar, Cabrio, Pristine, Tanos, and several other fungicides have been registered for control of downy mildew. Pristine should be effective against most of the fungal diseases of cucurbits.

Anthracnose of watermelon (left) and Cercospora leaf spot of muskmelon (right).  (Photos by M. Babadoost.)

Mohammad Babadoost (217-333-1523; babadoos@uiuc.edu)

Corn Earworm and European Corn Borer

Kelly Cook has reported that European corn borer moth counts from the light trap in Champaign County remain low (less than 10 per night), but corn earworm moth counts increased dramatically August 8 through 12 to average 200 per night for that period.  Sweet corn growers should be monitoring earworm moth flights in their area and tightening up spray schedules if counts increase.

Rick Weinzierl (217-333-6651; weinzier@uiuc.edu)

This issue's words of wisdom (well, not always wisdom) ...

An honest and gentle man was being tailgated by a stressed out woman on a busy boulevard.  Suddenly, the light turned yellow, just in front of him.  He did the right thing, slowing and stopping at the crosswalk, even though he might have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection.

The tailgating woman hit the roof, and the horn, screaming and gesturing  in anger and contempt because she missed her chance to get through the intersection even if the light would have turned red.  As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer.  The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands up.  He took her to the police station where she was searched, finger printed, photographed and placed in a holding cell.

After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened the door. She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects.

He said, "I'm very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping off the guy in front of you, and cussing a blue streak at him, even though--and because--his driving was perfect.  I noticed the 'Choose Life' license plate holder, the 'What Would Jesus Do' bumper sticker, the 'Follow Me to Sunday-School' bumper sticker, and the chrome-plated fish emblem on the trunk.  Naturally, I assumed you had stolen the car.  It seems I was mistaken."

University of Illinois Extension Specialists in Fruit and Vegetable Production & Pest Management

Illinois Fruit and Vegetable News Home Page