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. 20, January 24, 2006

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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:

Regional Updates (for northern Illinois, from Maurice Ogutu)

Upcoming Meetings and Programs ( check the dates for our regional fruit and vegetable meetings, the Small Fruit and Strawberry School, and Mississippi's Greenhouse Tomato Short Course )

Notes from Chris Doll (weather, pruning, and bud injury; peach varieties, and notes from last week’s Illinois Specialty Crops Conference)

Advisory Committee Meeting for Southern Illinois Horticulture Research

Fruit Production and Pest Management (new insecticide and miticide registrations for fruit crops)

Vegetable Production and Pest Management (southern Illinois tomato cultivar trials)

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

Regional Updates

In northern Illinois, it has been slightly warmer in January than in December. Day temperatures in January have ranged from the low 30s to the 50s, while the December temperatures were in the low teens to the 40s. Night-time lows this month have ranged from the upper teens to the low 40s, considerably warmer than December's -11 0F to the mid 30s. The area has received 1-2 inches of rainfall since January 1 and two major snowfalls, one in early December of 5-12 inches, and another one on January 20 of 2-6 inches. The December snow melted by early January, but there is a snow cover of about 1-3 inches in some areas from the January 20 snowfall.

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

Upcoming Meetings and Programs

February 7 and 8, 2006, Southern Illinois Tree Fruit Schools ...
... at Mount Vernon on February 7 and Hardin on February 8. For more information, contact Elizabeth Wahle at 618-692-9434 or by email at wahle@uiuc.edu, or check for information at "News for Southern Illinois Growers" at: http://web.extension.uiuc.edu/regions/hort/.

February 9, 2006, Kankakee Area Vegetable Growers School ...
... at the Kankakee County Extension Office, 1650 Commerce Drive, Bourbonnais, IL. For more information, contact Maurice Ogutu at 708-352-0109 or by email at ogutu@uiuc.edu, or contact James Theuri at 815-933-8337 or jtheu50@uiuc.edu

February 10, 2006, Stateline (Illinois/Wisconsin) Fruit and Vegetable Conference ...
... at Lake Lawn Resort, 2400 East Geneva Street, Delavan, WI 53115. For more information, contact Don Schellhaass at 815-338-4747 (schellha@uiuc.edu) or Maurice Ogutu at 708-352-0109 (ogutu@uiuc.edu).

February 16, 2006, Southern Illinois Vegetable School ...
... at the Mount Vernon Holiday Inn. For more information, contact Elizabeth Wahle at 618-692-9434 or by email at wahle@uiuc.edu, or as the dates approach check for information at "News for Southern Illinois Growers" at: http://web.extension.uiuc.edu/regions/hort/.

February 20-22, 2006, Missouri Small Fruit and Vegetable Conference ...
... at the Clarion Hotel and Conference Center, Springfield, MO. The program includes a pre-conference bus tour on February 20, and sessions on vegetables, strawberries, blueberries, ornamentals, marketing, and organic marketing. For more information, contact Pamela Mayer at 417-547-7500 or pam621t@smsu.edu or visit http://mtngrv.missouristate.edu.

February 28-March 1, 2006, Greenhouse Tomato Short Course ...
... in Jackson, Mississippi. A tentative agenda is posted at http://www.greenhousetomatosc.com. For more information, contact Rick Snyder at 601-892-3731 or RickS@ra.msstate.edu.

March 7-8, 2006, Small Fruit & Strawberry Schools ...
... at the Mount Vernon Holiday Inn. For more information, contact Elizabeth Wahle at 618-692-9434 or by email at wahle@uiuc.edu, or Bronwyn Aly at 618-695-2444 or by email at baly@uiuc.edu. As the dates approach, check for information at "News for Southern Illinois Growers" at: http://web.extension.uiuc.edu/regions/hort/.

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

Notes from Chris Doll

Another year, and as usual there are concerns about the weather and fruit buds, especially the buds of stone fruit trees. To date, the winter minimums have not been destructive. December was classified as a cold month, but the low in Edwardsville was 12 degrees F. In January, the lowest temperature has been 26 degrees through the first three weeks. In the Back-40, peach buds are turgid, some Japanese plums are swollen green, and apricots show bud swelling. It will take an unusual 60 days of weather to get to spring without some bud kill. Rainfall in the area has been adequate to maintain surface moisture, but insufficient to recharge the subsoil. This is in contrast to the 9.3 inches for last January.

The mild weather and relatively dry conditions have allowed for lots of pruning to be done. Some apple orchards are done and peaches are awaiting. It might be prudent to delay pruning on young apple trees and all ages of peaches for a mite longer as a precaution against cold injury. The same holds true for thornless blackberry. Dr. Bill Shane of Michigan State University talked about peach pruning and the season at the Illinois Specialty Crops Conference last week. His advice was to wait until the danger of extreme cold was past so that an evaluation of live flower buds can be made, plus the fact that healing of pruning cuts is more rapid when growth is resuming. There is much less cankered wood in peach orchards now that 20 years ago, partly because of better pruning but also because of less cold injury to the wood and pruning cut area.

Dr Shane also gave an excellent presentation on peach production and varieties. He indicated that he prefers the quad or 4-scaffold tree with wide angle crotches. The Michigan cultural systems do not vary much from that of Illinois growers, except as affected by the sandy soils in SW Michigan. Fruit size considerations are the same there as here. Some of the varieties he spoke of favorably (after announcing that Red Haven is the number one variety in the state) were PF-7, Starfire, PF-17, Glowing Star, Beaumont, PF-24-007, Laurol (except for its bacterial susceptibility), and Autumn Star.

Other topics at last week's conference were marketing, legal considerations in direct marketing, and Extension and research wants, needs and funding. Dr. Jennifer Dennis of Purdue said that the core competencies in selling are superior quality, customer service, innovation, flexibility, and responsiveness to the customer. Rich Schell, J.D., in talking about liability issues, said that farm marketers, especially pick-your-own farms, should look at every customer as an ignorant city person, then have an unbiased person evaluate the entire operation for potential safety hazzards on the farm. And, he added that growers and marketers should constantly monitor government environments for rules, regulations, and safety items. As for the Extension and research funding issues, a tight squeeze on funding and staffing continues. All growers need to consider the benefits received from the University staff and help wherever they can.

A booklet titled "Transactions of the Illinois State Horticulture Society and the 9th Annual Illinois Fruit and Vegetable Research Report" was available at the Specialty Growers Convention. It contains summaries of current research projects plus a review of the fruit industry in Illinois from 1818 through 2005. The latter was written by Dr. Mosbah Kushad and includes his outlook on the future.

And now that I am a year older, my prayer for this year is "God grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked anyway, the good fortune to run into the ones I do like, and eyesight to tell the difference."

Chris Doll

Advisory Committee Meeting for Southern Illinois Food Crop Horticulture Research and Extension

A recently-constituted advisory committee for UI food crop horticulture research and extension in southern Illinois was formed and held its first meeting on December 12, 2006, hosted by the Southern Regional Extension office in Mt. Vernon. Discussion was led by NRES Department Head Wes Jarrell and centered on the current research and extension needs of southern Illinois producers of horticultural commodities. Topics included the potential role of the Dixon Springs Ag Center in meeting those needs in the future as well as discussion by Bronwyn Aly and Jeff Kindhart on a few current, past, and future research projects. Dr. Allan Walters of SIU summarized Southern Illinois University's past contributions and some of their future goals for food crop horticulture research.

Among those in attendance were several growers including Donnie Ahrens, Bill Bass, Bernie Colvis, and Bob Fournie. Jim Shannon with Southern FS and Chris Doll with Doll Horticulture Enterprises (formerly UI-CES) were also present, as were several members of the University of Illinois Extension, including Ed Billingsley, John Pike, Elizabeth Wahle, Rick Weinzierl, and Regional Director Dan Nelson.

Among the highlights of the day's activities was the identification of several needs for the Illinois food crop horticulture industry. Those included the need for both a blackberry and peach cultivar trial, the need for a horticulture marketing specialist, and the need for additional research in strawberries, particularly matted row research to complement ongoing plasticulture research. The group also emphasized the importance and some of the difficulties associated with farm labor.

The advisors expressed their appreciation for the meeting, that they valued regional research programs. There was general agreement that the sheer size and diversity of the state mandated that many types of production research needed to be conducted regionally to obtain meaningful results. The suggestion that some of the UI-NRES research trials be replicated statewide, at St. Charles, at the South Farm in Urbana-Champaign, and at the Dixon Springs Ag Center, as well as on-farm, was supported by those at the meeting.

The participation of everyone involved in this first meeting is greatly appreciated. If anyone has additional thoughts on how the University of Illinois could better serve the needs of southern Illinois horticulture, please contact Wes Jarrell, Jeff Kindhart, Bronwyn Aly, or any of the other participants.

Jeff Kindhart (618-695-2444, jkindhar@uiuc.edu)

Fruit Production and Pest Management

New Insecticide and Miticide Registrations for Fruit Crops

The following insecticides and miticides are newly registered for use on fruit crops in the last year or two or their labels have been expanded to include additional uses. Some of these products were included in our 2005 spray guides, but all are new enough to warrant a few comments.

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

Vegetable Production and Pest Management

Tomato Cultivar Trials in Southern Illinois

The following table lists the best performing tomato cultivars in two southern Illinois trials conducted in 2005. A complete list of cultivar trial results can be found kin the 9th Annual Illinois Fruit and Vegetable Research Report available from Bronwyn Aly at the University of Illinois Dixon Springs Agricultural Center. Information on this and other trials conducted at Dixon Springs can also be found in the Midwest Vegetable Variety Trial Report, also available from Bronwyn.

Bronwyn Aly (618-695-2444, baly@uiuc.edu) and Jeff Kindhart (618-695-2444, jkindhar@uiuc.edu)

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

In case you missed it in Chris Doll's notes earlier in this issue ...

And now that I am a year older, my prayer for this year is, "God grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked anyway, the good fortune to run into the ones I do like, and eyesight to tell the difference."

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

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