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Illinois Fruit and Vegetable News:A Newsletter for Commercial Growers of Fruit and Vegetable Crops Vol. 12 , No. 16, October 26, 2006 |
"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. Upcoming Programs ...
In This Issue:Upcoming Programs (above) Regional Updates (from Elizabeth Wahle, Jeff Kindhart and Bronwyn Aly, and Maurice Ogutu) Fruit Production and Pest Management (a couple of photos from the Midwest Fruit Workers meeting) Vegetable Production and Pest Management (24c labels for Dual Magnum in Illinois?; insects on late season broccoli) University of Illinois Extension Specialists in Fruit & Vegetable Production & Pest Management Regional UpdatesIn southern and southwestern Illinois ... The southern region finished its apple harvest within the last two weeks. The region escaped problems with fruit freezing on the tree, but some orchards experienced cracking and early drop after heavy rains late in the season. Fall color was looking fairly muted until recently, but after significant rainfall and a drop in overnight temperatures, color has just been spectacular, and that really helps put people in the mindset to buy apples and cider. Horseradish harvest started in September just as it should, only in months with an "R." With the rain, digging conditions have greatly improved, and harvest should move into full swing. Last minute note: Auction, Saturday, October 28, 2006, 10:00 AM. After 60 years in the orchard business, the Grammer family has sold Echo Valley Orchard and will be retiring. They have commissioned David Canning Auction Services to auction off all of the rolling stock at ABSOLUTE AUCTION, including tractors, trucks, dozers, forklifts, sprayers, discs, mowers, shop tools, and other miscellaneous equipment. Barns are full of a 60 year collection. The auction service will be selling in two rings part of the day so you might want to bring a friend. Directions: From Murphysboro take Highway 127 South approximately 5 miles to Grammer Road, turn left. Go approximately 2 miles to sale site, follow auction signs. Check the following web site for updated information and additional photos of sale items: http://www.topauctions24-7.com/upl/html_salebill/37453/81_37453.html. A Recipe for Success: Organic Production and Consumer Driven Marketing for the Farmer Entrepreneur are presented as a joint conference December 6-7, 2006. On December 6, the Third Annual Illinois Organic Production Conference will provide practical, science- and farmer-based information and extensive networking opportunities for any farmer interested in learning more about organic agriculture. Marketing Strategies for Consumer-Driven Agriculture will be the program the following day, on December 7. For full conference details and on-line registration, visit: http://asap.aces.uiuc.edu/orgconf/. Early pre-registration is now available online for the Great Lakes Fruit, Vegetable, and Farm Market Expo, December 5-7, in Grand Rapids, MI. Save $25.00 dollars by pre-registering by November 7, 2006. The Expo is one of the best shows for fruit and vegetable growers and farm marketers. A special "not-to-be-missed" opportunity is the trade show which has approximately 300 exhibitors under one roof. For complete conference details and online registration, visit: http://www.glexpo.com/index.php. Mark your calendars now. For those individuals needing to update their Illinois Food Handler License, a 5-hour recertification training session will be held January 11, 2007, in conjunction with the 2007 Illinois Specialty Crops and Agritourism Conference at the Crowne Plaza in Springfield, IL. This recertification course will meet all requirements for the Illinois Department of Public Health and will be taught by a University of Illinois Nutrition and Wellness Educator. This recertification is required every five years, and individuals attending must hold an unexpired license. There will be a $40.00 fee and it will include all training materials, snacks and meals. Attendees must be present for the full five hours of training. If you are attending the 2007 Illinois Specialty Crops and Agritourism Conference, this is a good opportunity to complete your recertification too. We also will be conducting a "back-by popular demand" pre-conference workshop on pumpkin production on January 11, 2007. For further details on the 2007 Illinois Specialty Crops and Agritourism Conference agenda and pre-conference workshops, visit the conference website at: http://www.specialtygrowers.org/confagenda.htm. Illinois apple cider makers will again get a chance to see who's the best in the state. After a successful run last January, the 18th Annual Cider Contest and the 5th Annual Hard Cider Contest will again be hosted at the Illinois Specialty Crops Conference in Springfield, January 11 -12, 2007. The contests are sponsored by the Illinois State Horticulture Society. Illinois contestants will compete against other Illinois producers for the Illinois State awards. Illinois ciders makers will also have the opportunity to submit their best ciders to challenge the out-of-state entries for the North American and Midwest Awards. Midwest awards are open to states surrounding and including Illinois, and North American awards are open to all cider makers in North America. For the Apple Cider contest, contestants are asked to submit a one-gallon container of unclarified apple cider that may be fresh or have been stored frozen. Previously frozen samples must be thawed by 10:00a.m. on Friday, January 12, in time for judging. For contestants unable to register in person, ship your cider directly to the conference: Crowne Plaza, Attn: Sarah Lynch, 3000 Dirksen Parkway, Springfield, IL 61703. Be sure to label shipped packages "Cider Judging Entry -- Keep Refrigerated." Shipped entries will be accepted by the hotel 48 hours prior to the start of the conference. Those making hard apple cider will want to get started now in order to have the maximum amount of fermentation time. Make sure your product is hard apple cider, not hard apple cider wine. Although there is no definite break or definition where hard apple cider stops and where wine starts, we are looking for a hard apple cider product with alcohol content below 8%. Hard apple ciders containing other fruit flavoring, such as pear, cherry, peach, or cranberry will not be considered for judging. Hard apple cider contestants are asked to submit a one-quart (or no more than a one-gallon) container of product for the hard apple cider-judging contest. Registration for all apple cider contests will be on Friday, January 12, from 8:00 to 9:45a.m. Judging will commence at 10:00 a.m. The fee is $10 per entry. Awards will be announced during the dinner banquet on Friday, January 12. For additional Cider Contest and Hard Cider Contest information, contact Elizabeth Wahle, Contest Coordinator, wahle@uiuc.edu or 618-692-9434. Elizabeth Wahle (618-692-9434; wahle@uiuc.edu) From the Dixon Springs Ag Center ... A recent twilight meeting on strawberry plasticulture production at the Bill Bass farm featured a presentation by Bernie Colvis. Bernie offered tips on everything from field preparation to operating his transplanter. Many thanks go to Bernie for his hard work and to the Bill Bass family for their excellent hospitality. Most plasticulture berries in southern Illinois look very good at this point in the fall season.
As planning for the upcoming Southern Illinois Vegetable Growers School and the Illinois small Fruit and strawberry Schools begins, growers with ideas for presentations are encouraged to contact Elizabeth Wahle (email address and phone number above) or Jeff Kindhart or Bronwyn Aly at the Dixon Springs Ag Center. If you a particular problem you want to learn how to solve or just an idea that you think would make an interesting session, please let us know. The City of Chicago and Chicago's Green City Market will host a Chicago Farmer Forum at the end of November. The invited keynote speaker is Anthony Flaccavento, Executive Director of Appalachian Sustainable Development. Attendance is for the trade only, and there will be open discussions and seminars, opportunities for direct sales and for combining resources with your neighbors, a session on smarter marketing, and a seminar is how to expand the growing season. The event is scheduled to be held Thursday, November 30, 2006, at the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences on Chicago's far south side. For more information, call the Mayor's Office of Special Events 312-744-3315. Jeff Kindhart (jkindhar@uiuc.edu) and Bronwyn Aly (baly@uiuc.edu) (both at 618-695-2444) In northern Illinois ... day temperatures over the last month have ranged from the 40s to the low 80s, with night temps from around 20 to the 50s. In late September there was some hail damage reported in the region, and some areas received more than 6 inches of rain in recent weeks (particularly in Chicago and suburbs stretching south into Kankakee County). This resulted in wet fields and disease problems associated with wet weather conditions such as phytophthora. The freezing temperatures that occurred October 11 through 13 froze some apples on the trees in northern parts of the region. Some of the pick-your-own apple orchards are still open, and fall apple varieties (Rome Beauty, Braeburn, Fuji, Enterprise, and Gold Rush) are available. Picking of fall bearing raspberries is over at most farms. Wet weather condition led to outbreaks of summer apple diseases such as sooty blotch and flyspeck. Apple scab incidence and apple fruit russeting was also observed in some orchards. There also has been some San Jose scale on apple fruit, but the apple crop this year is much heavier than last year. Most harvesting of sweet corn and other warm season vegetables ended during the first week of October, with everything fell victim to the freezing temperatures of October 11. Harvesting of cabbage and leafy greens such as collards, mustard greens, and spinach continues. The pumpkin crop this year is lighter than the last two years, as heavy rainfall created a conducive environment for fungal and bacterial diseases, leading to an increase in fruit rots. There was also a problem of keeping handles on pumpkin fruit. Nonetheless, direct and wholesale pumpkin fruit sales were still going on as of October 20, and a few bins are still available in farm storage areas. Maurice Ogutu (708-352-0109; ogutu@uiuc.edu) Fruit Production and Pest ManagementPhotos from the Midwest Tree Fruit Workers meeting Earlier this month the Midwest Fruit Workers Group, an informal assemblage of horticulturists, entomologists, plant pathologists from several Midwest states, met in Indianapolis to revise the regional tree fruit and small fruit spray guides for 2007 and to continue the planning and writing process on regional handbooks (such as the new ones on grapes and strawberries and the revision of the Midwest Tree Fruit Pest Management Handbook). There's also a photo exchange at this meeting, and here are just a couple of great photos the group shared this year.
Vegetable Production and Pest ManagementIs It Time for Indemnified 24c Labels for Dual Magnum in Illinois?Dual Magnum herbicide is in the process of receiving a label on pumpkin. The label, which Syngenta is submitting to the US EPA, only allows Dual Magnum between pumpkin rows and not in the row of pumpkins. The specific wording states: "Apply Dual Magnum preemergence (before weeds have emerged) at 1.0 to 1.33 pt/A as an inter-row or inter-hill application in pumpkin. Leave 1 foot of untreated area over the row, or 6 inches to each side of the planted hill and/or any emerged pumpkin foliage (inter-row or inter-hill means not directly over the planted seed or young pumpkin plants)." Why do we want Dual Magnum? Dual Magnum will provide an economical alternative to Curbit or Strategy for grass weed control. It will also be a good addition to Sandea-based broadleaf weed control program in pumpkin. Dual Magnum will provide control of eastern black nightshade and ALS-resistant water hemp. Why is Syngenta not allowing applications of Dual Magnum in the pumpkin crop row? Syngenta is worried about stand loss, delay maturity, or pumpkin yield loss if Dual Magnum is applied over the crop row. Our research with Dual Magnum on pumpkin has not found any crop injury but no one has evaluated Dual Magnum on all cultivars under a wide range of soil types and environmental conditions. Syngenta has said that they would support an indemnified 24c label for Dual Magnum in Illinois that allows Dual Magnum to be used in the pumpkin crop row. What is an "indemnified 24c label"? A 24c label is also called a "Special Local Need Label" that allow certain uses of a pesticide in a specific state. An indemnified label is generally done through a growers' organization (such as the Illinois Vegetable Growers Association or Illinois Specialty Growers Association). It requires a liability waiver or release of Syngenta and others from injury caused by Dual Magnum. An indemnified 24c label exists for Dual Magnum use on horseradish and for grower groups to use Dual Magnum on a range of vegetable crops in other states (i.e. Michigan, Wisconsin, New York). The label generally states: "To the extent consistent with applicable law, Syngenta Crop Protection, Inc. intends that the product that is the subject of this Section 24c label be purchased only by end users who agree by electronic signature on Syngenta Crop Protection's internet site to the terms and conditions required by Syngenta Crop Protection, Inc. including a waiver and release from all liability and indemnification by the user and/or grower of Syngenta and others for the failure to perform and for crop injury, crop yield reduction, and/or crop loss from use of Dual Magnum on crops on this 24(c) label." What should you do? Communicate to your grower organization or processing company that you would like to have Dual Magnum available for use in pumpkins rows as an indemnified 24c label in Illinois. Also send me a copy of your letter or email and I will contact Syngenta about your interest. My address and e-mail are: John Masiunas Late-season broccoli at Dixon SpringsWe established a late-season broccoli plot at the Dixon Springs Ag Center for the purpose of testing some new insecticides as well as some commercial standards. Insect pressure was much lighter than we anticipated, so the data from the plot didn't allow us to learn as much as we had hoped to about the effectiveness of the products that we tested. We did grow some pretty good broccoli, however, and we (well, Bronwyn Aly) managed to get a couple of interesting pictures. I'll save the captions for the pictures below and instead pose a couple of quiz questions for readers. "Who" are the insects in the pictures below?
I'll give the answer -- that is, I'll identify these creatures -- in the next issue in a few weeks. Rick Weinzierl (217-333-6651; weinzier@uiuc.edu) Words of Wisdom ... more bumper stickers worth a chuckle ...
University of Illinois Extension Specialists in Fruit and Vegetable Production & Pest Management
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