On Monday January 27, 2014 a workshop “Getting Started in Vegetable Production” will be held prior to the Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Convention at the Hershey Lodge, Hershey, Pa. The convention runs from January 28-30, 2014. This workshop is intended for beginning vegetable growers or those thinking about getting into the production of vegetables. The workshop will cover important topics that growers need to think about when contemplating entering into growing vegetables. The speakers at the workshop have years of experience working with vegetable growers and will provide a wealth of information that will prove useful to beginning and new growers. The cost of the workshop is $35.00 and will be separate from the registration for the convention. For more information on registration contact Bill Troxell, Executive Secretary, Pennsylvania Vegetable Growers Association at “William Troxell” or phone: 717-694-3596.

Potato growers, you are welcome to attend the 2nd Annual Eastern Shore Potato Field Workshop to be held this Wednesday,
July 10, 2013
4:00 pm—7:00 pm
26996 Ocean Gateway
Hebron, MD (near Salisbury, MD)
Click More for the Meeting program Additional information: 2013-potato-field-day-2-pdf

The Plant Management Network (PMN) has launched a new presentation in its Focus on Tomato webcast resource. This webcast is titled “Thrips as Pests and Vectors of Tospoviruses in Tomato” by George Kennedy, Professor of Agriculture and Entomology Department Head at North Carolina State University.

Below my signature, you will find more details about this webcast and the Focus on Tomato resource. Please let your students, growers, consultants, and any other practitioners who may be interested know through email, ListServe, blog, enewsletter, or any other extension-focused communications that you see fit..

Feel free to reply or call 651-994-3859 if there is any more information I can provide.

Kind Regards,
Phil Bogdan
Plant Management Network

New Thrips Webcast Featured in Focus on Tomato

As the primary vector for Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus (TSWV), thrips are an important pest to keep at bay.

This latest Focus on Tomato presentation, produced by The Plant Management Network will help consultants, growers, and other practitioners in the southern and western U.S. manage thrips and suppress virus incidence.

This talk, authored by Dr. George Kennedy, Professor of Agriculture and Entomology Department Head at North Carolina State University, covers&

– The biology of thrips and factors affecting their abundance
– Some background information on TSWV
– The roles of the tobacco thrips and western flower thrips in spread of TSWV
– The use of insecticides, reflective plastic mulch, Actigard, and TSWV resistant cultivars in the management of thrips

This presentation is open access through December 31, 2012 and can be viewed at http://www.plantmanagementnetwork.org/edcenter/seminars/tomato/ThripsTomato/.

Users can view other recent webcasts in the Focus on Tomato resource at http://www.plantmanagementnetwork.org/fot.

Focus on Tomato is a publication of the Plant Management Network (PMN), a nonprofit online publisher whose mission is to enhance the health, management, and production of agricultural and horticultural crops. It achieves this mission through applied, science-based resources. PMN is jointly managed by the American Society of Agronomy, American Phytopathological Society, and Crop Science Society of America.

To take advantage of PMN’s full line of resources, please sign up for its free online newsletter at:
http://www.plantmanagementnetwork.org/update/default.cfm.

Sweet corn producers in Virginia are reaching the intensive pest management period for that crop. Corn earworm is the primary pest of sweet corn, and typically very few ears will escape infestation by this pest as the summer progresses. Monitoring the activity of moths on the farm can aid in the pest management decision making. In the Northern Neck of Virginia, Parker Farms are monitoring corn earworm pheromone traps. Nightly catch of moths at the traps indicate the flight activity of the pest, potential for egg laying on the silks, and concomitant larval infestation in the ear. The Parkers have reduced the number of insecticide sprays applied to sweet corn with this information, and have obtained damage-free sweet corn over the past two years. The exact action thresholds based on moth catch can very. University of Delaware IPM provides a good table and discussion of this. Click on the following URL. http://ag.udel.edu/extension/IPM/thresh/sweetcornsg.html
In general, catch of 10 or more moths per night is high and indicates the need for a short spray interval (every 2 or 3 days throughout silking period). Less than 10 moths per night indicates that you could increase your interval between sprays. If an average of less than 1 moth per night is caught, then spray intervals can possibly be once per week. However, corn earworm moth activity increase as we progress through the summer, and in many areas of Virginia, moth catch will exceed 10 per night though most of July and August.

So far, at Parker Farms in Oak Grove in the Northern Neck of Virginia, corn earworm catch has been low in the 3 pheromone traps with the exception of one night (June 26) in one trap, when 26 moths were caught in one night. Catch dropped to 3 the following night, and has since been virtually 0. We will be reporting these trap catch data on the VA Ag Pest Advisory each week throughout the summer. We thank Raef Parker for monitoring this pest in the Northern Neck and sharing these useful sweetcorn IPM data.

I was contacted recently by a VCE Agent in Frederick Co. Mark Sutphin about my recommendations for stink bug bug control in sweet corn. Frederick Co., VA is one of the counties that has very high densities of the invasive brown marmorated stink bug. After sending him my reply, I thought that others in Virginia may also benefit from this information. So here it is below:

Fortunately for sweet corn producers, unlike tree fruit growers, BMSB should not cause any drastic changes in chemical control strategies unless the grower is relying primarily on transgenic Bt sweet corn for worm control.
Bt will not control stink bugs. Most of the insecticides that growers are already spraying on sweet corn should control BMSB. These include the following below:

beta-cyfluthrin – 1.6-2.8 fl oz/A Baythroid XL
bifenthrin – 2.1-6.4 fl oz/A Bifenture (or Brigade, Sniper, or OLF) Not labeled in coastal counties
chlorpyrifos 1-2 pts/A Lorsban 4E (or OLF)
chlorpyrifos + gamma-cyhalothrin – 13-26 fl oz/A Cobalt
cyfluthrin – 1.6-2.8 fl oz/A Tombstone (or OLF)
gamma–cyhalothrin – 2.56-3.84 fl oz/A Proaxis
lambda-cyhalothrin – 1.28-1.92 fl oz/A Warrior II or 2.56-3.84 fl oz/A Lambda-Cy (LambdaT, Silencer, or OLF)
lambda-cyhalothrin + chlorantraniliprole – 6-9 fl oz/A Voliam xpress
methomyl – 0.75-1.5 pts Lannate LV
permethrin – 4-8 fl oz/A Permethrin 3.2EC (Perm-UP, Pounce 3.2EC or OLF)
zeta-cypermethrin – 2.24-4 fl oz/A Mustang MAX (or OLF)
zeta-cypermethrin + bifenthrin-Not labeled in coastal counties 4.5-11.2 fl oz/A Hero EW

Click More News to download a copy of the insecticide performance report based on our research on vegetable crops in Virginia in 2011.
In the western portions of Virginia, probably applications twice per week during silking and until harvest should control them even under heavy pest pressure. In eastern counties, insecticide applications at least 3 times per week are probably needed to control both corn earworm and the BMSB.

Best regards,
Tom
Additional information: summary-of-insecticide-performance-on-bmsb-nov2011-docx

Bayer CropScience recently announced that vegetables have been added to the Belt insecticide label. The insecticide product Synapse, which also contains the potent-lepidopteran active ingredient flubendiamide, will be phased out. Belt will be the product for both cropping systems. Existing supplies of Synapse should be sold, and growers can continue to use that product. Bayer Cropscience is also offering price reductions for the product. Click more to download the new Belt label. Additional information: newbeltlabel-withvegetablesadded-pdf

Control of two-spotted spider mite can be very difficult once mite outbreaks are flared. Portal, Oberon, Acramite, and Agrimek are all efficacious materials to control mite outbreaks on vegetables. Zeal is also effective, and has just recently gotten a Supplemental Label for additional crops including: cucumbers, fruiting vegetables such as tomatoes and peppers, and other small fruit crops. Rotation of miticides is important for resistance management. Zeal is another effective miticide with a novel mode of action to include in this rotation. Click more for the Supplemental Label. Additional information: zealsupplementallabel-cukes-fruitingveggies-pdf