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VEGETABLE CROP UPDATETOMATO & PEPPER EDITIONJanice LeBoeuf, OMAFRA Vegetable Crop Specialist Southwest Ag Conference: Topics of Interest to Vegetable Growers
The theme of the 15th Annual Southwest Agricultural Conference is “Innovative Farming Solutions”. It will be held on January 3rd and 4th at Ridgetown Campus – Topic 45: Advanced IPM for Vegetable Production Topic 18: Rhizobotany: The Root of Agriculture Topic 19: Cover Crops – Red Clover and More! Topic 15: Dealing With the Impact of Soil Disruption from On-Farm Construction Considerations before, ways to mitigate during and amend after construction of wind turbines, pipelines, municipal drains, etc. Topic 14: Clean Water Act – Agony or Topic 17: Getting the Most From Your Soil Tests Topic 23: Energy Savings on the Farm Topic 12: Getting More out of the Technology GPS, yield mapping, software, and other gadgets. You paid for it – put it to work! There are many more topics on farm business, alternative energy, weed identification, and innovation on the program, too. See the conference website at www.southwestagconference.ca for full program and registration details. | Top of Page |
The accumulation of disease severity values (DSVs) were slow in developing in 2007. The dry conditions in May, June and July produced fewer hours of leaf wetness than in recent years. These same dry conditions and often hot daytime temperatures were accompanied by cool evenings. These weather conditions that discourage fungal disease development, allowed for condensation to wet the leaves sufficient to encourage bacterial diseases like bacterial canker and spot. From 2001 to 2006 we have been in an upward trend, increasing in DSV’s each of the past 5 years. However, the dry season of 2007 brought this trend back down for at least one season (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Final TOMcast DSV map for 2007 growing season May: What a terrific way to start a tomato crop -- as well as other processing vegetable crops this spring. The temperatures were warm with some above normal daytime temperatures. In fact the entire southwest region reported warmer than normal days except along the These early dry, warm conditions proved beneficial as the Crop Heat Units (CHUs) were above the 30 year average, with the first monthly indications of below normal rainfall. June: The evenings, beginning during the third week of June, were noticeably cooler. It is often the case that after a hot day followed by a cool evening, early morning dews form. During the early part of this season the soils had been so dry, that dew had NOT formed for many hours in the evenings or early morning. This translated into low Disease Severity Values. Tomato growers begin their fungicide spray programs when the accumulated DSVs reach 35, for those crops that are transplanted before May 15. Growers who transplant tomatoes after May 15 wait until 45 DSVs are reached. The first fungicide spray application for tomatoes in 2007 could have been delayed in July: The TOMcast disease severity values were low this year, as would be expected. When surveying this crop this past year, any of the foliage that appeared to be “diseased” was often due to bacterial canker or Verticillium Wilt, neither of which are affected by fungicide spray programs. One weather factor that became very noticeable and critical for the production of our processing crops this season was the cooler days and evenings throughout July. It was this factor, the cooler temperatures in July that tended to reduce the drought stress on crops in our region. The following chart shows that all of the stations were reporting below normal temperatures. This translates into CHUs that were below the 30-year normals. The figure showing the overall CHUs for the season to date, indicated by the end of July we were slightly lower, but close to our normal CHUs for southwestern
Significant rainfall fell only in the Blenheim, New Scotland Line area, improving their crops tremendously. The rest of the region relied on the crop stress relieving cooler temperatures to produce the yield and quality fruit that did result this year. Figure 3 shows the comparison between the most recent drought years in 1988 and 2005 compared to this year, 2007. Whereas in the previous drought years, sufficient rainfall eventually fell in July this was not the case in 2007. It was only in the Blenheim (New Scotland Line) and Ridgetown areas that received higher rainfall in July. All other regions remained dry compared to 1988 and 2005 month of July.
Figure 3: Rainfall comparison between the drought years of 1988, 2005 and 2007 in the month of July. August: The cooler temperatures in July and certainly the wetter conditions in August provided the conditions that allowed growers to turn a potentially disastrous year into a ‘normal” production year. Thank goodness for the August rains. Many places were short of CHUs in August. This was due to our cooler night temperatures. The delay in crop growth in the Blenheim and Cedar Springs area gained in August. Throughout this growing season we experienced hot days, but often cool night temperatures. These extremes have given rise to the presumption that this has been an extremely hot season. Many of you who do not have air conditioning and instead rely on the open window breezes at night, remarked how comfortable sleeping had been this summer - cool nights, hot days. When examining the entire summer, we were actually slightly BEHIND in total CHUs for the reasons mentioned above. When taking the total rainfall amounts and comparing them as a percentage you can readily observe that the red areas suffered the most due to lack of rainfall in 2007 (Figure 4). The
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J. Chaput, OMAFRA, Minor Use Coordinator, ASSAIL can be used for control of aphids on field peppers at a rate of 56 to 86 grams product per hectare in a minimum of 200 L water per hectare. A maximum of 4 applications is permitted and Assail should not be applied more than every 7 days. ASSAIL can be used for control of Colorado potato beetle at a rate of 40-80 grams product per hectare in a minimum of 200 L water per hectare. A maximum of 2 applications is permitted and Assail should not be applied more than every 7 days. The designated pre-harvest interval for both pests is 7 days. Follow all other directions for use on the Assail label carefully including beginning applications when treatment thresholds have been reached as indicated by monitoring. Assail should be used in an IPM program and in rotation with other management strategies to adequately manage resistance. We wish to thank Agriculture and For copies of the new supplemental label contact Janice LeBoeuf, OMAFRA, Ridgetown (519) 674-1699 or Jim Chaput, OMAFRA, AssailTM is a trademark of Nippon Soda Co. Ltd., | Top of Page |
Anne Verhallen, Soil Management Specialist – Horticulture, OMAFRA, Ridgetown
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Anne Verhallen, Soil Management Specialist – Horticulture, OMAFRA, RidgetownLocal suppliers like irrigation and agricultural supply dealers often offer only one or two lines of equipment. If you have difficulty in finding a specific tool, try the list below:
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Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to All! Questions? Comments? |
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