Small Fruits

Over the years I have seen dark spots on the foliage of strawberry plants like the ones in figs. 1 and 2. These spots can look pretty bad at times and are thought to possibly be the start of some disease such as angular leaf spot or anthracnose.

University of Delaware extension and Rutgers both as recently reported seeing a large increase in green stinkbugs (Acrosternum hilare or Chinavia hilaris ) in their black light traps.

Fruit and Vegetable News, Volume 12, Issue 3 (June 10, 2021)

I have seen several sweet corn fields lately that have sulfur deficiencies (fig 1). One of the possible reasons we are seeing more S deficiency is because less sulfur is being deposited into the soil from the atmosphere due to reductions in acid rain. In 1986 about 24 lbs/a of sulfate were deposited in Maryland soils per year, however in 2011 it was closer to just 8 lbs/a each year. Organic matter supplies most of the sulfur to the crop, but sulfur must be mineralized to sulfate-S to be taken up by crop plants.

A few blueberry and cherry growers in central Maryland have reported fruit damage to their crop from Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD) this week. If you grow any small fruit such as blueberries, cherries, blackberries, raspberries it would be best if you check these crops for the presence of SWD.

Hurricane Ida dumped a lot of rainfall in Montgomery, Frederick, and Howard Counties. If you farm in an area where local creeks or rivers overflowed their banks and flooded produce fields, your crop may have been contaminated and should be discarded. Plowing under after the soil has dried is a common method of disposal.

Developing a food safety culture is an ongoing exercise that requires reminders, reinforcement and retraining. What about regulations? What about certificate (or audit) programs? Where do each of them begin, and who needs to either comply or elect to participate? That is where the confusion often comes in.

There exists a lack of control efficacy information to enable decision-making about which organic insecticide product works best for a given insect pest. Here we summarize results of 153 field trials on the control efficacy of common active ingredients in organic insecticides against groups of the most difficult to control insect pests. The performance of organic products Entrust (spinosad), Azera (pyrethrin and azadirachtin), PyGanic (pyrethrin) and Neemix (azadirachtin) varied widely among pest groups, as well as among pest species within a group, providing an overall reduction in pest infestations by 73.9%, 61.7%, 48.6% and 46.1%, respectively.

Information on hard cider and ice wine production.

New Grape Grower Workshop presentations, held during the Maryland Grape and Wine Industry Annual Conference, Jan. 12-13, 2021.