I received a report this week from a strawberry grower that overnight he went from no eastern flower thrips to an average of 15 thrips per bloom. Eastern flower thrips are an occasional pest of strawberries. They are attracted to and feed on flowers, with the result being leathery fruit or fruit that fail to[Read More…]
Crop Management
With the support of the Purdue Extension AgSeed Program, we are currently evaluating different production systems for growing strawberries in an open-field with plastic cultural systems for our area at Southwest Purdue Agricultural Center in Vincennes, IN. A day-neutral strawberry cultivar evaluation trial was established in the Spring of 2019. The evaluated cultivars include Portola,[Read More…]
Fruit crops are growing quickly. Spring must finally be here. In Lafayette, apples are mostly at petal fall with a few still at full bloom. Grapes have 1 to 4 inch shoots. Pawpaws are blooming. Bramble blossoms are visible in black raspberries but not in red raspberries and blackberries at this time. Strawberries are in[Read More…]
Apple Disease Management Notes for April For those at tight cluster through pink: Assuming trees have less than 3” of new growth, early applications of apogee will help prevent fire blight in what is shaping up to be a cooler, wet spring. With temperatures flirting with 70, fire blight needs to be on your radar[Read More…]
FieldWatch is an easy-to-use, reliable, accurate and secure on-line mapping tool intended to enhance communications that promotes awareness and stewardship activities between producers of specialty crops, beekeepers, and pesticide applicators. Originally developed at Purdue University, FieldWatch is now a non-profit company with support from producers, applicators, agricultural chemical companies and other organizations. The program allows[Read More…]
Dual Magnum® has had a special local needs (24C) label in Indiana that was amended to include additional small fruit and vegetable crops. The new 24C label is available on the National Pesticide Information Retrieval System web site: http://npirspublic.ceris.purdue.edu/state/state_menu.aspx?state=IN. To find it, type “SLN IN” and “130003” in the first two boxes for “EPA Registration Number”[Read More…]
This past week has been warm enough that we’re seeing activity in the Lafayette area. Southern areas are further along. See the note from Englebrecht’s Orchard in the Evansville area. We appreciate their help with crop condition reports and welcome others to submit their observations as well. In the Lafayette area brambles are pushing rapidly.[Read More…]
In the matted-row system in strawberry production, spring is the time to plant new strawberry patches. Bare-root plants are used in the system. Although you may hear strawberry plugs (actively growing strawberry transplants) are also used as plant materials, plugs are typically not available in the spring. Similar to other bare-root plants, adequate soil moisture[Read More…]