25 Aug Agronomy Update – August 25th

Hello everyone,

Another sunny and warm day on the Island.  August has turned out to be much warmer and drier than July, certainly.  On Monday night/Tuesday, it appears that West Prince was the only part of the Island to get any significant rainfall amounts (between 5-10 mm) while the rest of the province mostly just got some heavy dews and wet pavements.

I was out in a number of fields this morning, and the crop looks quite good.  Some varieties are still exceptionally green and healthy with very little evidence of early dying or foliar disease.  Some varieties are starting to lighten up a bit and settle down in the hills, but that is to be expected at this time of year, particularly for some of the early-maturing varieties as they start to really bulk right now.  In digging a few plants here and there, there are very encouraging signs of a strong crop coming on.  Here’s hoping that you all get a little rain in the next week to keep things perking along nicely.

AIM Crop Tours – September 1^st and 2nd

All growers and industry partners are welcome to join our AIM crop tours next week on Wednesday and Thursday.

Eastern Tour – Wed, Sept 1^st – starting at 1:00 pm

1:00 pm  Field next to 2468 Seven Mile Road, Primrose (AIM Phys Age Trial)

1:45 pm  Next field east of 595 Route 2, Rollo Bay (Nitrogen Rate Trial – Genesis/PEIDAL)

2:30 pm   field south of the Glen Road on the Baltic Road (Biofumigant Mustard/Fungicide Trial/Variable Rate Seeding)

Central Tour – Thurs, Sept 2^nd – starting at 9:00 am

9:00 am  Hwy 1A across from McCain Fertilizer Plant in Middleton (Crop Rotation and Nitrogen Rate Trials)

10:00 am  Delaney Road, North Bedeque (Fall Cover Crops and Compaction Detection/Mitigation)

11:00 am  Old Station Road, New Annan (Biofumigant Mustard)

Western Tour – Thurs, Sept 2^nd – starting at 2:00 pm

2:00 pm  First field on the right, Dunbar Road, Alma (PED Legume Trial)

3:00 pm  3905 O’Leary Road, Springfield West (AIM Phys Age Trial, Mustard Trial, Variable Rate Seeding)

A map with GPS coordinates will be circulated later this week.  I look forward to seeing you at one or all of these tours.  No pre-registration is required.  Cold drinks will be available.

Spore Trapping / Disease Update:

Spornado Results for Monday, August 24th:  All sites negative for Late Blight

Airspore Results for Monday, August 24th:  All sites negative for Late Blight

Airspore Results for Alternaria/Bortrytis (August 24th)

* Morell/St Peters numbers are from Friday, Aug 20th

Late blight continues to be undetected in PEI.  The one positive spore reading from NB has not been replicated and no reports of foliar late blight have been reported in NB.

Early blight spore counts continue to be quite low and brown spot spore have been largely undetected for the past few weeks.  I would imagine that the low early blight spore counts is due in large part to the strong fungicide programs that many growers are employing.  The low brown spot counts is likely due to the fact that the canopy has been healthier than the last few years, so brown spot (which is an opportunistic pathogen) hasn’t really had ideal conditions to spread.  Grey mould (botrytis) spores are quite variable (ranging from single digits to 1000+ per field) but indicate that there is some level of pathogen around. We saw a similar trend in spores last year but did not hear widespread reports of foliar infection.

SpudChat – Grower Check In

This week’s episode of SpudChat features another Grower Check-In with three growers from across the province.  This week, I chat with:

• Morgan Smallman, J & J Smallman Farms, Knutsford
• Kevin Murray, Murray Farms, Bedeque
• Myles Rose, RA Rose & Sons, North Lake

To listen to the podcast, visit https://spudchat.buzzsprout.com/ or download wherever you access your podcasts.

That’s about all for this week.  I hope to see many of you on the tours next week.  I look forward to being able to show you some of the different trials we have been working on in AIM.  As always, if you have questions or concerns or ideas for trials/speakers/workshops, please don’t hesitate to reach out…your input is valuable and desired!

Have a great rest of the week

Ryan