18 Jul Agronomy Update – July 18th

Hi everyone,

Spotty rains around the province the last couple of days.  Some communities in East Prince received 30-45 mm of rain on Tuesday evening, and the Charlottetown area got 25-30 mm, while other areas got next to none.  While it has been a damp day most of today, it appears that only parts of Kings County have received more than 5 mm of rain today.

Overall, the potato crop is looking very healthy and vigorous.  Early planting and timely rainfall have set the crop up for a great start.  Other crops are also looking great and are ahead of schedule for this time of year.  It looks like grain harvest should be ahead of schedule for August.

Crop Update Meetings – Feedback Wanted:

The Dept of Ag and the Board have hosted two Crop Update Meetings so far this summer, including this past Tuesday in Kensington.  Attendance has been low at both meetings compared to previous years.  We would welcome feedback from growers, crop scouts, agronomists, researchers, etc on whether these in-person crop update meetings still hold value for you, or whether there are other ways that we can both collect information on what is happening around the province as well as communicating information back out.  There is no sense having in-person meetings if there isn’t a desire to attend.  Feedback by phone or email is welcome to me, and I will try and put together a brief survey next week to gather additional feedback.

Aphid Alert:

• Total aphid number declined last week (4.8 per trap) compared to the week before (6.9 per trap), but numbers are still relatively high compared to last year for early in the season.  The grand majority of aphids continues to be non-colonizing “other” aphids.  Aphid numbers are higher in Prince County than in the rest of the province.
• Tarnished plant bugs were found in two traps last week.
• A few results from this week have been processed so far, and numbers are slightly lower than last week.
• No green peach aphids have been detected in PEI so far.  News from Maine is that green peach aphids continue to be detected at low numbers, but without the population spike occurring yet.
• Seed growers should continue to be proactive in keeping a steady schedule of oil application and aphicide application while plants are in rapid growth.  A minimum of 2L per week of oil is recommended.

Spore Trapping:

• No late blight spores were detected in PEI this week.  No spores were detected in either NB or Maine as well.
• Foliar late blight has been confirmed in Ontario.  The strain has been identified as US-23.

• Early blight spore counts are quite variable by field and by region.  Proximity to a field with active infection likely plays a large role in whether spores are detected.  Brown spot spores are generally lower.  The hot weather this week will likely fuel infection in susceptible varieties.
• As fields rapidly achieve row closure, growers should be ensuring that applications of targeted early blight/brown spot fungicides are applied before the rows are closed for susceptible varieties.
• If you have observed early blight or brown spot in any fields and would like to submit a sample for resistance testing, please contact me!  You can either drop off samples at the office, or we can arrange to collect samples.
• Grey mold spores were detected pretty consistently across the Island early in the week, but detections tailed off by Wednesday, likely due to the hot weather.  Spore counts would still be considered generally low.

Pest/Disease Update:

• There are multiple reports of increased numbers of Colorado potato beetles, especially in Prince County.  I was in fields last week with egg masses, but not at threshold for treatment.  Growers/scouts should keep an eye on fields this coming week for larvae if not already seeing them.
• European corn borer (ECB) have been found in sizable numbers in some communities, but not consistently across the province.  Eggs were at blackhead stage in a number of fields last week.  A higher number of growing degree days this year, especially in Prince County, as accelerated the lifecycle for ECB.  The Dept of Ag. does have ECB traps in multiple locations but so far has not trapped any moths yet.
• I am not hearing many concerns from growers or scouts concerning foliar disease or emergence outside of a few isolation seed issues.  In general, the crop is looking healthy, growing quickly, and reaching tuberization well ahead of schedule.  From few plants that I’ve been pulling, tuber number per plant looks to be better than last year, but we have a long way to go to get those tubers to the finish line.

That’s all for today.  Have a great rest of the week!

Ryan