02 Jul Agronomy Update – July 2nd

Hi everyone,

It’s a hot and muggy end of the week after finally getting some sustained warm temperatures. Adequate soil moisture and improved soil temperatures are driving accelerated plant growth, with emerged potatoes growing rapidly. There are still quite a few fields either not yet emerged or just starting to emerge, but hopefully they will start to catch up quickly.

From my travels and conversations with growers, emergence on potatoes planted in late May/early June appears to be more consistent than perhaps we expected, given challenges with seed and the weather. Emergence issues appear to be the most evident on early and late planted acres.

I haven’t had a chance to do a full June weather report yet, but accumulated rainfall was 135 mm in O’Leary, 98 mm in Kensington, 70 mm in Harrington and 75 mm in Souris.  Eastern PEI needed it to dry out a bit in order to finish planting, while West Prince growers definitely found it difficult to plant/hill/spray following wet weather. The long range forecast for the first half of July does not have a lot of rain in it, but we all know how unreliable the forecasts seem to be this year. Several growers are starting to gear up irrigation equipment to start very soon.

Aphid Alert:

Two green peach aphids were found in West Prince last week, the earliest that we have detected green peach aphids in PEI in some time.  Green peach aphids were also found last week in Maine.  Total aphids per trap were almost 12 last week, approx. three times the number seen at a similar time last year.

Aphid numbers so far this week have declined somewhat (down to 7.8 per trap) but that is only from Monday samples. Numbers appear to be the highest in Prince County so far this week.

Seed growers are encouraged to be vigilant with oil and insecticide sprays, ensuring that plants are protected even at early stages of emergence.

2026 Spore Trapping Program:

Once again this year, I will be sharing the results of Air Spore spore trapping with all growers for early blight, brown spot, late blight and grey mold.

The Board has approved funding to assist growers with the cost of spore trapping, provided that they agree to share data with the Board. This funding will be available on a first-come, first-served basis and will cover a portion of spore trapping costs, depending on the number of farms participating.  If you are participating in the Air Spore program this year and have not yet talked to me, please feel free to reach out.

Pest/Disease Update:

It’s setting up to be a challenging year for weeds.  I have shared some thoughts on weed management in the last couple agronomy updates.  If you would like to look at all of the herbicide options available in an easy-to-use decision tool, please check out https://atlanticgrainscouncil.ca/herbicide-decision-tool/. This tool works for multiple crops and was developed by Dr. Andrew McKenzie-Gopsill at AAFC.

The first Colorado potato beetle (CPB) egg masses have been noted, which follows along with the GDD emergence models provided by the PEI Dept of Ag. Growers and scouts should be keeping an eye out for CPB adults, egg masses and larvae in the next week.

I haven’t yet had reports of European corn borers (ECB) being trapped, but we are now at the right number of accumulated GDD in most of the province that we should start seeing them. New Brunswick is reporting a higher than normal number of ECB moths so far this spring.

This year, I am proposing to do online-only Crop Update Meetings every two weeks. In-person attendance has been light the last two years; therefore, we thought it would be best to provide these update meetings via Zoom/phone so that there are no barriers to participation.

The first Crop Update Meeting will be next Tuesday, July 7^th, at 3:00 pm.   The next meeting will be Tuesday, July 21^st at 3:00 pm.  Please contact Ryan for login details.

Scouting Workshop – Presentations:

We had a great turnout at the Scouting Workshop on Tuesday in Emerald!  For those interested in accessing the presentations from this workshop, they are available on the PEI Potato Agronomy Site under Seminar/Workshop Presentations.

Have a great rest of the week,

Ryan