Hope you are all enjoying the summer so far and keeping busy. Although, we’re about 2 months away from the Fall produce season, it’s never too early to begin thinking of IPM strategies you will be using to battle key insects next season. This includes keeping track of their typical activity during June, July, and August. Below is a short discussion detailing individual pests. 
 
Aphids:    The major aphid species that are important in produce crops each spring include green peach aphid, foxglove aphid and lettuce aphid.  These species are considered cool season pests and are biologically most active during the winter and spring when temperature average around (55-65 F). We do not find them on summer crops as the high temperatures prohibit their activity. They essentially become extinct each summer only to reappear in the fall to infest crops in Oct-Dec migrating into the desert via N-NW winds that occur after the monsoons.
 
Diamondback Moth (DBM):  Another key pest that disappears each summer but for a different reason than for aphids. The host range of DBM is limited to only brassica crop and plants. Although brassica weeds are common during the winter, they occur during the summer due to high temperatures and dry conditions. Thus, like aphids, DBM populations from the previous spring season become “extinct” during the summer when brassica crops and weeds are absent. They reappear each fall migrating in on high winds associated with tropical storms from Mexico, or arrive into the region on infested brassica transplants from California.
 
Whiteflies:       A resident pest that occurs year-round in the desert. As a warm season pest, whiteflies are most abundant on fall produce crops, and seldom a problem during the winter and spring. Peak abundance occurs during the summer months on cotton, and again in September and October on fall brassica, leafy vegetables and fall melons.  Thus, it is important to control whiteflies in cotton prior to defoliation to prevent large migrations onto fall produce crops. In addition, whiteflies can be found on several weeds such as purslane, goosefoot, ground cherry, and sunflowers. Sanitation in and around fields being prepped for fall plantings is important. Preventatively, growers should consider applying soil, system insecticides such as imidacloprid or Verimark to Fall produce crops.

Beet Armyworm (BAW):  A warm-season pest that occurs year-round in the desert. They tend to reach peak abundance twice a year. Generally, the most important peak is in September and October when weather is ideal for their development, flight activity and oviposition. A second peak occurs in late spring. Activity is generally light during the summer, occurring primarily in alfalfa crops. Although BAW is known to migrate in from the south via monsoon and tropical storms, resident populations annually occur in alfalfa during the summer. Thus, to minimize BAW in fall produce crops, thorough management of BAW can potentially minimize their movement onto Fall produce crops.  Weeds are also a source of BAW (purslane, goosefoot, sunflower and Russian thistle) so sanitation in and around fields is important.
 
Western Flower Thrips (WFT):  Also a resident pest that can be found in the desert year round. WFT is most abundant on lettuce in the late spring, but peaks in abundance on alfalfa, melons and cotton is May and June. During the late summer numbers drop dramatically where thrips can be found on melons and alfalfa and weeds like goosefoot and purslane. WFT slowly move into lettuce again in early fall and are least abundant during the winter.  Sanitation of weeds during the summer can help reduce thrips abundance moving into the fall crops and weeds.
 
For more information see:   Keeping Track of Major Produce Pests During the Summer

According to all available evidence, there are 20 total nutrients necessary for complete plant growth and development. Not all are required for all plants, but all have been found to be essential to some. Three of the 20 (carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen) and are derived from CO₂ and H₂O and are not usually considered in terms of managing a plant nutrition and soil fertility program. The remaining 17 are commonly referred to as mineral nutrients (N, P, K, Mg, Ca, S, Fe, Mn, Mo, Cu, B, Zn, Cl, Na, Co, V, and Si). Of the 17 mineral nutrients, N, P, and K are the macronutrients; Mg, Ca, and S are secondary nutrients; and Fe, Mn, Mo, Cu, B, Zn, Cl, Na, Co, V, and Si are referred to as micronutrients. The terms macro-, secondary, or micronutrients do not refer to any level of importance but rather to relative amounts required by plants.
 
The amount of a given nutrient found in a plant will depend on several; factors, governed in 
general by a broad range of plant and environmental interactions.  Therefore, the percentage composition of plant nutrients can vary tremendously among species and locations.  Since all the mineral nutrition is provided to the plant by nutrient uptake from the soil through the root system, an understanding of the soil conditions and the effects on plant nutrition are very important. A fundamental point to consider is that there is usually a rather poor relationship between the total amount of a given nutrient found in the soil (i.e., P or K) and the amount available to the plant for uptake and utilization. This is very true in Arizona where our agricultural soils are commonly rather young (geologically) alluvial soils with a high native fertility level. Soil tests are commonly used to establish a relationship
between an estimated level of a “plant-available” form of a given nutrient and its sufficiency, deficiency, or toxicity for the crop in question. The relationships between a soil test and actual crop nutrient needs are usually specific for a crop and region and a set of common soil conditions.
 
Developing a sound fertilization program begins with a good understanding of actual soil conditions. The collection and analyses of a good (representative) set of soil samples and then relating that information to established guidelines are the first steps toward developing a strong soil fertility and plant nutritional management program for any crop. This is important for the overall efficiency of a crop production system, including agronomic, economic, and environmental efficiency. 
 
To maximize nutrient management efficiency, it is good to consider the 4R concept of plant nutrient management and application, consisting of:
 1.   Right fertilizer source at the
 2.   Right rate, at the
 3.   Right time and in the
 4.   Right place
 
The 4R nutrient stewardship approach utilizes the implementation of best management practices (BMPs) that optimize the fertilizer use efficiency by the crop. The primary objective of the 4R approach and BMPs is to match nutrient supply with crop requirements and to minimize nutrient losses from fields.  Each case can vary among farms and fields, dependent on local soil and climatic conditions, crop, management conditions, and other site-specific factors.

It is that time of the year!  Every year, September starts with “Is it April yet?” If you did not say that, then you cannot sit with us!

This past growing season has been an interesting one. From wearing masks at 120 degree to maintaining social distancing; while producing same amount of produce, feeding same amount of people, and dealing with same amount of disease and pests. A big thank you to everyone involved in agriculture for your hard work and perseverance.

In regards to plant health, we had plenty of disease problems to deal with this year. Below is brief report of the major diseases observed in growing season 2020/2021 and the disease we should be keeping an eye on for next growing season.

We observed a lot of fields with fusarium wilt this year. We had a  lot of infected watermelon fields from  Winterhaven to Yuma, Wellton, and Mohawk Valley. Rain, and overwatering of fields when plants set fruits might have contributed to the disease development.

 Disease management include planting clean seeds/transplants, use of resistant cultivars, crop rotation, soil fumigation, soil solarization, grafting, biological control. An integrated approach utilizing two or more methods is required for successful disease management.

Fusarium wilt of Lettuce
Though detected in a lot of fields and some new fields, the disease pressure in lettuce was relatively low. Please continue with proper management practice for next growing season. Avoid overwatering, add soil amendments/organic matter, practice crop rotation if possible.

Lettuce dieback associated virus

Lettuce dieback is a soil-borne disease caused by two closely related viruses from the family Tombusviridae Tomato Bushy Stunt Virus (TBSV) and Lettuce Necrotic Stunt Virus (LNSV) that has been reclassified as Moroccan Pepper Virus (MPV). The disease has been observed throughout the main lettuce producing areas of California and Arizona.

Sclerotinia drop

Sclerotinia rot (known as lettuce drop) is caused by fungi Sclerotinia sclerotiorum and Sclerotinia minor.The initial aboveground symptom is observed as wilting of outermost layer of leaves giving an impression of stress in plants. However, as infection progresses rapidly towards other leaf layers and the entire plant wilts including the head. The entire plant/planting can collapse within the matter of 2 days when the condition is favorable. Management practices include use of subsurface drip irrigation, keeping the top 5-8cm of soil on planting bed is crucial. Deep plowing, crop rotation with non-hosts like small grains and broccoli, removal of infected plant tissue from the field etc. help reduce the inoculum level. Soil fumigation is effective though may not be economical. In Florida growers flood fallow their lettuce field for 4-6 weeks in summer which has almost 100% control of S. sclerotiorum. This is something you might wan to consider doing this summer if you have had high disease pressure in your fields this growing season.

Downy mildew

Downy mildew has been a problem for years in lettuce as well as spinach. One of the main reason that hinders the disease management is the complexity of the pathogen. Bremia lactucae (lettuce pathogen) consists of multiple races (pathotypes), and new races continue to occur as pathogen evolves. The pathogen is one of the fastest evolving plant pathogen. And each pathotypes have developed insensitivity to fungicides to different extent. Resistant cultivar, preventative application of fungicides are effective to some extent. Reducing leaf wetness and humidity by using drip or furrow irrigation can be helpful.

Impatiens necrotic spot virus  (INSV)

INSV has been detected in a number in fields mostly in Tacna/Roll/Wellton area. It has been found in lower numbers in Gila Valley. If your field has been infected with INSV this growing season, be proactive next season in regards to clearing up the weeds, managing thrip population etc. If you see symptomatic plants please let me or Dr. Palumbo know.

This week in Clinic
If you haven’t submitted your entry for Melon powdery mildew fungicide trial for this spring please send it to Dr. Bindu Poudel-Ward (bpoudel@arizona.edu)

At last week’s 2^nd AgTech Field Demo: Automated Weeding Technologies, there were some practice fields that had extremely high weed pressure. It was a unique situation and company reps from the three commercial automated in-row companies participating in the Field Day wanted to test their machines to see how they would perform. We were all impressed at how well they worked in the challenging conditions –large weeds, high density (Fig. 1). Some crop plants were mistakenly removed, but not many. They also performed well in celery plots that were similarly heavily infested with weeds (Fig. 2).
It was readily apparent that image-based crop/weed differentiation using artificial intelligence and pattern recognition algorithms has come a long way in the last several years. In the past, when leaves of adjacent plants overlapped or crop plants and weeds were similarly sized, automated weeding machine imaging systems were not able to reliably detect crop plants and weeding performance was poor.
Our studies on automated in-row weeding machine performance (Lati et al., 2016) have confirmed the logical result that labor savings for follow up hand weeding operations are significant in fields where weed pressure is high as compared to where it is low. If you have a heavily infested field, it might be worth investigating the use of an automated in-row weeding machine. I was impressed at how well today’s machines work.
References
Lati, R.N, Siemens, M.C., Rachuy, J.S. & Fennimore, S.A. (2016). Intrarow Weed Removal in Broccoli and Transplanted Lettuce with an Intelligent Cultivator. Weed Technology, 30(3), 655-663.

Fig. 1. Representative image of cultivating performance of three commercial
automated in-row weeding machines (right) operated in heavily weed infested
lettuce (left). Photo taken 5 days after treatment. Machines included Stout AgTech
Smart Cultivator, FarmWise Titan FT-35 and K.U.L.T. Kress iSelect.


Fig. 2. Celery cultivated using an automated in-row weeding machine (left) and a standard cultivator (right).

Dacthal was first registered in 1959 but like most older products that are still used, we are constantly adapting it to our changing cultural practices. Dacthal is a mitotic inhibitor and kills germinating weeds by stopping cell division. This is the same mode of action as many other preemergence herbicides such as Trifluralin, Prowl, Balan, Kerb and others but its chemistry and how it moves in the soil and plant are different. Dacthal is absorbed by both shoots and roots of germinating seedlings although most of the activity is from shoot absorption. When absorbed by the shoots, it will move upward into the plant. It is not absorbed by foliage and can be safely applied over the crop. Dacthal has a strong affinity for soil and adsorbs strongly to soil particles. If Dacthal is applied to dry soil, it sometimes will not work because the herbicide it stuck on the soil and not available to kill weeds. Conversely, if the soil is saturated, it may not be adequately incorporated. The best time to apply Dacthal is when the soil is moist but not saturated. When Dacthal was first being developed it was tested for use on lettuce.If it is sprayed on or chemigated it will cause severe injury to lettuce. If it is mechanically incorporated it is surprisingly safe to lettuce. It is fairly broad spectrum but weak on mustards.

Area wide Insect Trapping Network   VegIPM Update, Vol. 15, No. 17, Aug 21, 2024
 
Results of pheromone and sticky trap catches can be viewed here.
 
Corn earworm:           
CEW moth counts decreased areawide; about average to previous years.
 
Beet armyworm:         
BAW moth counts are up in south Yuma valley and Dome valley; about average for August

Cabbage looper:           
Cabbage looper numbers are low consistent with previous years and higher temperatures.
 
Diamondback moth:      
DBM moths were not caught in any trap; average for this time of the year.
 
Whitefly:                      
Adult movement continues to decrease, average for this time of the year.
 
Thrips:                          
Thrips adult activity continues to decline, average for August.
 
Aphids:                       
Aphid movement is absent and consistent with what we typically see during the summer.
 
Leafminers:                  
Adult activity declining and average for August.