With the produce season essentially finished, it’s time to begin thinking about insect management in melons. Spring melon crops are rapidly growing, and so are insect pest populations. Cabbage loopers and leafminers are becoming evident in some areas, and PCAs should start ramping up their monitoring and sampling. More importantly, whitely populations are quietly becoming abundant on the spring melons of all sizes. Adults can easily be found on recently planted melons located at the Yuma Ag Center, and reports from local PCAs suggest that adult populations are beginning to show up on older plantings. As temperatures increase and crops/weeds mature, avoidance of excessive feeding from whitefly nymphs should be the primary concern on all melon types. Although CYSDV does occur in later spring melons, it is rarely yield limiting. But honeydew and sooty mold contamination on cantaloupes, mixed melons and watermelons can significantly reduce quality and marketability is whiteflies are not adequately controlled.  Our research has shown that to prevent fruit yield and quality losses on spring melons, a foliar insecticide treatment should be applied on threshold; that is, when average adult numbers exceed 2 per leaf when averaged across an entire melon field. At this level of adult abundance, immature populations are beginning to colonize. Timing sprays based on the adult threshold has been shown to significantly reduce the chance of yield / quality losses during spring harvests.  This threshold applies for the use of recommended IGRs (Courier, Knack, Cormoran, and Oberon), foliar applied neonicotinoids (Assail, Venom, Scorpion), neonicotinoid-like compounds (Sivanto prime and Transform), diamides, (Exirel and Minecto Pro) and the feeding disruptors (PQZ and Sefina).  For more information on whitefly management and available insecticides, go to these documents on Insect Management on Spring Melons: Whiteflies and Whitefly Control Chart-Spring Melons -2024. Also, be aware of honey bees and other pollinators in or around melon fields. If bees are present, be sure to carefully read labels and determine bee safety of a product before making an application in a melon field.  If applications are necessary during bloom, only apply a product that is considered bee safe (e.g., PQZ, Sefina, Sivanto, Assail). We also recommend that insecticides only be applied when honeybees are not actively working in the field (e.g. 10:00 pm – 3: 00 am).

This study was conducted at the Yuma Valley Agricultural Center. The soil was a silty clay loam (7-56-37 sand-silt-clay, pH 7.2, O.M. 0.7%). Variety: Deluxe (HMX2595) was seeded, then sprinkler-irrigated to germinate seed on March 20, 2024on 84 inches between bed centers. All other water was supplied by furrow irrigation or rainfall. Treatments were replicated five times in a randomized complete block design. Each replicate plot consisted of 25 ft of bed. Treatment beds were separated by single nontreated beds. Treatments were applied with a tractor-mounted boom sprayer that delivered 50 gal/acre at 100 psi to flat-fan nozzles spaced 12 in apart. 

Spray treatments were done on 05-21-2024, 05-31-2024, 06-07-2024 and 06-14-24. Powdery mildew was first seen on 06-05-24. Please see excel file for additional details.  

Disease severity of powdery mildew (caused by Sphaerotheca fuliginea and S. fusca) severity was determined 6-17-2024 by rating 10 plants within each of the four replicate plots per treatment using the following rating system: 0 = no powdery mildew present; 1 = one to two mildew colonies on leaves  ;2 = powdery mildew present on one quarter of leaves; 3 = powdery mildew present on half of the leaves; 4 = powdery mildew present on more than half of leaf surface area ; 5 = powdery mildew present on entire leaf. These ratings were transformed to percentage of leaves infected values before being statistically analyzed.

The data in the table illustrate the degree of disease control obtained by application of the various treatments in this trial. Most treatments significantly reduced the final severity of powdery mildew compared to nontreated plants. Quintec, Merivon, Tesaris, Luna Sensation, and V6M-5-14 V gave the best disease control. Phytotoxicity symptoms were not noted for any treatments in this trial.

ANR Webinar 10/17 click link for details.

Weed escapes are easy to spot in vegetable fields at harvest time. Some growers have these weeds pulled, bagged and removed by hand from the field because they are unsightly and to reduce seedbank loads. This can be a costly operation. An alternative solution might be to use high voltage electricity to kill these weeds. The idea of using electricity to “zap” weeds is not new. Machines for agriculture applications were developed decades ago and commercially available in the late 1970’s. Although the devices worked, they were not widely adopted due in part to the availability of low cost and efficacious herbicides.

Because of environmental concerns, herbicide resistant weed issues and increased organic production, non-chemical, high voltage weed control technology is seeing a resurgence. There are now five companies, three established within the last four years, offering or developing machines for commercial agriculture. Although configurations differ, all machines operate using the same principles. To explain, consider the example of the machine shown in Fig. 1. The unit comprises high voltage electrodes (8-15 kV) positioned above the crop canopy, an electric generator and a soil engaging coulter connected to ground. During operation, when an electrode touches a weed protruding above the canopy, current flows through the plant back to the generator via the ground contacting coulter. Current flow combined with electrical resistance in the plant causes rapid heating and plant fluids to vaporize. This ruptures cell walls and kills the plant. Although there are few recent reports in the literature, prior research on dated machines showed that the technique can provide better than 98% weed control in moderate weed densities (15,000 weeds/acre) at travel speeds of 2 mph (Diprose & Benson, 1984).

Modern approaches that utilize high voltage electricity in combination with smart machines to spot treat weeds are being developed. The idea is to use camera imagery and artificial intelligence to locate weeds and high voltage electricity to kill them. One such machine being developed by the MASCOR Institute¹ and the Zasso Group is an autonomous robot equipped with cameras, on-board computers and robotic arms (Fig. 2). As the machine moves through the field, high voltage electrodes mounted on the movable, computer controlled robotic arms zap weeds. Another unit is being developed by Stekettee and RootWave. It is tractor pulled and designed to travel at 3 mph. Stekettee’s machine vision system identifies the weeds and RootWave’s high voltage electric technology shocks the weed with a pulsed 5 kV charge. Power is supplied by a generator connected to the tractor’s PTO. Both systems are in late stages of development with field tests conducted in 2020.

These systems appear promising and if they prove to be effective and economical, may be something to look for in the future.

¹Reference to a product or company is for specific information only and does not endorse or recommend that product or company to the exclusion of others that may be suitable.

Herbicide resistant weeds have received a lot of attention in recent years. It is often misunderstood. Three of the most misunderstood concepts regarding herbicide resistance are: 1- Weed tolerance and weed selection are not resistance,2- Weed resistance is not universal and does not affect every weed of a certain species from field to field or within a field and weed resistance often takes much longer than insect resistance that is more  common and  occurs faster.

No Herbicide controls all weeds. Those weeds that are not controlled are tolerant. They never were controlled by that particular herbicide and they are often selected for and become more prevalent over time if the same herbicide is used. Resistant weeds, on the other hand, were controlled at one time by a particular herbicide and have naturally developed a trait that stops the herbicide from working. These resistant weeds survive from generation to generation and become more prevalent over time.

Weed resistance does not occur in all weeds in a field at the same time. It can be just one plant of trillions in a field. As this plant survives the herbicide and goes to seed it becomes more widespread in the field and in other fields. We conducted a trial in Parker last year where sprangletop survived Glyphosate in one field and was killed by the same treatment down the road. If your neighbor has resistant weeds it doesn’t mean that you do too.

Lastly, insect resistance to insecticides has occurred in this region for many years and was the first exposure that many pest control advisers and growers had to pesticide resistance. The principals are the same although insects generally produce multiple generations per season and mutations that facilitate resistance occur faster than for weeds. Annual weeds often produce only one or two generations per season and resistance takes much longer.

 Area wide Insect Trapping Network   VegIPM Update, Vol. 14, No. 21, Oct 18, 2023           
 
Results of pheromone and sticky trap catches can be viewed here.
 
Corn earworm:            
CEW moth increased in Tacna/Roll/Dome last week, and areawide about average for mid-October.
 
Beet armyworm:          
Trap counts highest in Tacna, Wellton and Dome, but below average for October.
 
Cabbage looper:         
Cabbage looper numbers increased in Tacna/Roll/Wellton but still below average.
 
Diamondback moth:    
DBM moths are beginning to appear in traps in Yuma Valley, trending below average for early October.
 
Whitefly:                      
Adult movement increased in the past 2 weeks and above average for mid-October.
 
Thrips:                         
Thrips adult activity down over the past week, and trending below average in October.
 
Aphids:                        
Winged adults continue to be captured for the season, consistent with heavy winds from W-NW. Can expect aphid flights to increase in the coming weeks.
 
Leafminers:                  
Adult activity increased significantly in Tacna associated with maturing melons. Trending above average for mid-October.