We have historically ended our Areawide Pheromone and Sticky Trap monitoring for insects around the first of April as the produce season ends. Beginning last year however, we continued our Areawide Trapping Network throughout the summer and are doing so now to continue to collect trapping data from all 16 areawide trap locations year-round.  So why is this additional trapping data useful? For several reasons. First, understanding the activity of some of our key pests when produce is not available (during the summer) may give us an indication of what to expect as the fall produce season begins. This may be particularly helpful for predicting moth flights and whitefly flights in August-September coinciding with early transplanting and direct seeded crops.  Another example is keeping track of corn earworm which can unexpectedly show up near the beginning of fall harvests. Secondly, trapping for pests during the summer has shown us that 2 of our more important produce pests are not caught in traps during the summer. We presume this is due to the absence of brassica crops and weeds for diamondback moth, and high daytime temperatures lethal to aphids. The fact that trap catches resume in the fall supports our conclusion that these pests are absent in the summer, only to reenter the desert via winds and/or transplants in the fall. And finally, it gives me something to do in the summer.  So, visit the Areawide Summer Trap Network if you’re curious what our key pests are up to. We also taken on another interesting project to monitor thrips activity during the summer. This involves plant sampling using a dislodgement sampling method (beat pan) to determine the relative abundance of thrips adults and larvae on alfalfa, cotton, melons, wheat, Sudan grass, and weeds.  This is being conducted to supplement our yellow sticky trap data that only indicates thrips adult flight movement an area. With this plant sampling we should be able to determine the primary host plants thrips are colonizing in the cropping season during the long hot summer. We are also trying to determine whether these crops allow for the reproduction of thrips. So far, all the crops and weeds we have sampled have shown that thrips will reproduce and complete their life cycle on them. This is important, particularly for weeds, as we are trying to determine whether INSV can be survive the summer in the absence of lettuce. It is also important because it allows us to determine potential exposure of thrips to key insecticides like Radiant and Lannate for resistance management purposes. These crops essentially serve as untreated refugia that likely sustains insecticide susceptibility and is the reason these products are still effective against thrips.  We will be conducting this work throughout the summer, as well as through next produce season. We will be providing data in each Veg IPM update. For the most recent sampling data see our Areawide Thrips Monitoring.  As always, if you have any ideas on thrips monitoring or insect trapping, we’d be glad to listen and discuss. As my dad used to say, “to solve the problem, you must first understand the problem”. 

Rewriting this article with additional information because of  the higher incidence of bacterial fruit blotch we are seeing as we approach the fruit season of melons. Bacterial fruit blotch (BFB) of melon  is caused by the bacterium Acidovorax avenae subsp. Citrulli. The bacteria produces large olive green to brown water-soaked lesions on fruit, making them unmarketable. 

Symptoms of BFB on seedlings begin with water-soaked areas on the lower surface of the cotyledons and inconspicuous lesions on leaves. BFB lesions will become necrotic often with yellow halos. Lesions are frequently delimited by veins. Infected seedlings collapse and die.

Greenhouse conditions are usually favorable for dispersal and establishment of pathogen. Thus, good greenhouse practices and sanitation is extremely important. Clean transplant trays must be used (disinfect trays if they will be reused) and new soil. Destroy any volunteer seedlings and keep the area in and around the greenhouse weed free. Avoid overhead watering if at all possible, or water in the middle of the day so that the plants dry thoroughly before evening. The bacterium can spread on mist and aerosols. Relative humidity should be kept low through proper watering and good air circulation in the greenhouse. Separate different seedlots, to reduce lot-to-lot spread. Monitor these isolated seedlings daily and destroy trays where symptoms develop. The remaining trays should be sprayed with a labeled bactericide and the applications continued until the plants are transplanted to the field. 

The pathogen can be seedborne, so growers should only use seed that has been tested for the presence of the pathogen by a reputable testing facility. Management of BFB includes a combination of preventing the introduction of the pathogen, sanitation to eliminate any inoculum present, and the use of bactericides if the disease appears. There are no commercially available watermelon cultivars that are resistant to bacterial fruit blotch, but there is some variation in susceptibility among cultivars.

More information on bacterial soft rot in cucurbits: 
https://extension.missouri.edu/publications/ipm1011

https://www.apsnet.org/edcenter/disandpath/prokaryote/pdlessons/Pages/BacterialBlotch.aspx

http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/r116101711.html

There are many innovative automated weeding technologies coming out of Europe. One of these is the autonomous weeding robot being developed by Ecoroboti (Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland). The device is lightweight and solar powered. Early prototypes used a spider like, three-axis delta robot to precisely deliver herbicides to target weeds. Videos of the device were futuristic and intriguing to watch. The company has since moved on to a simpler weeding robot equipped with a fixed boom for spot spraying weeds (Fig. 1 & 2). The autonomous robot has some specifications that are plausible for use in Arizona vegetable production. Machine travel speed is 2.2 mph and work rate is 15 acres/day (10 hour day). Spot spray resolution is reasonable at 2.5 inch² (1.5 x 1.5 inch). This is accomplished using a series of 52 nozzles mounted on an 80 inch wide boom (Fig. 2). The machine uses computer imaging and artificial intelligence for crop/weed differentiation to identify and target weeds.

This past summer, the system was tested in sugar beets in Germany. Results showed the system correctly sprayed about 80% of the weeds. For a first time, real-world, field scale test, this outcome is encouraging.

There are some limitations however. According to product literature, the machine’s artificial intelligence system will identify a crop plant as a weed approximately 5% of the time. Given the high value of vegetable crops, killing 5% of the crop as a trade-off for robotically controlling weeds is probably not viable. It should be noted that this level of crop/weed recognition performance is consistent with other artificial intelligence-based systems reported in the literature.

Don’t give up hope though. This type of technology is advancing rapidly, and may become feasible in the future. Computing speed and sensor capabilities are advancing all the time. A review of literature indicates that systems that combine 3-D morphology, optical color and accurate location data with deep learning techniques may be a viable approach to reliably differentiate crops from weeds. It will be interesting and exciting to watch this technology as it develops. That’s for sure.

As I have mentioned before, automated thinning and weeding technologies are advancing at a very rapid pace. If you know of a new technology that would be of interest and appropriate for this newsletter, please feel free to contact me.

Oxyfluorfen,(Goal and Galigan) has become a popular and effective herbicide for use on cole crops even though it was first registered in the 1980’s. Oxyfluorfen is a contact herbicide with the same mode of action as Chateau, Aim, Shark, Gramoxone, Paraquat , Sharpen and ET. They are all PPO Inhibitors that rupture cell membranes. Carfentrazone (Aim, Shark), ET and Paraquat (Gramoxone), are effective only as postemergence applications to small weeds, Sharpen and Goal are effective both preemergence and early postemergence and Chateau is used only preemergence but can cause severe crop injury if mixed with a surfactant. The only one of these that is registered for cole crops is Oxyfluorfen (Goal, GoalTender, Galigan). It does not make sense for a contact herbicide to be used on weeds that have not emerged. The way this works is that a barrier is created with the herbicide on the surface that kills the seedling weeds as they come in contact with it. It is important not to disturb this barrier or the weeds will not be affected. Oxyfluorfen (Goal) is an herbicide that defies reason in other ways as well. It normally adheres strongly to the soil and has very low water solubility. It is well known, however, that Goal can lift off of the surface and cause crop injury. When this happens, it is evaporating or going from a liquid to a gas and this is unaffected by its solubility or adsorption. It also works well when chemigated through a sprinkler system. You would think that it would wash off, but it works well with less crop injury when chemigated. Chemigation is registered for onions only but it works well with cole crops as well. It only takes half as much (4 ounces) and is safer to the crop when chemigated. It is best to apply it about 2/3 of the way through the sprinkler run to keep it in place and flush the system.

 

Area wide Insect Trapping Network   VegIPM Update, Vol. 15, No. 21, Oct 16, 2024

Results of pheromone and sticky trap catches can be viewed here.

Corn earworm: CEW moth counts increased in most traps; about average for early October.

Beet armyworm: Trap counts increased in most areas last week, and about average for early October.

Cabbage looper: Cabbage looper trap counts still most locations, below average for this time of the season.

Diamondback moth: Adult activity increasing, particularly in the Yuma and Dome Valleys.  Above average for this time of season.

Whitefly: Adult movement increasing Tacna, Dome Valley and Yuma Valley; overall about average for early October.

Thrips: Thrips adult movement picking up in all areas, overall activity above average.

Aphids: Winged aphids beginning to show up the north Yuma and Gila Valleys; about average for early October.

Leaf miners: Adult activity light in all areas, about average for this time of season