September 6th

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Updates:

Suitability of Illinois Soil and Climate Conditions for Crops. Illinois State Water Survey (ISWS) has published a web site featuring 414 different crops and their suitability for Illinois soil and climate conditions. The site is designed to help farmers identify and find information on crops that they might like to grow.

Illinois has tremendous potential for fruit and vegetable production. Illinois, with approximately 12,500,000 residents, is a huge market for food crops. More than 20 experts, working on fruit and vegetable crops at the Universities in Illinois, that have formed a team entitled "Fruit and Vegetable Crops Task Force" are available to provide necessary recommendations on production, pest management, and marketing of fruit and vegetable crops. Any inquiry can be addressed to M. Babadoost (217-333-1523, babadoos@uiuc.edu) the list of the extension and research specialist on fruit and vegetable crops will be published in this site soon.

Vegetable Disease Update:

Bacterial Spot of Pumpkin. During the past few days, bacterial spot was observer in some of pumpkin fields in central Illinois. I estimated 2 to 5% percent of fruit with bacterial spot symptoms. As long as there is no rain, the disease may not spread onto the healthy fruit. But if it rains, the disease could spread rapidly. In order to prevent further fruit infection, I recommend to collect and store the already orange pumpkins in dray areas. If there are still green pumpkins in the field, spray application of a cooper compound will help to reduced fruit infection. There are several copper compound that can be used to reduce fruit infection. I recommend using the highest rate of copper in 40 to 50 gallons of water per acre. Also, I highly recommend using an sprayer that provide enough pressure to force the spray into the canopy to provide a though coverage of fruit. If fruit are not throughly covered with the spray, infection will take place and the disease will spread. For more information, click here.