3/23/2020

Motivations for vegetable Hot Vegetables for a Cool Place gardening Chip Bubl OSU Extension/Columbia County • Freshness and quality • Know how it was grown • Do It Yourself • Family traditions • Unique varieties • Financial reasons

Other Reasons to Grow a Vegetable Garden Some questions to talk about with new gardeners • Produce picked at the optimum stage of maturity • Who all will be doing the work? • Cultivars specifically suited • What does your family like to eat? to consumers’ preferences • How will you use the produce? • Less transportation of • How much space is available? commodity = reduced “Food Footprint” • Food security

Location and sunlight!! A new gardener’s choices 6+ hours sunlight is the • Where? minimum. The more sunlight, • How big? the better. There are a few • Rows or beds? Containers? crop options for less. • Weeds…….aaaargh! Locate the garden for ease of • Which vegetables? working and a reminder that • Seeds or transplants or both? there is a garden. • Fertilizer options • Watering method

1 3/23/2020

Access and Sunlight Interaction of plants, climate, and weather • Near the house. • Cold temperatures limit what can grow and when. – Easy to get to when harvesting. • Frost events are a wild card – Accessible for weeding, • Heat influences growth rate and maturity (plus cultivating, & staking plants. and minus) • Close to water. • Location may deter deer • So does light intensity and day length (or not). • We can increase temperatures around our • 6+ hours sunlight best vegetables to take advantage of our generally but there are some mild, if rainy, late winter through spring options for less. conditions

Frost (32 degrees) intervals Location Spring date Fall date Climate change dates Portland 4/20 10/31 New 4/12 and 11/07 ? Vernonia 5/15 10/05 New 5/07 and 10/13 ? Astoria 4/09 11/07 New 4/01 and 11/15 ? Tillamook 5/01 10/08 New 4/23 and 10/16 ? Hood River 4/30 10/03 New 4/22 and 10/24 ? Killing frost: 15‐20 days earlier for the last 28º temperature in spring and 15 days later for the first one in the fall. Remember: These are averages, not absolutes!!

Temperature Vegetable frost hardiness • Cool season crops – Can grow at 50°F but better if 65-75 °F • For vegetables that are frost hardy, there – Tolerate light frost. is a continuum both between species and varieties within species. – Quality may deteriorate under hot conditions. • Hardy: Most of cabbage family, garlic, – Peas, spinach, crucifer (cabbage family) onions, peas, some lettuces, chard, carrot crops family, etc. Potatoes marginally hardy • Warm season crops • Non hardy: The subtropical plants like – Develop best at temps >50°F. tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, most – Killed by frost. squashes, basil, cucumbers etc. – Beans, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, • Fall frosts cane mak some vegetables sweet corn, cucurbits. sweeter; some can overwinter

2 3/23/2020

Growing degree days or“heat units” 4/01‐10/31 Growing degree days (Base 50 degrees) • Astoria 1438 • Scappoose from April 1 to October 31st: • Kelso 2004 • 2016 2182 GDD • 2015: 2954 • St. Helens 2586 • 2014: 2770 • Vernonia 2050 • 2011‐14 average: 2294 • 4/1‐5/12 DD • Hood River 2552 • Year SH Ver Rain Scap Clat • The Dalles 3267 • 2016 416 351 371 422 366 • 2015 278 219 232 280 225 GDD = High temp+low temp/2 ‐ 50 • 2014 251 207 190 260 203 Example: 58 + 50 = 108/2 = 54‐50 = 4 GDD • 2013 288 262 241 303 250 • 2012 185 162 182 191 134 Black Krim: Courtesy Loghouse plants

Crop implications of increased frost free days Light intensity effects and more heat units • Light quality and quantity • Earlier transplanting and/or profoundly influences plant seeding of frost sensitive crops growth (assuming soil drainage and • Some plants are adapted to temperature is ok). lower light intensities • More rapid early growth and (lettuce, to some extent) longer growing season –more • We can grow greens in the yield? winter (sort of) but not • Combined with the greater heat tomatoes or cucumbers due units, more crop options to low light intensity. Will LED lights change this?

Daylength effects Bolting or flowering • Longer days = more sunlight!! • Cloudy vs sunny days affects plant growth and development • Onions • We need to take advantage, as much as possible, of the long days in the spring • Broccoli • Day length changes can trigger floral bolting • Spinach or other plant processes like bulbing • Lettuce • Temperature also play a role in bolting • Cilantro • Sub ‐tropical plants not daylength triggered • Artichokes for flowering (tomatoes, peppers, beans, etc.)

3 3/23/2020

Day Length High temperature impacts on horticultural • Increasing or decreasing day length affects – Plant growth rates crops: sunburn – Flower initiation • Transpiration cooling of plants – Bulbing & tuber development affected by high heat and/or moisture • Short day plants: Sweet potato stress • Long day plants flower/bulb when daylight exceeds a • Cuke and pepper fruit tissue damaged certain number of hours. at ~104‐8°F skin temp.; apples at – Lettuce -- Onions and garlic ~125° F. – Spinach – Radish • Sunburn or other quality issues • Day neutral plants – flowering not related to day • Manage by irrigation, variety length selection, planting dates, and sun‐ – Cucumber - Tomatoes blocking materials – Peas - Peppers – Beans

High temperature impacts on vegetable crops

• Sunburn • Corn, tomatoes, and beans may not set fruit/seed consistently on days with temperatures over 92 ° F. • Growth rate on most crops slow dramatically at temperatures above 95 ° F. • Few lettuce varieties or other greens do well at temperatures near 90 °F.

Rainfall patterns Rainfall patterns

• St. Helens: 42 inches per year • Vernonia: 45‐65 inches per year • Hood River: 31 inches per • St. Helens: 35‐45 inches per year year • Hood River: 20‐26 inches per year • The Dalles: 15 inches per • Most of the rain comes October year through May • Most of the rain comes October ‐ May • Summer rainfall is low: ~ 1.75” in July, 1.00” in August. • Summer rainfall is low: ~ .14” in July, .33” in August. • Crop demand is 4‐6” per month or • Crop demand is 4‐8” per more! month! Broccoli water demand by month

4 3/23/2020

Non‐irrigated vegetables Rainfall implications • Commonly grown without irrigation • We have to irrigate!! • Garlic • Rhubarb • Drainage is a big issue. Soil • Looking at other crops texture can profoundly affect irrigation needs in the summer • Winter squash and soil warming/cultivation • Tomatoes timing in the spring. • Peppers • Dry beans • Management issues

Seed storage

• Store cool and dry! • Storage life of seeds: • Beans: 3 years • Beets/chard: 4 • Cabbage group: 5 • Carrots: 3 • Corn 2 • Onions/leeks: 1-2 • Squash 5+ • Tomato/pepper : 4

Seed storage details Cool and dry • Storage life affected by the condition • Cool and dry are the best storage regimes. of seed when it comes into storage • As seeds age, both germination and • Dry is crucial – each 1% decrease in seed moisture vigor decline (between 5-14%) nearly doubles storage life. • Vigor declines faster than • Each 10°F decrease in temperature between 32 °F and germination %! ~100 °F also doubles storage life. • Planting more older seed in furrow = poor results (often) • If you can only control one factor, keep seeds dry! • Plant fresh seed –you won’t be sorry

5 3/23/2020

Seedling vigor Direct Seeding • Planting time dependent on soil • Vigor tests are becoming temperatures, pests, and need. more common for • Plant seed as deep as the seed vegetable seeds is wide. • Vigor can be affected by • Maturity at harvest • Seed package info will tell you • Age of seed how far to space the seed. • Mechanical injuries • Seed borne disease • Keep seed moist until plants • Storage environment germinate. • Genetic factors • Soil crusting!!

Soil crusting Soil Crusting • Problem on high clay/silt soils •Crusting: A serious issue on • Tillage followed by seeding followed by our clay soils, especially with rain or irrigation followed by sun can heat after a rain. leave an adobe layer on the surface. Hard • Germinating plants can’t break for some seeds to break through. through the crust and die. • Cover seeds with a potting mix and/or use Small seeds most affected. row covers. Drip irrigation reduces • Add organic matter over time, problems. cover seeds with potting mix, use row covers, and/or drip • Carrots, beets, lettuce very susceptible. irrigation. Poor stand.

Direct seeding issues Soil temperatures & •Temperature: seedling emergence • Temperature optimums plant specific –too high and they will go “thermo‐dormant” • To increase soil temperatures, and won’t germinate even if soils cool down you can: for some time. With some lettuce varieties, • Get a soil thermometer soil temps above 77° will cause this. Temps • Use raised beds too low and certain seeds are very slow to • Clear plastic over soil emerge and can lost to disease and/or before planting insect attack. • Black plastic (slower) • Minimum temperatures are not optimum temperatures (repeat three times)!

6 3/23/2020

Small seedlings are very vulnerable to shading!

The most important time to weed is the 3‐4 weeks after planting your vegetable seeds

Adding heat around your vegetables Virtues of transplants

• Transplants (also helps • Heat embedded in their early growth with weeding) • More weed competitive • Raised beds • Can get spacing right • Cloches • Earlier harvest • Floating row covers • Negatives • Hoophouse/greenhouse • Expensive re labor • Walls of water • Specialized structure/equipment

Hardening Off Transplant size • Harden off to acclimate to • Depends a bit on transplant conditions, i.e. potential –Wind transplant stress – Intense light • Generally, larger transplants will – Fluctuating temperatures produce a crop faster. • Increase exposure time to direct • Crop uniformity sun, ambient temperatures, and • Must be hardened off wind in stages by moving seedling • Row cover after transplanting trays outside and then back into • Weed competitive the protected growing area.

7 3/23/2020

Transplanting Plant Growth rates

• Transplant on cloudy • Generally, up to a maximum, the higher the days to minimize sun temperature, the faster the plant will grow. burn. Evenings good. An 18 degree increase doubles the growth rate (assuming light and moisture are • Water well after sufficient). This is crop/variety dependent! transplanting. • The size of the plant will affect the growth • Plant at the same rate depth as in the pot. • So will crop spacing and weed competition – Exception, tomatoes, • It’s all about leaf area and light sometimes collection and heat!

Season Extension: Coldframes More detail on seedling growth rates • Miniature greenhouse • If growth rate of a 10 gram transplant is .1 gram/gm of plant weight • Can add up to 45 days to per day, it will weigh 19.5 grams after a week, an increase of 9.5 growing season. gms • Typically 3’ wide by 6’ long; 18” high in back & 12” high • A 30 gram transplant growing at the same growth rate, will weigh in front. 58.5 grams after a week an increase of 28.5 grams. • Faces south or west with glass or plastic top at a 30- • Adding 18° F more heat to the original 10gram transplant will 45° angle. almost double the original growth rate to 35.8 grams after a week • Open top on sunny days.

Cloches: Must be able to open up on sunny Season Extension: Floating Row Covers

days. • Frost protection • Warmer microclimate • Wind protection • Excludes insect and bird pests • Reduced evapotranspiration • Good for beans, beets, carrot, cole crops, corn, lettuce, parsley, peas before a trellis, potato, radish, scallions, and spinach

8 3/23/2020

Row covers Season Extension: Individual Plant Covers • Lightweight fabrics: do not need frames. Leave slack. • Hotcaps • Improve day temperatures ~ 6‐8 • Wall-o-Water degrees – Plastic baffled • Improve night temperatures ~3‐4 chambers filled degrees with water. • Can encourage slugs and weeds – Will protect • Used widely in commercial plants down to vegetable growing the teens.

How soil affects vegetable quality Clear plastic mulch: warms soil more than black plastic: Drip system under plastic

• Soil fertility (nutrient deficiency)

• Drainage for aeration, tillage characteristics and warm soils

• Watering cycle (how often and how much)

• Specific crop performance for some vegetables (like carrots)

What can you change? Compost • Benefits: – Improves water retention • Minerals (fairly easily with fertilizers) – Promotes soil structure • Drainage (a big and expensive project if – Increases fertility using drain tile). Raised beds as an alternative. – Increases cation exchange – Reduces fertilizer • Tilth (moderately easy with compost, cover crops and time). Important on clay requirements up to 50% soils. except N – Enhanced microbial activity • Work soils down to 6‐7 inches. • Suppresses pathogens • Remove large stones, clods, or plant • Accelerates the breakdown debris. Particularly important with root crops. of pesticides & other synthetic compounds

9 3/23/2020

First tilling in the spring Soil organic matter improvement • Soil must not be too wet (how do you know?) • Why? • Improved winter drainage • Why? • Better water‐holding in summer • Fix and/or capture nitrogen • Hand spading vs. roto‐tilling • Improve tilth • How deep? • Legumes, grains, and other plants • Summer and winter cover crops • Management issues • Tillage complications • Temporary N tie‐up • Some crops may increase disease and/or insect pressure for your crops

What do you do with grass and weeds For beginners, small is good in a new garden area? Time it takes to maintain a • Cover the area in garden after the winter or early planting = ~ spring with black 60 minutes a plastic or week for a 10’ X 10’ garden. • Dig the sod out or How much • Herbicide more time for treatment or a 30’ X 30’ • Roto‐till them in plot?

“Lasagne” Vegetable gardening styles gardening • Rows Timing to control • Beds/intensive grass/weeds • Jumbled/mixed • Container gardening Soil amendment options Drainage is an important consideration Need raised bed frame?

10 3/23/2020

Why raised beds? Why raised beds?

• Compact growing • Compact growing area (better area (better use of use of fertilizers) fertilizers) • Soil drains and warms faster • Soil drains and warms (warm soils are a big deal in faster (warm soils are Western Oregon!). Not so a big deal in Western important on well‐drained soils Oregon!) • Furrow irrigation (China, San Joaquin Valley, etc.)

Disadvantages of raised beds Materials for sides • May require more • Raw wood water in the summer • Pressure treated • Higher maintenance wood • More hand work • Plastic composite (weeding and (“Trex” et al) cultivating prior to • Molded plastic planting) • Stone or concrete • Slugs (maybe) blocks • Other?

Fertilizer basics Soil pH and mineral availability • Soil test? • As pH rises, some key mineral • pH is important ‐ most vegetables availability increases prefer a pH of 6.5‐7.0 • Aluminum availability tracks • Lime corrects low pH with manganese (Mn), and decreases as pH rises. It is • Liming rate: 80‐150 #s of lime per somewhat plant toxic, so this is 1000 square feet once every three a good thing. years. • Liming provides Ca from regular • If low magnesium, use dolomite lime? lime and both Ca and Mg if • Wood ashes? How much? using dolomite Courtesy: Cornell University

11 3/23/2020

Nitrogen disappears over the winter= Fertilizer basics N deficiency = poor crop performance

How is fertilizer applied? • New fields have some residual N • Tillage opens the field to rapid N loss (very water soluble)  Broadcast and tilled in • Cover crops can capture N but don’t  Banded below and release the N early in the gardening adjacent to seed year  Side‐dressed • Organic matter and N  Liquid or foliar

Decisions that influence food safety How much to apply? • Vegetable gardens will need • Food safety issue: Deer and about four pounds of actual N rodents in addition to livestock per 1000 square feet. manure • Greater problem with root crops • Calculate from this example: and leafy greens 4/.28 = ~14 pounds of the fertilizer per 1000 square feet • Compromised irrigation water • Timing of manure application: If first number = 7? 4/.07 = National Organic Standards: 90 about 57 pounds. days pre‐harvest if crop not touching, soil 120 days if it is.

Is compost fertilizer? Heavy Feeders Light Feeders •Yes and No Asparagus Lettuce Carrot Alfalfa –What happens in the Beet Okra Garlic Beans Broccoli* Parsley Leek Clover composting process? Brussels Pepper Mustard Greens Peas sprouts* –What is the value of Cabbage* Potato Onion compost? Cantaloupe* Pumpkin* Parsnip

–How can you get in trouble Cauliflower Radish Rutabaga with compost? Nitrogen tie‐ Celery Rhubarb Shallot up if compost immature. Collard Spinach Sweet Potato Corn, Sweet* Squash, Swiss Chard Have to add extra N to Summer* “feed” both the compost Eggplant* Strawberry Endive Sunflower process and the crop. Kale Tomato* Kohlrabi Watermelon*

12 3/23/2020

What does the family like to eat? Other minerals

• Phosphorus (P) • Greens? • Potassium (K) • Corn? • Magnesium (Mg) • Squash? • Sulfur (S) • Onions? • • Calcium (Ca) Rutabagas? Source: Cate Gillon/Getty Images • Micronutrients • Radishes? • Grow what they like and then experiment

Beginner vegetables Vegetable Yields

Vegetables Average Fresh Storage Crop Canning or Expected Freezing Greens, tomatoes, peppers Per 100 Feet (once it is warm) onions, Beans, Snap Bush 120 lb. 15 - 16 plants 15 - 20 feet Beans, Snap Pole 150 lb. 5 - 6 feet 8 - 10 feet garlic, summer and winter Carrots 100 lb. 5 - 10 feet 10 - 15 feet Corn, Sweet 10 dozen 10 - 15 feet 30 - 50 feet squash, corn, beans, etc. Cucumbers 120 lb. 1 - 2 hills 3 - 5 hills

Onions (plants/sets) 100 lb. 3 - 5 feet 30 - 50 feet Peppers 60 lb. 3 - 5 plants 5-10 plants Transplants or seeds? Pumpkins 100 lb. 1 - 2 hills 1 - 2 hills Radishes 100 bunches 3 - 5 feet Squash, Summer 150 lb. 2 - 3 hills 2 - 3 hills Tomatoes 100 lb. 3 - 5 plants 5 - 10 plants

Vegetable gardens for children The cost‐effective garden Best bets: carrots, • Grow what will be eaten fresh and/or cherry tomatoes, preserved for later. This is an art. potatoes, • Grow vegetables that you would strawberries, radishes, otherwise buy. peas ….. This is a • garden area to graze Grow vegetables that make good use of space in. • Examples: Green onions, all leafy greens, herbs, green beans, garlic, bulb onions, cucumbers etc.

13 3/23/2020

Variety Selection Considerations Planting • Size of Mature • Timing Plant • Sun and shade tolerance • Days to Harvest • Direct seeding • Heirlooms • Transplants • Disease • Starting seeds Resistance • Spacing & thinning • Saving Seed • Sequential planting • Crop rotation

Timing Succession Planting • Soil temperature – Planting late-season – Cool-season crops = 40° minimum but crops after early season prefer much warmer ones have been – Warm-season crops = 50-60° harvested – peas followed by leeks. • Raising soil temperatures prior to planting - uses of clear plastic – Multiple plantings of a • Avoidance of pest problems single crop. – Cole crops – cabbage maggot, flea – Planting different cultivars beetles with different maturity – Seed corn maggots dates – cabbage & corn.

Early Season Crops Long Season Crops Late Season Crops Sun/shade

Early Beets Beans Bush Beans relationships and Early Cabbage Cabbage Beets ways to save Lettuce Celery Broccoli Onions Sweet Corn Chinese Cabbage space Peas Cucumbers Carrots Radishes Cauliflower Early Spinach Eggplant Muskmelons Endive Mustard Kale Peppers Turnips Kohlrabi Potatoes Kale Lettuce Carrots Pumpkin Radishes Parsnips Squash Spinach Cilantro Swiss Chard Turnips Parsley Tomatoes Watermelon

14 3/23/2020

Why Rotate Crops? Crop Rotation: Families Matter

• Insect & disease management: • Potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant are all members Rotate area to different plant family of the solanaceous family. • Weed management • Beans and peas are legumes. • Nutrient demands – Increased soil nitrogen • Cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, and squash are all cucurbits. • Benefits of the preceding crops • Radishes, rutabagas, and turnips are all cole crops just like – Improved physical condition of the soil cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts. – Increased microbial activity • Onions, garlic, leeks, shallots, chives are alliums. – Excretion of beneficial substances • Crop rotations of at least 4 years are recommended.

Irrigation Irrigation Methods •1 “ water per week minimum from June to September •Water soil, not plants –1 “ over 100 square feet = 65 gallons •Hand •2+ inches/week may be needed for hot • Oscillator weather •Other sprinklers • Deep watering 1‐2 x per week for established •Soaker hose plants •Drip • Seedbeds, seedlings need daily care. •Compost and mulch! •Moles can change your plans!!

Mulching • Organic – breaks down Harvest –Straw – Chopped leaves • Timing – Wood chips – Harvest early in the – Grass clippings day • Inorganic – Know maturity stage – Plastic • Prevent wounds at • Benefits harvest – Weed suppression – Temperature moderation • Cool the vegetables – Soil moisture moderation quickly & thoroughly – tomatoes and a few – Sanitation others are exceptions – Add nutrients

15 3/23/2020

Cover Crops and Green Manures Clean‐up and Rotation •Clean beds after crops •Rests soil •Cover Crops •Compost disease‐free material –Crop grown to protect/enrich •Add 2”+ compost and fertilizer as needed soil • Green Manure •Plan to rotate crops next year –Crop incorporated into soil –Avoid accumulation of disease vectors • Build soil overtime by rotating plant families – Structure – Fertility –Heavy feeders, soil builders •Favabeans, vetch, oats •Cover soil in winter with cover crops, • Buckwheat, daikon radish mulch, or tarp

Winter vegetable gardening Alliums

• Plants are started in July • Fall planted: Over‐wintering and August onions in August. Shallots and • They survive winter garlic in the fall. temperatures • Spring planted: Bulb onions, • Mostly greens, leeks, garlic green onions, some shallots, leeks in June/July for winter • Kale is a wonder plant! harvest. • Plastic cloches or hoop houses help

Garlic Bulb onions • Many varieties: Soft neck and hard neck • Direct seeded or transplanted starts/sets • Planted from cloves in the fall on beds • Very poor competitors against weeds –early weeding crucial, especially with direct • Lime, fertilize pre‐planting and light compost mulch after planting seeding • Usually doesn’t emerge until January • Long day onions for this latitude • Weed throughout the winter • Can handle frosts • Fertilize several times in the spring • Need good, fertile soil (check fertilizer guides for details) • Slugs • Watering crucial when bulbing • Harvest in mid‐July • Storage qualities vary considerably among cultivars

16 3/23/2020

Garlic rust Fusarium basal plate rot • > problem since early 2000 • Seed borne • Fungal disease spread in wind and • Worse in wet springs from infected plant debris • > problem • Worse in rainy springs • Sanitation and rotation • Huge issue now in W. Oregon • Few controls except debris management and rotation for the organic grower

Botrytis or gray mold White rot • Clove borne • Affects most alliums • > by wet springs • Worst disease • Storage disease • Long soil life (10+ years) • Air circulation critical • Moves on plants and/or cloves • Good planting stock • No treatments • Irregular black sclerotia stay in soil for some years. • Sanitation/rotation

Boron issues in cole crops Broccoli and associated crops • Cold hardy (varies) • A nutrient needed in very small • Generally transplanted quantities • Spacing of 8‐10” within the row and • Symptoms & quality loss in broccoli, 12‐14” between rows cauliflower, and other crops • Lime well to reduce club root • Hollow stems and poor heads • Follow fertilizer guide and soil test results • Carefully calibrate boron applications • Maintain uniform soil moisture to soil or as a foliar spray • Plow down before fall rains to reduce • Some varietal resistance blackleg.

17 3/23/2020

Club root of crucifers Cabbage flea beetles • Long rotations •More a spring problem • > pH with lime •Serious on transplants and • Some resistance seedlings • Grow in the best possible •Some insecticide options manner to outgrow the problem •Row covers early

Flea beetle damage

Aphids and whiteflies Imported cabbage butterfly

• Pierce leaf & suck sugars • Common • High reproductive rate • Caterpillar feeding damage • Overwinter or blow in • Insecticides (inc. Bt) • Row covers? • Row covers • Insecticides • Predators • Not consumer friendly

Cabbage root maggot (fly) • Very serious pest –several cycles • Worst on cabbage family root crops (turnips, rutabagas, radishes) and cauliflower/broccoli • Few useful insecticides • Row covers • Rotations and winter residue management

Cabbage maggot adults and larvae

18 3/23/2020

Lettuce and mixed greens Lettuce problems • Major crop of small farms • Many new varieties and species • Slugs • Mostly transplanted • Damping off • High labor requirement • Calcium deficiency (tip burn) • Maintain uniform moisture • Downy mildew • Whole head and cut leaf • Anthracnose production • Soft rot in storage • Suitable for winter (protected) • Ethylene reactions (russet spotting) production • Improper harvest and storage

Beets, spinach and chard Beet or chard or spinach leafminer • Fly maggot that “mines” the leaf • Crusting (poor emergence) • Row covers • Thinning • Insecticides • Boron deficiency • Timing of planting on beets • Sanitation • Beet/chard/spinach leaf miner • Spinach timing re bolting to seed

Thinning carrots Carrots and Parsnips • Depends a bit on row spacing • Crusting (poor stand • Timing is important emergence) • Leaf area development and photosynthesis • Thinning • Uneven watering effect • Poor soil for normal carrot growth • Carrot rust fly

19 3/23/2020

Misshapen carrots

• Rocky or heavy clay soil • Too much nitrogen • Genetics • Uneven watering

Carrot rust fly damage

Peas and beans Carrot rust fly larvae • Direct seeded but can be transplanted too!! Best managed with • Poor emergence (soils too row covers to prevent cool) egg laying • Bush and pole varieties • Pea vine weevil Some insecticides • Pea enation virus available • Gray mold on beans

Fusarium root rot

Root infection at emergence

20 3/23/2020

Pea leaf weevil

Gray mold (Botrytis) and white mold (Sclerotinia)

Sweet corn • Generally direct seeded but can be transplanted • Poor emergence • Thinning/spacing • Nitrogen deficient • Poor pollination • Several insects

Corn earworm

Potatoes

• Variety selection (costs/returns) • Uniform watering • Hilling to prevent greening • Hollow heart • Various diseases Potato: Hollow heart. Calcium deficiency

21 3/23/2020

Common scab Rhizoctonia blight “scurf”

Tuber flea beetle

Bacterial ring rot

Tomatoes and peppers Tomato supports

• A warm tomato is a happy tomato • Cages • Excellent market for specialized varieties • Livestock panels • Start 40‐50 days before transplanting • Woven support • Season extension techniques key • Single stake • Even moisture very important • Trellis tomatoes and possibly stake peppers • Lime and fertilize according to test

22 3/23/2020

More tomato support Single stake technique

• More pruning • Closer together • High Maintenance • Higher yield per square foot

Tomato and pepper problems

• Early and late blight • Blossom end rot • Cracking • Cat facing • Sunburn (peppers) • Miscellaneous storage rots Sunburn on peppers • Aphids

Blossom end rot (not a rot but a calcium disorder): ‐ Lime ‐ Even watering ‐ Some shoot removal ‐ Variety selection

Cat facing: weather related

23 3/23/2020

Tomato pollination problem - weather related

Late blight

Cucumber growing • Need heat ‐ not frost hardy Winter and summer squash • Often transplanted. Spacing 8‐12” within rows • Very productive in our region with rows 48‐72 inches apart. • Winter squash take a lot of space • Often grown with plastic mulch and drip • Fairly high nutritional and water demand irrigation. Row cover early. • Storage potential for winter squash • Needs about 100 to 150 actual pounds of N per acre. Other fertilizer as per test. • Can be trellised. • Slicers vs pickling cukes

Cucurbit problems Abiotic (non-living) problems: • Powdery mildew Weather (frost, hail, sunburn, water stress) • Angular leaf spot • Storage diseases Herbicide injury • Several virus diseases Reaction to protectant chemicals • Buy disease resistance in seed lines when available Mechanical injury Root environment • Cucumber beetle (esp. poor drainage) • Pollination failures Mineral deficiency • Bitterness • N and/or Ca deficiency or toxicity

24 3/23/2020

A few comments on Bitter cucumbers (and sometimes zucchini) cucumber beetles, of which we have the • Genetic component Western Striped Cucumber beetle • Response to stress • Too cold • Too hot • Too much water • Too little water • Disease

…and the Western 12-Spotted Cucumber beetle …or both together.

Largest concern is root and crown feeding damage to young plants. They have a fairly large host range beyond cucurbits.

Powdery mildew management: Scout older crown leaves Apply fungicides when indicated Select resistant varieties where possible

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