East Michigan vegetable regional report – July 8, 2015

Ben Phillips<benp@msu.edu>, Michigan State University Extension -

Low temperatures and sunlight are slowing vegetable growth.

Head split in cabbage caused by too much moisture.
Head split in cabbage caused by too much moisture.

Weather

Here are the rainfall and growing degree day (GDD) base 50 degrees Fahrenheit accumulations to date from Michigan State University Enviro-weather stations.

Rainfall and GDD summary

Location

GDD (50 F, March 1)

Rainfall (inches, April 1)

Linwood

953

7.84 (0.13 since last week)

Frankenmuth

1,049

7.95 (0.4 since last week)

Lapeer

1,046

11.29 (0.95 since last week)

Romeo

1,058

11.03 (0.21 since last week)

Crops

With the high moisture in some areas, I have seen cabbages splitting their wrapper leaves and also edema symptoms. There isn’t much a grower can do about these issues except plant in well-drained fields and remove as many outer leaves as they feel comfortable with.

Watermelons, melons and peppers are sitting still with this mild weather. Some are setting fruit, but plants are so small that there is not much photosynthetic area for more production.

Early field tomatoes that went into the ground with bacterial disease symptoms are having a really hard time right now.

The pickling cucumber crop this year is 75 percent planted, and first plantings should be ready to harvest in seven to 10 days. Downy mildew was confirmed in a commercial pickling cucumber field in Gratiot County last Friday, July 3, and Michigan State University Extension urges growers to take preventative action on their cucumber and melon crops. With the high disease risk right now, some growers may decide not to put in a second planting in favor of storage grain crops. MSU plant pathologist Mary Hausbeck just released a suggested spray program that includes Bravo at its maximum 3 pint rate.

Please contact me at phill406@msu.edu or 989-758-2502 to pick up any suspected disease samples, or send the diseased plant parts to MSU Diagnostic Services.

This article was published by Michigan State University Extension. For more information, visit https://extension.msu.edu. To have a digest of information delivered straight to your email inbox, visit https://extension.msu.edu/newsletters. To contact an expert in your area, visit https://extension.msu.edu/experts, or call 888-MSUE4MI (888-678-3464).

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