Dew remains on plant surfaces well into the morning hours, creating conditions conducive to powdery mildew. Benefitting from the rains are weeds. This is the busy time of harvest and weeds can rapidly grow to a seed producing size if not controlled with mowing, hoeing, cultivation, or post-emergent chemical control. At the very least make sure weeds don’t go to seed because that just increases your weed pressure in future production years.

With recent rains, soil moisture has improved significantly for much of the St Louis Metro East. The newest U.S. Drought Monitor map for Illinois shows large areas of the St Louis Metro East with no drought, shrinking the areas of abnormally dry and moderate drought. Temperatures are still in the upper 80s and 90s, combined with humidity levels high enough to make you sweat just standing still.

• Following the rains, the pumpkin crop is looking good.
• Spring planted cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant are still in full harvest and the fall planting of crops like collards and other greens has begun.
• Sweet corn harvest will be winding down in the next week or two.
• Most fall-planted plasticulture strawberry beds have been pulled, covered, and prepared for planting.
• Fall-apple harvest began for those growing ‘Sweet Maia,’ but for most, the season will begin within the week with ‘Gala.’ 
• Harvest of ‘Cresthaven’ peaches is finishing up, with late season cultivars like ‘Encore,’ ‘PF 35-007 Fat Lady,’ and ‘Autumnstar’ starting soon.
• The blackberry season is in the final two weeks with ‘Chester.’
• The horseradish crop looks on target for fall and winter harvest. Scout reports show beet leafhoppers in some fields above threshold, warranting control measures to prevent the transmissible brittle root disease from spreading further.

Photo ID: Knocked down but not out. This uncontrolled palmer amaranth can produce up to 250,000 seeds. (USDA-NRCS, Palmer Amaranth Fact Sheet, April 2017). Photo credit: Elizabeth Wahle