On July 16, we hosted the High Tunnel Production Field Day. This was the second year for this meeting and we plan to make it an annual event. Last year, USDA NRCS and FSA staff talked about programs that each agency offers to support high tunnel production and specialty crop growers. To build on those topics, this year a local contractor with experience in greenhouse construction was asked to share some basic concepts of installing and assembling a high tunnel. Dr. Kacie Athey, Extension Specialty Crops Entomologist,  gave an overview of the biological insect control work that has been conducted at Dixon Springs over the past 4 years. Those in attendance had the opportunity to see what type of damage different insect pests cause on tomato and pepper fruits, including aphids, thrips, stink bugs, worms, and roly polies or pill bugs. 

University of Illinois students working in the area of farm robotics demonstrated the robot’s ability to autonomously take photographs of plants in the high tunnel, the first step in being able to scout and identify insect pests on the plants. The robot also has the ability to assess the ripeness of red cherry tomatoes and harvest the red ripe fruits.

As the evening ended, a very simple taste test was conducted on 4 hydroponic cucumber varieties and 4 tomato varieties. For the cucumbers, the majority of the group preferred ‘Sashimi’, a long Asian type with powdery mildew resistance, and thought it had a good sweetness. ‘Unagi’, beit alpha x long Asian cross, ‘Jawell’, a mini hybrid, and ‘Corinto’, a hybrid slicer, were the other varieties in the taste test. For the tomatoes, the group was asked to sample ‘Mt. Gem’, ‘Mt. Man’, and ‘BHN 589’ from the treatment tunnel and again from the control tunnel and select which variety they preferred from each tunnel. In the treatment tunnel, ‘Mt. Gem’ received all of the votes. In the control tunnel, ‘BHN 589’ received 2/3 of the votes and ‘Mt. Man’ received the other 1/3. The group was then asked to sample one more tomato variety from the hydroponic tunnel, ‘Red Deuce’, and hands down, the whole group voted ‘Red Deuce’ to have the best flavor of all tomatoes sampled. 

In our current research project, “Strategies for Improving Biological Control of Insect Pests for Vegetable Growers Utilizing High Tunnels”, tomato harvest is well into the 6th week, with some signs of slowing down in the ‘BHN 589’ variety. ‘Mt. Gem’ is a touch later and still has a few more weeks of heavy crop load to ripen off. Some yellow shoulder has been observed but the biggest issue this past month has been white core. ‘BHN 589’ has probably had more yellow shoulder along with some sunscald compared to the other varieties but ‘Mt. Man’ has presented with the biggest white core issues. Both tunnels receive the same amount and type of fertilizer every week. The bell pepper crop this year is looking really good and producing lots of large to X-large, blocky firm fruit with thick walls. 

The plant growth differences between tunnels that was noted in last month’s update are no longer noticeable. In collecting the weekly harvest data, insect damage from aphids, thrips, and stink bugs has been recorded but nothing in any large numbers. Our weekly spray of Dipel ( a Bt product ) has kept worm damage very low so far this season.