Out in the field everything is thriving with lots of moisture including the weeds! I think we had all forgotten how much rainfall drives weed pressure after two fairly droughty summers the past two years.  All summer vegetables are in harvest and doing well.  The rain has increased disease pressure on crops like tomatoes, but yields and quality, overall have been good.  I have noted that the sweet corn that is in harvest here in the last week has had some very large ears, some with as many as 20 kernel rows around, much different than last year. I would attribute most of this to the plentiful moisture available this growing season. 

Pumpkins are very happy with the moisture available, but as I mentioned the weeds are also prevalent. This picture shows a sprayer skip I had in my own personal pumpkin field in about 100’ at the end of the field.  The burndown/PRE was Gramoxone, Dual Magnum, and Reflex plus surfactant.  You can see on the left how well that has managed the vegetation, and on the right the sprayer skip with no herbicide.  Although annoying, a skip like this is a good reminder of the value these products bring to the table.  Fortunately in this case most of this is foxtail and crabgrass so since then this strip has been sprayed with a grass herbicide and only minimal broadleaves were present, which can be hand weeded.  Like many though, we still struggle with some morrningglories, copperleaf, and horsenettle in places.  Waterhemp is generally over 90% controlled with a few strays to control.  We will try to clean up what we can with some direct sprays with contact herbicides.

We are in the heart of the southern Illinois heat and humidity!  The highlight of the past month has been rain!  We have had 13.02” of rain for the month of July and considering that last year we had 15” from May to the end of the yearin 2023, this season is quite the contrast.  We, locally, have been fortunate to not have a lot of extreme flash flooding issues, but some farms with low or bottom land did experience some flooding especially as you get into St. Clair County. Here we had a top rainfall event of 5.1” falling within less than 12 hours on July 17. We have mainly been in the mid 80s for highs but this last week of the month saw temps back up into the 90s.

Don’t forget Pumpkin Field Day is just a little over a month away, Thursday, September 5, 10 a.m. at Eckert’s Orchard.  Hope to see many of you there.  For all the details and to register visit https://go.illinois.edu/2024PumpkinFieldDay or you can always send me an email for more details.