The main challenge we have experienced from the end of July and into mid-August is that we entered a period without rain in some parts of our region and temperatures being too hot (above 90 F) for some days. This has resulted in a lot of challenges in the final ripening on tomatoes and other crops and pollination concerns on cucurbits. While we expected to be a bit ahead of schedule for vegetables, some of the growers are seeing some delays in their full harvest. Powdery mildew has also shown up in some smaller plantings in the region. While visiting a cut flower grower, I saw Aster Yellows for one of the first times. It's a pretty interesting looking disease in which the pathogen is moved by aster leafhopper and does require the removal and destruction of the crop. One of our Extension friends, Marissa Schuh at Minnesota, has a great, quick overview on this issue. Though I saw it on coneflowers, it can be on garlic too.
On the fruit side, August has been focused on getting the orchards ready for customers. Apple season will officially begin this week with most orchards opening their doors by the weekend of August 23rd. Some orchards opened up even earlier (August 14-17) with many reporting being ahead of schedule by 7-10 days. 'Zestar' is the first apple many of our growers will have for sale. 'Premier Honeycrisp', 'Early Beauty', 'Sweet MAIA', 'Paula Red', 'Sansa', and other varieties may also be picked in these first two weeks of the apple orchard season.
Though cicadas were not too severe of a problem in the Rockford area for commercial orchards, it did vary and some of this initial damage by these insects, combined with seasonal environmental stress, has shown up as late season issues.