Weather
July was wet, stormy and hot. End of story. But really, some farms received excessive amounts of rain all at once that left them with temporary flooding conditions that was then combined with days of heat. Between July 10-11, parts of northern Illinois received 3-5 inches of rain. Some examples include Marengo in McHenry County with 3.6 inches, Rockton in Winnebago County with 5.20 inches, and Dixon in Lee County at 4.6 inches. The following week the lows were in the 60s F and highs in the 80s F. Over the weekend of July 18th, additional storms and heavy rains passed through. These warm and humid conditions are making an impact on the growth of fruits and vegetables this season, finally delivering some necessary water, but also bring conditions that are ripe for certain diseases and an explosion of weeds. Strikes of fireblight have been reported in some orchards. So, staying vigilant is really crucial this month and into August.
Blueberry Season
Blueberry season began around July 4th this year. It runs for about 5-6 weeks with different varieties as both early and late season. I was out visiting some of the farms this past week and crop load looked pretty good for this season. Some of the common varieties are ‘Patriot’, ‘Spartan’, ‘Bonus’, ‘Blueray’, and ‘Bluecrop’. In visits, I haven’t seen too many issues with disease or insects. Blueberry farms are not common in Northern Illinois due to soil challenges, but the crop grows well most years and can be a good compliment to other fruits and vegetables you are growing, especially if you have the right soil. There definitely is demand for this crop as I saw these past weeks at u-pick farms with many selling out for the day 1-2 hours after opening.
Freeport High School Research
The high tunnel tomato and cucumber research at Freeport High School in Freeport, Illinois has really stepped up this month. Cucumbers especially have shown significant growth and overcome the challenge of being direct seeded the end of May. In looking at notes from 2024, field grown cucumbers began harvest the same week that our high tunnel ones were this year. One setback this season has been an aphid outbreak on some of the plants. Students have been actively harvesting and trellising cucumbers this past week (7/15) and yields on ‘Marketmore’ and ‘Corinto’ look wonderful. Students harvested nearly 70 lbs of cucumbers on 7/21! Some of these plants are reaching 8-10 ft tall already and covered in flowers. The one variety that seems behind is ‘H19 Little Leaf’ which shows good growth but not producing just yet. In the other high tunnel, tomatoes have slowed down due to the excessive heat in the high tunnels and with that students have placed a shade cloth on this high tunnel to help overcome some of the challenges we are seeing in yield, growth, and fruit quality. In determining when to put this shade cloth on, I was reminded of this great article from Dr. Guan at Purdue.
Tree Fruits
The 2025 apple season will officially begin towards the end of August. A number of orchards have shared their opening day with ‘Zestar’ the first apple variety to be harvested. Yields look very good this season for most cultivars and in visiting some orchards, there is still hand thinning occurring as pollination was strong. Even with chemical thinners used, hand thinning has become a necessary step for late season varieties like ‘Evercrisp’. Diseases have shown up this last month. I’ve gotten reports and seen strikes of fireblight in apple orchard rows. In a visit last week, the grower shared they had seen it, removed it, and then in our visit, we found it again on some nearby trees. As many orchards are near residential areas, there is a strong chance that it could be coming from neighboring non-commercial trees in a backyard and that you’ve done everything you can to control it up until this point. Along with everything else a grower is doing in the orchard to get ready for opening, they are still needing to be aware and look for this disease and others. Cedar apple rust was also present in an orchard visit I did. This was not as big of an issue compared to the fireblight but another reminder that disease(s) are here this season.