Now is time to think about those fall cool season crops despite the fact the thermometer feels quite the opposite. I no-till transplanted my fall broccoli & cauliflower August 10. It caught a small shower that day but that didn’t go far and we have watered some to get them established. I also made an attempt at some fall carrots. We will see if I can keep them moist enough to get a good stand and keep the weeds out of them. I have not had a chance to try fall carrots in the field for quite some time.
The summer heat and humidity are still in full force in our region! We have had a short break for part of the second week of August, but we are back to highs in the mid 90s and intense humidity. This has also been coupled with very limited rainfall and what has occurred has been very scattered. At my house, I have recorded 0.63 inches for the month of August from two different pop-up storms. Some have lucked out and gotten more, and others not a drop. Many crops have shown at least some level of stress from the heat and dry at least in the middle of the day, however, most are still holding their own.
We are now in the heart of melon season, along with all the other summer vegetables. Overall, crops have done well, but certainly some crops have benefited from irrigation where available. The peach crop has been very good and is starting to near the end with ‘Cresthaven’ and other later peaches now in season. Early apples like ‘Gala’ and ‘Blondee’ are coming, which always starts to make me think of fall and I know pumpkins are just around the corner.
Pumpkins are doing well and while a little stressed from the heat of the day, look good. I have good fruit set across all varieties with an occasional ripe fruit here and there on a few of the earliest varieties. So far pests have been average or as expected. I have started preventative fungicide sprays, however I haven’t sprayed an insecticide yet. I did have a few cucumber beetles, but not enough yet to warrant spraying.
Weed control has been good with just a little hand clean up in places, mainly waterhemp. Morningglories are still my nemesis, like many, but I just do the best I can and use contact herbicides to spot spray as much as I can. My main focus is always on the small gourds and mini pumpkins first as harvesting them entangled in morningglories is not very fun. Often, if given a chance, the pumpkins can at least partially overpower morningglories if they have a head start.
I side dressed pumpkins with nitrogen late July. This year I used liquid Urea-Ammonium Nitrate (UAN, 28-0-0) and Ammonium Thiosulfate (ATS, 12-0-0-26S). I made a banded application by dribbling it alongside the plant before full vine run. I added the ATS this year to give an added boost of sulfur as well. I have a strip trial with No N, UAN only and UAN + ATS. I will see if we can observe any differences. My target rate was 25 gal UAN 28% and 2.5 gal ATS + 2.5 gal water (to dilute to reduce potential ammonia burn due to volatility given the heat and dry) per acre. This provided 78 lb N and 7 lb S/A.
The forecast is showing that maybe just maybe by the time you read this we might get a break in the heat. I am hoping for that and a nice dose of rain to go with it!