• Upcoming conferences

• Corn earworm

• Fall armyworm

• Cover crops

Upcoming conferences
Next Thursday, September 17, there will be a day-long session on using Biological Control in Greenhouses here at the Tolland County Ag Center/Extension Office.  The session will run from 9 am to 3:30 pm and offer 4.5 pesticide re-certification credits.  Contact Leanne Pundt (860-6266855, leanne.pundt@uconn.edu) or Tina Smith (413-545-5306) for more information.

On Tuesday, November 3rd, there will be a day-long Greenhouse and High Tunnel Tomato Conference at the Sturbridge Host Hotel in Sturbridge, MA.  Pre-registration price will be $40. This conference sold out two years ago, so it is recommended to pre-register if you want to attend this year.  Contact, Leanne Pundt or Tina Smith for more information or register on-line at www.umass.edu/umext/floriculture/upcoming_events/index.html. 

On Monday, December 14, the day before the New England Vegetable and Fruit Conference starts at the Radisson Hotel in Manchester, NH, there will be a Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) Workshop aimed at training you how to avoid human microbial pathogens as you pack foods on your farm. You'll learn how to prepare for the USDA's third-party audit process and how to prepare a farm GAP plan.  To register or for more information contact: Shirley Floyd at 413 545 4420 or at mietlicki@umext.umass.edu.

On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, December 15-17 the New England Vegetable and Fruit Conference will be held at the Radisson Hotel in Manchester, NH.  There will be 30 different educational sessions with over 140 individual talks, about a dozen farmer-to- farmer discussion groups on hot topics, a trade show with over 100 vendors and a chance to meet and talk with other farmers and specialists at the evening happy hours.  You=ll be receiving registration material in the mail in the next week or two, or you can go to www.newenglandvfc.org for more information or to register on-line.  

Finally, on Thursday January 21st, we will host the annual Connecticut Vegetable and Small Fruit Growers= Conference here at the Tolland County Extension Office.  Contact Jude for more information.

Corn earworm
CEW moth counts continued to drop this week with the high captures of just 1.5 to 4 moths per night in East Hartford, Ellington and Shelton which puts those locations on a 4 day spray schedule on fresh silking corn. Berlin captured only 0.8 moths per night and is on a 5 day schedule while Northford and East Lyme captured only 0.25 to 0.5 and are on a 6 day spray schedule on fresh silking corn.  With these cooler temperatures all these schedules can be safely stretched by one day.  

Fall armyworm
Pre-tassel stage fields in Shelton and East Lyme had infestations of tiny first-instar fall armyworm larvae that ranged from 18% to 34% of the plants infested.  If you have any pre-tassel stage corn left, go out and scout 50 plants so that you don't get a rude surprise at harvest time.  SpinTor and Avaunt work more consistently than synthetic pyrethroids for these pre-tassel sprays.   

Here is a list of infestations found at different sites while scouting sweet corn this past week. *means that the planting is over threshold and should be sprayed. MW=mid-whorl, LW= late-whorl, PT=pre-tassel, S=silk. 

Town	% infested plants	Stage of planting	ECB  & FAW moths / week	CEW moths/N
Shelton	18%* FAW	PT	0 ECB	0.5-1.5 = 4-6 day schedule
Northford			0 ECB	0.33 = 6-day schedule
East Lyme I	34%*  FAW	PT	0 ECB, 1 FAW	0.25-0.5 = 6 day schedule
Berlin			0 ECB	0.8 = 5-day schedule
East Hartford			0 ECB	4 = 4-day schedule
Ellington				3 = 4-day schedule

Cover crops
Cover crops help replace some of the organic matter which we oxidize away each year through all of our tillage operations in vegetable production.  It also mops up excess nitrogen and provides erosion control. To help replace all the organic matter that is lost and control erosion through the cropping season, you need to switch to some form of reduced tillage, such as zone tillage.  You can find out more about zone tillage at the NEVFC conference in December.

Growers planting oats, should have done so already to provide adequate time for fall growth and establishment.  Oats can be a great choice for fields you may not be able to work early in the spring because it winter kills and will be easy to incorporate when the time comes.  It also helps if you plant your winter rye before mid-September, or by late September if you are in warmer or protected locations such as near the coast or in the Connecticut River Meadows.  Massachusetts researchers have found that rye planted by mid-September had better root growth and accumulated up to 50% more excess nitrogen from the soil than when it was planted later in the month.  If planting oats or rye alone use about 100 pounds of seed per acre.  You can also plant either cover crop with hairy vetch to help provide up to 100 pounds of nitrogen per acre to next seasons crop.  Remember to use the right rhizobia bacteria innoculum to help the vetch fix nitrogen from the air.  Researchers recommend about 40 pounds of rye or oats with 40 pounds of hairy vetch seed if using this combination cover crop.  They also suggest that the vetch not be incorporated in the spring until mid-May to maximize nitrogen production, so it may be more successful to combine the vetch with oats for fields that will be planted early next spring.