Today’s update will be our final update of 2022. With things slowing down in the field, we will take some time to focus on other projects, and the Weekly Field Updates will resume in January.
We hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday season, and we’ll see you back in 2023!
Coastal Region
Rob Last reports, “A little welcome rainfall over the weekend, allied to some warmth and sunshine, has improved the growth of strawberries. I believe it will be worthwhile for growers to utilize row covers for a month to ensure we achieve the thermal time accumulation. Brassica and leafy greens are looking good, with a little Alternaria leaf spot being found.
Zack Snipes reports, “We have some warmer and sunnier weather coming this week that should really push all of our crops. We are still behind on our growing degree days (GDD) for strawberries, but with the coming weather, we should accumulate a good many units this week. No matter how many GDD we get, if you do not protect your strawberries from deer, it won’t matter. Please protect your strawberry plants with a fence. I saw some beautiful crops on Edisto last week (broccoli, greens, lettuce, beets, carrots) with very little disease or insect damage. This is the perfect time of year for sprayer calibration. Most growers are shocked to find out how much money they are losing because their sprayers aren’t properly calibrated, causing them to misapply pesticides (incorrect nozzle, wrong pressure, clogged nozzles, not using adjuvants, etc.). Clemson Extension has just released “Spray Fundamentals”, an online course that covers how to spray better on-farm. This, folks, is the best stocking stuffer or white elephant gift a farmer could receive. Click here to give the gift you’ve all been waiting for.”
Dialing in a sprayer at different RPMs, gears, and nozzles makes this sprayer a versatile tool for this farmer.
Zack Snipes, ©2022, Clemson Extension
Midlands Region
Justin Ballew reports, “We had a fairly cloudy Thanksgiving week. The temperatures were warmer, and we received between 0.8 and 1.1 inches of rain over the week. Sunday afternoon was very windy and dried out the rain we got earlier in the day pretty quickly. In a way, this was a blessing as it didn’t allow water to sit on the leaves of our crops for very long. However, the wind whipping the leaves around likely caused some small mechanical wounds that could allow black rot to take hold. Luckily, black rot levels have been very low this fall. Growers are reporting they had good sales of leafy greens for Thanksgiving. We will now reset and get ready for Christmas and New Year sales.”
Black rot is just getting started on the margin of this collard leaf.
Justin Ballew, ©2022, Clemson Extension
