The seeds for the non-BT corn grown this year were about $100 a unit cheaper than the BT seeds. A week ago the master gardeners estimated that 150 to 160 bushels of corn per acre would be harvested. Within the past few days 160 bushels of corn per acre were actually harvested. The actual moisture content was 16.8%, which was slightly higher than the allowable 15.5%. So a slight deduction was made when the corn was sold. The harvested cornfield will probably be seeded with a cover crop like winter rye.
As mentioned last week the soybean crop is also very dry. Different portions of the field show various colors of green and yellow. The yellow fields are loosing their leaves and drying down, so today's rainfall will not do them any good. The beans inside the pods are on the small side due to lack of rain. This will make them less marketable and less profitable.
The Pedron peppers were picked last Tuesday (due to the Labor Day holiday) and yielded about 80 pounds. They are picked every Monday by the master gardeners, probably until frost.
In the demonstration plots the additional strawberry plants that we expected to receive this fall for planting will not arrive until next spring. The Bell pepper plants suffered from bacterial leaf spot due to the heavy rainfall in June and July. With the disease the plants lost much of their leaves. They produced more fruit before the leaf spot than after. Recently new foliage has been growing, along with new buds, but it's probably too late in the growing season to expect a significant harvest.
Below is the weekly summary for the insects caught in the four insect traps at the BCCAC in Moorestown.
Trap 1 (Black Cut Worm) – 2 black cut worm.
Trap 2 (European Corn Borer) - 1 each click beetle and spider
Trap 3 (Fall Army Worm) - 3 Fall army worm.
Trap 4 (Corn Ear Worm) – 12 noctuid.
Trap 5 (Stink Bug) – 1 each green stink bug and chafer beetle
Compiled by John Siemanonski
