The open field where the sweet corn was growing has been seeded with a cover crop, winter rye, to prevent erosion and provide good tilth to the soil.
If winter rye planted to early, it can be affected by the Hessian fly.
The field corn is in the dent stage. The kernels currently don't show the black layer formation, and the milk line may need to come down a little more. Most of the husks have open ears where moisture can enter, along with sap beetles. If there were an early frost, the corn would even need more time to dry down. More importantly, the open ears can lead to disease such as mycotoxins. Preferably one would want a tighter husk.
There is some concern that the popcorn, since it was planted later, may not be harvested in time. The popcorn will be of the red and yellow variety.
The soybean plants look healthy, but within this field there appears to be the weed Palmer Amaranth. This is taller than the other Amaranth weeds, with longer petioles. The issue with this weed is that it's very difficult to eradicate, and has been spreading up to the Northeast. This will need to be monitored.
In the demonstration plots the pepper plants have made a nice comeback for the season, and the garden-in-a-bag plants have been doing better with water and fertilization. The strawberry and blueberry plants were watered Wednesday and look good. The peanut plants have some yellowing and may need additional potassium. The peanut and sorghum plants add two unique crops to the demonstration plots.
Below are the summaries for the insects caught in the three insect traps.
Trap 1 (Black Cut Worm) – 1 each - ladybug, click beetle, noctuid
Trap 2 (Fall Armyworm) –1 each - bumble bee, chafer, fall armyworm. noctuid
Trap 3 (Fall Armyworm – changed 8/14/14) – 2 each – noctuid, fly, 1 each – bee, small wasp
