Winter rye is now growing in what was the sweet cornfield. More weeds are accumulating toward the backend of the field, since it is slightly lower, and more rainwater and moisture accumulate there.
The field corn is more dented. The kernel tips are beginning to get black layering, as the corn is becoming drier. The cob is still moist. The corn is expected to be harvested in about 2 weeks.
There is some concern that the popcorn, since it was planted later, may not be harvested in time. The popcorn looks healthy, but is showing some deer damage. Also, there is some corn borer damage and frass.
The high weeds noted between the popcorn and field corn were lambsquarters, spiny amaranth, jimsonweed and fall panicum.
The soybean plants look healthy and are as tall as they've ever been. The Palmer Amaranth weed mentioned last week was misidentified, so as of now there doesn’t appear to be any of these weeds at the BCCAC. This will still need to be monitored in the future. The soybean nodules look a healthy pink. The plants are showing insect damage from aphids, Japanese beetles, grasshoppers and stinkbugs, but not enough to be concerned. When a stinkbug pierces the pod, moisture and disease can result to the pod. Having many stinkbugs in the soybean plants can be a problem.
In the demonstration plots the Spanish peanut crop is beginning to show some foliar leaf disease and will need to be monitored. The pepper plants are showing some leaf drop from perhaps too much rain. The ever-bearing strawberries are still producing fruit, and the June bearing plants look large and healthy. Sulfur and water was used on the blueberries yesterday to lower the pH.
Below are the summaries for the insects caught in the three insect traps.
Trap 1 (Fall Armyworm) – 2 moths, 1 fall armyworm
Trap 2 (Fall Armyworm) –7 fall armyworm, 1 each spider & wasp.
Trap 3 (European Corn Borer – changed 8/14/14) – None
