Commodities report Disease severity value accumulations for asparagus have stopped or slowed with the cool, dry weather. Rust has also slowed with cooler weather as the rapidly spread uredial lesions change over to the overwintering telial stage. Tarnished plant bug is still common and many growers are worried about them feeding on the new flush of growth. Many growers are saying that if you kept the disease and insects controlled, this is the best looking fern we've had in many years. We had the first harvest of early processing carrots last week.
Alternaria pressure remains fairly high.
We have very little aster yellows this year. Some virus is now showing up in non-resistant varieties of summer squash . Growers don't seem too worried about the virus because their processing contracts are mostly filled and most of the late plantings are virus-resistant. Powdery mildew and Alternaria have been pretty well controlled. Winter squash fields are a couple of weeks ahead of normal and in some fields the leaves are beginning to senesce.