Check undersides of leaves for adults or nymphs. On eggplant, University of Connecticut recommends a threshold of one to 1.5 leafhopper per leaf. This year leafhoppers are worse than usual and numbers may be high enough to cause damage if uncontrolled. The good news is that the potato crop continues to grow rapidly and no late blight has been found anywhere in the state. The rains have been extremely variable, with some locally intense rainfall.
Field scouting has and continues to be difficult because of the wet conditions.
The moist, damp conditions have continued to create excellent disease conditions and the current long range forecast is calling for a continuation of the shower activity. With the conditions being excellent for both plant growth and disease development please do not let your guard down. We strongly encourage all growers to be carefully scouting all potato fields for potato late blight. This is a critical time for all growers to be scouting carefully. The sooner that a late blight infection is found, the more options that you the grower will have for control.