Delmarva pickling cucumber producers grow about 900,000 bushels on approximately 4,500 to 5,000 acres. A quick survey of processors indicates 13,000 acres of lima beans will be planted this year. Watermelon transplanting has begun, as growers express concern over cool nights. The transplanting completed so far has been on plastic mulch with rye strips, somewhat lessening the potential damage from frost. We have had several questions from sweet corn processor field men about the risk of injury from Prowl for use on sweet corn.
Prowl is labeled, but injury is a possibility on the early plantings if temperatures are cool.
Fortunately, much sweet corn acreage planted of late experienced relatively warm conditions. The other compounding problem is related to depth of planting. Planting at 1.5 to 2 inches deep helps avoid injury, but sweet corn comes out of the ground more evenly and quickly if planted at 1 inch. An even stand is a big part of obtaining good yield and grade at harvest, especially with mechanical harvest of processing types. In addition, the seed trench must be covered to avoid direct applications on the seed.