Illinois Fruit and Vegetable News - Vol. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. Crop reports for southern, southwestern and northern Illinois, degree day accumulations, pre-harvest intervals for insecticides and fungicides on apples and peaches , Phytophthora on cucurbits, powdery mildew on cucurbits, insecticides and honey bees in cucurbits, St. Charles Hrticulture Research Center update. In the south and southwest, peach season has gotten off to a good start as Red Haven harvest finishes in the far south and is in full swing in the south west.
Size is exceptional in well thinned blocks.
Mites are beginning to build in apples but are especially evident in well fertilized peach blocks. Bramble harvest continues, thornless blackberry yield and quality has been exceptional with large fruit size and number, and good sugar development. Japanese beetle pressure is severe in most areas of the south, especially on brambles, peaches and young trees. Sweet corn yields have been reduced in some areas by the wet conditions early in the season. However, the quality remains high, along with demand.