Apples are sizing rapidly, with some exceeding 40 mm. The season appears to be about 10 days to 2 weeks ahead of normal, and pest problems are minimal. Pumpkin growers are losing seed to ground squirrels, and pumpkin seedlings to the striped cucumber beetle. Potato leafhoppers populations remain high and require treatment in several crops. It is quite early, but raspberries, currants, and blueberries are being picked.
Strawberry harvest continues, and black root rot continues to plague certain strawberry fields.
Hot weather is causing rapid growth in vegetable crops, and early sweet corn is near row tassel. These numbers should be useful to you, but remember, measuring temperatures in your own orchard or fields using a max-min thermometer provides far more accurate information. Lots of heavy rains in many parts of Illinois may make a mite control reminder seem unusual, but some orchards are not floating as high as others, so let's make sure the recommended approach to using Pyramite is clear, just in case it's needed as we get ready to head into July. I previously repeated in this newsletter a warning about possible incompatibility of Pyramite with the spreader-sticker NuFilm. Further information from BASF clarified that the trouble derived, as it often does, from incomplete breakdown of the water-soluble bag in which the product is packaged.