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On September 16, 2017

Penn State Extension will be hosting Drinking Water and Septic System Workshops to be held at the Colerain Township Building, 1803 Kirkwood Pike, Kirkwood, PA 17536 on Wednesday, September 27, 2017, 1:00-3:00 pm and at the Terre Hill Community Center, 131 Main Street, Terre Hill, PA 17581 on Wednesday, September 27, 2017, 6:00-8:00 pm. Wells supply water to over 53,000 homes in Lancaster County, mostly in suburban and rural areas. Many residents also use on-lot septic systems to treat and dispose of wastewater. This workshop will provide information on protecting, testing, and treating private water supplies. Also discussed will be septic system inspection and maintenance. Learn how to protect your family and community, your property, and our shared ground and surface water resources.

Free drinking water screening for coliform bacteria, E. coli, pH, total dissolved solids, and nitrate will be provided for the first 30 households to register. Results from simple tests will serve as a guide to future testings by accredited labs. Sample collection instructions will be provided after you register.

The workshop is free but registration is required. To register contact the Penn State Extension Lancaster office at (717) 394-6851. Registration deadline: September 25 at 4:00 pm.

Both events are being supported by the Master Well Owner Network grant from the PA Department of Environmental Protection and the PA Ground Water Association.

The Kirkwood workshop is being offered in partnership with the Octoraro Source Water Collaborative and the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay. The Terre Hill workshop is being offered in partnership with the ELANCO Source Water Collaborative.

For more information please contact Leon Ressler, Penn State Agronomy Educator, (717) 394-6851
To Maintain Fungicide Sprays Until Fruit Harvest

We’ve received quite a bit of rain recently, which begs the question: have the last fungicide sprays washed off? Extensioin Tree Fruit Pathologist Kari Peter’s answer to that question is: “I hope folks still have the sprayers hooked up…”

After seeing the apple fruit rot issues coming out of the cold storages last season, she has been doing her best being a very broken record (since winter) preaching the need for keeping fruit protected until harvest. With the amount of rain we received during the 2017 season, Peter wants to encourage growers to not repeat what happened during the 2016 harvest. What happened last year? During the 2016 harvest, folks may have applied their last fungicide sprays late August or early September, only to be caught off guard by the high volume of rain we received during the month of September.

Whatever had been applied prior to that rain was most likely washed off. Consequently, the fruit were going into the cold storages were vulnerable. Come late winter/early spring, she saw many fruit with rot coming out storage. It is very import to monitor your area for rainfall: If more than 2 inches of rain falls and you have already applied fungicides, another application will be needed to keep the rots at bay since there is a good chance the protection will have washed off. Moral of the story: you’re at Mother Nature’s mercy for when that final fungicide spray might be applied. Some nuggets of wisdom to keep in mind:

Just because fruit may appear clean during harvest, it does not mean they will stay that way. Not only a headache in the field, but the fungi causing fruit rots can be quite stealthy since spores will land on the fruit and cause symptoms only after the fruit have been in storage. This is especially significant if your apples are headed for a packinghouse, processing, or your own market.

Peter highly encourages growers to use the following as their last one or two sprays prior to harvest since these products do show efficacy keeping rots in check while in storage: Merivon (or Pristine) and Luna Sensation

This recommendation is both for fresh market and juicing apples (especially hail damaged apples): the packhouses and processors will thank you!

To Learn About White Mold In Soybeans

Extension Plant Pathologist Paul Esker tells us he as received reports of white mold in soybeans. Since most fields have set pods it is too late to consider a fungicide application to manage this disease. Therefore, our focus should be on obtaining accurate information about the impact of white mold by assessing the incidence of the disease as we move into harvest. This information is important to document correctly the impact of the disease in terms of yield loss, as well as to help in making decisions regarding the best management options to reduce the impact of white mold in the future.
For fields where white mold has been noted, it will be very important to assess the incidence of white mold at maturity  This assessment will help to quantify the potential yield loss due to white mold, not only the field level, but also by integrating the field data to look at the yield loss at the local, area, and state level. Disease incidence can be estimated by examining different areas of the field, whereby we quantify the number of plants with white mold divided by the total number of plants assessed. For example, if 100 total plants were assessed in the different areas and the number of plants with white mold was 42, the incidence would be 42%. Yield loss can be calculated by considering the following: for every 10% increase in the incidence of white mold observed at R7, yield can be reduced by two to five bushels per acre. Additional information is available at the “Crop Protection Network” website. Click on the following link to be taken directly to the white mold page.
Before we focus on management options to reduce the risk of white mold in the future, it is important to mention that fields with white mold should be harvested last. It is probable that sclerotia of S. sclerotiorum will end up in the combine, and without proper cleaning, it will be very easy to move this inoculum from one field to another. You may need to clean the combine several times during the harvest, especially if you are moving from one farm to another in your operations.

Looking towards the future, by knowing and documenting the incidence of white mold for each field, we can consider several different management options. First, variety selection is important and working with your local seed person will be important to consider pathogen-free seed, selecting varieties with the best available level of resistance, and using the most appropriate maturity group for your production region. No variety is completely resistant to white mold, but several varieties with partial resistance are available and these should be discussed with your seed rep.
Furthermore, cultural practices like reducing plant populations and increasing row width, rotating with nonhost crops, using alternate tillage practices, controlling weeds that can be hosts of S. sclerotiorum, and using cover crops that help to reduce inoculum density may help to minimize the impact of white mold in the future. For example, forage legumes like alfalfa and clovers, can be infected with S. sclerotiorum, while small grain cover crops like oat, wheat or barley may stimulate early emergence of apothecia, which enables the soybean crop to escape the period of infection. Depending on the field history, a longer rotation may be required with nonhost crops like corn or small grains.

If you will consider applying fungicides in the future, and if conditions warrant such an application, it is important to understand how different products work, since they will inhibit infection, or modify the soybean canopy, differently. Depending on the product selected, a second application may also be required. Futhermore, and depending on field history, biological control has potential as part of a long-term strategy to reduce inoculum density.

Quote Of The Week: “The difference between who you are and who you want to be, is what you do.” Unknown