Statewide: Dr. Tony Keinath reports finding powdery mildew on Hale’s Best Jumbo cantaloupe in Charleston last week. “Anyone growing heirloom varieties of cucurbits should spray for powdery mildew, because open-pollinated varieties do not have the resistance found in hybrid varieties. All cucurbit growers should be on the lookout for powdery mildew starting now and be ready to spray when it shows up on their farms.”
Dr. Guido Schnabel reports, “2019 promises to be a great peach season despite the one late freeze we had late March. Still, some remnants of this late freeze can still be observed on many cultivars. They include peach buttons next to well developing fruit. The embryo of those button peaches are often damaged. These buttons will soon fall off the tree. Most cultivars do have enough normal fruit, however, for a full or nearly full crop.”
Coastal: Zack Snipes reports, “Beautiful weather last week really helped the progress of spring crops like tomato, pepper, and squash. We should be harvesting the first flush of squash this week. Spring onions, broccoli, radishes, carrots, beets, turnips, and greens are continuing to be harvested. Have seen some major issues with the diamond back moth this spring on greens.”
Midlands: Justin Ballew reports, “Strawberry harvest has picked up this week and disease is very low since the weather has been dry. Spring and Summer crops are growing fast. A few spidermites have been seen and could increase quickly if it stays dry. Keep an eye out for those.”
Sarah Scott reports finding high numbers of brown marmorated stink bugs in traps along the Ridge. “While scouting the orchards I saw a few peaches that had some stink bug damage as well. Not wide spread but it is showing up so be mindful when you’re scouting in the coming week.”
Upstate: Andy Rollins reports, “Strawberry production is finally in full swing after a very delayed start to our year. Early picking resulted in some knotty fruit but fruit quality and flavor are excellent now across all of the upstate. Slug problems show up when we have high moisture conditions as in the below picture from a neighboring state. Deadline pellets are a very effective control should they show up here, but caution is needed to keep the pellets from directly contacting fruit when applying.”
The South Carolina Grower 