Category: Question of the Week
-
Question of the Week – Pickleworm
This week, the question was: What caused the hole in the side of this cucumber? (Nothing is wrong with the color. This cultivar is called Silver Slicer.) This week’s question is a review from a post Tom Bilbo wrote recently about pickleworms. Pickleworms feed on the blooms and tunnel into the developing fruit of cucurbit…
-
Question of the Week – Assassin Bug
This week, the question was: What is going on here, and which one of these is the good guy? Here we see an assassin bug that has caught and is feeding on a lady beetle. Normally, both of these insects are good guys, though when assassin bugs get hungry, they will eat just about anything…
-
Question of the Week – Pigweed
This week, the question was: What is this weed coming up in a field that was disked recently? This is a pigweed seedling, specifically Palmer amaranth (Amaranthus palmeri). Pigweeds are some of the most aggressive weeds that farmers battle. They are able to germinate and grow quickly in poor field conditions, outcompeting crops for water,…
-
Question of the Week – Leafminers
This week, the question was: What is wrong with these muscadines? These muscadines have been fed on by the larvae of a leafminer (a species of fly (Diptera)). Adults lay their eggs on the surface of a fruit, stem, or leaf of a plant and the larvae tunnel in the tissue of the plant forming…
-
Question of the Week – Bacterial Wilt
This week, the question was: Why is this row of tomato plants dead, but the next row is perfectly healthy? The row on the left has succumbed to bacterial wilt. In the row on the right are grafted plants that had bacterial wilt resistance. You can see the night and day difference between the grafted…
-
Question of the Week – Kudzu
This week, the question was: What invasive plant develops this attractive pink flower? These are kudzu flowers. You can see the characteristic trifoliate kudzu leaves in the background. Kudzu is one of our most common invasive plants in the Southeast. Interestingly, it was introduced intentionally in the early 1900s as a cheap livestock forage and…
-
Question of the Week – Armillaria Root Rot
This week, the question was: What is growing at the base of this peach tree? These are mushrooms from the fungal root disease Armillaria Root Rot (Armillaria spp.). This soil-borne disease is of major concern for the stone fruit industry as it causes premature tree decline. There are currently no resistant rootstocks available. Therefore, cultural…
-
Question of the Week – Excessive Water
This week, the question was: What caused these ripe blueberries to split on the bush? Blueberry splits are caused by excessive water from rainfall or irrigation when ripe or near-ripe fruit are on the plant. These berries of the rabbiteye cultivar ‘Climax’ split following nearly four inches of rain over three days. In blueberries, root…
-
Question of the Week – Downy Mildew
This week, the question was: What is the disease showing up on the underside of this collard leaf? This is downy mildew. While downy mildew symptoms can be seen on the top sides of the leaves, the pathogen sporulates on the underside of the leaves. This disease is most common when we have foggy mornings…
-
Question of the Week – Barklice
This week, the question was: What are all these critters crawling on the bark of this crepe myrtle tree? These are barklice, AKA barkflies or booklice. This species is probably Cerastipsocus venosus. Barklice are sometimes called “tree cattle,” due to their behavior of moving around in a group like a herd of animals (try moving…
The South Carolina Grower 