THE ARBOR DOCTOR

A case of late blight on tomatoes from Northern KY was confirmed yesterday by the Plant Disease Diagnostic Lab at the Univ. of KY. yesterday.  Additional findings were found today.

Up until last year, late blight has not been a common disease for us in KY, and we expect to see it much later in the year.  However, this now marks the second year in a row in which this disease has appeared much earlier than usual.  Last year, we suffered the most severe outbreak of late blight that we’ve ever recorded.

We definitely want to play it safe with late blight.  Commercial producers, both commercial and homeowners alike, need to be on a regular spray schedule of fungicides for disease control.  Spraying insecticides will not prevent diseases such as this.

Chlorothalonil and mancozeb are good protectant fungicides against late blight, and copper is moderately effective.   These materials are the best bets for homeowners, and coppers (i.e., fixed copper) are probably the only reliable protectant option for organic producers.   Acrobat (now sold as Forum), Revus (new from Syngenta), Presidio (new from Valent), and Ridomil Gold Bravo are products that have specific activity against late blight.

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Kenneth W. Seebold, Jr.

Assistant Extension Professor

Tobacco and Commercial Vegetables

University of Kentucky, Dept. of Plant Pathology

205 Plant Science Building

Lexington, KY 40546

office tel: 859.257.7445 x80721

mobile: 859.229.2420

fax: 859.323.1963

KY Tobacco Disease Information Page:

www.uky.edu/Ag/kpn/kyblue/kyblue.htm

If you love watching the seasonal cycles of plants, bugs, birds and/or
animals, you may be interested in helping the National Phenology
Network.   http://www.usanpn.org/

NEWS RELEASE

REYNOLDSBURG, Ohio (May 24, 2010) – Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland has recognized May 23-29 to be Emerald Ash Borer Awareness Week.

“Emerald Ash Borer Awareness Week provides an opportunity for the state to join forces with business, industry, environmental groups, community organizations, tourists, citizens and schools to protect Ohio’s ash trees against the spread of this invasive pest,” said Strickland.

The invasive pest poses a threat to the state’s more than 3.8 billion ash trees and has been identified in 48 of the state’s 88 counties, with 19 additional counties considered to be at elevated risk. To slow the spread of the devastating insect, a state quarantine makes it illegal to move hardwood firewood and ash tree materials from these 67 quarantined counties into or through non-quarantined counties. A federal quarantine in place also makes it illegal to take hardwood firewood out of the state of Ohio without federal certification.

Ash trees infested with the beetle typically die within five years. This invasive pest belongs to a group of metallic-colored, wood-boring beetles. Adults are dark metallic green, one-half inch long, one-eighth inch wide, and fly from May until September. Larvae spend the rest of the year beneath the bark of ash trees, damaging the trees’ water and nutrient-transporting tissues. When the larvae emerge as adults, they leave behind one-eighth inch D-shaped exit holes in the bark.

Emerald Ash Borer Week, designated each May, is part of a regional effort to raise awareness of the environmental, social and economic impacts of this pest.

For more information, call 1-888-OHIO-EAB or visit www.agri.ohio.gov.

* UNTIL 6 PM EDT THIS EVENING

* OCCASIONAL SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL MOVE ACROSS SOUTHEAST  INDIANA…NORTHERN KENTUCKY AND SOUTHERN OHIO THROUGH THIS  AFTERNOON. RAIN WILL BE HEAVY AT TIMES WITH RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF 3  TO 5 INCHES POSSIBLE THROUGH THIS AFTERNOON.

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An unstable airmass will overspread the area today. This airmass will combine with strong winds aloft to set the stage for severe thunderstorms later today and tonight as a cold front moves in from the west.

A few thunderstorms may develop out ahead of the cold front during the early and mid afternoon hours. If storms do develop this afternoon, they may take the form of supercells, capable of producing very large hail, damaging winds and tornadoes.

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