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Vegetables
Volume 60 Number 20 Date 12/03/2015 STRIPED CUCUMBER BEETLE - This sporadic pest was a common problem for cucurbit growers again in 2015. On June 16, an organic CSA farm in Milwaukee County reported extraordinary numbers of beetles appearing on winter squash transplants, apparently at the highest levels observed in their 19 years of farming. Reports of damage to cucumber, melon, squash and other vine crops continued in July and August. Treatment specifically for the striped cucumber beetle was warranted earlier than normal this year. LATE BLIGHT - The state's first case of late blight in 2015 was confirmed by the UW in an Adams County potato field on June 23. Additional cases of the disease were subsequently identified in 23 counties, approximately double the number of counties with confirmed cases in 2014. This season marked the seventh consecutive year that environmental conditions favored late blight development in Wisconsin potatoes. Prior to 2009, the disease had not been observed in the state since 2002. BASIL DOWNY MILDEW - First reported in Wisconsin in 2010, this highly destructive disease was found by DATCP inspectors at a Milwaukee County garden center on May 29, and was also diagnosed by the UW on basil plants submitted for testing in late July. Basil downy mildew (BDM) easily spreads via wind-dispersed spores throughout entire production fields, rapidly causing complete crop loss. Management options are limited since most growers are opposed to using fungicides on basil. DATCP requires basil plants infected with this disease to be removed from sale. -- Krista Hamilton, DATCP Entomologist 
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