Dan Egel

Clinical Engagement Associate Professor
(812) 886-0198 egel@purdue.edu
Dan Egel's website
SWPAC

155 articles by this author

Article List

Strawberry Disease Update

June 6, 2019 - From Issue:
By:
Anthracnose of strawberry causes sunken lesions.

At the Southwest Purdue Ag Center, we are studying annual strawberry production on plastic mulch. Our hope is to gather information on the best methods and varieties to use for annual strawberry production in Indiana. As we learn about insect and disease problems, we will pass this information on to producers. This article is about the diseases we have observed in our strawberries which were planted in March 2019. Strawberry leaf spot-Lesions on leaves start out purple. As the lesions enlarge, the center becomes gray-brown (Figure 1). Under rainy conditions, lesions may coalesce across leaves and cause large necrotic areas. Lesions on stems and petioles may cause dieback. Yield or fruit quality loss can be caused by leaf spot under severe conditions. Although leaf spot symptoms are spread throughout our trial, this disease has not become serious for us. There are several cultural methods of managing leaf spot. Host resistance[Read More…]

 Crops
  
 Tags
  

Insecticides Kill Insects

May 22, 2019 - From Issue:
By: and
Figure 1: A cantaloupe plant surrounded by striped cucumber beetles that have died after feeding on a plant treated with an imidacloprid product.

I know this may not come as a surprise to most of you, but it is rare that we get to observe the effectiveness of insecticides in such a dramatic way as we encountered when visiting a melon grower in southern IN recently. And in this case, the decision to apply an insecticide at transplant was a good one. In the photo below (Figure 1), one can see an accumulation of dead striped cucumber beetles that have fed upon a cantaloupe seedling that was treated with an imidacloprid soil drench (Trade names include: Admire Pro®, Macho®, Midashe Forte®, Montana®) at transplant 14 days prior to the photo being taken. The beetles are dead because they fed upon the cantaloupe plant and ingested the imidacloprid. Therefore, the plants were protected from defoliation by the beetles, but what about bacterial wilt? Did the act of feeding, however brief, cause bacterial wilt to[Read More…]

 Crops
  
 Tags
  

Seedcorn Maggots and Wireworms in Cucurbits

May 22, 2019 - From Issue:
By: and
Seed Corn Maggot in cucurbit stem. Photo credit John Obermeyer.

In addition to delaying much of our fieldwork, the cool set spring has wreaked havoc on some of the plants we have been able to squeeze in during brief dry periods. We have received reports of damage caused by seedcorn maggots (Figure 1) and wireworms (Figure 2). In preparation of this article I browsed the Vegetable Crops Hotline archives and came across eight articles published by Rick Foster. What do they have in common? Associations with weather and limited strategies for control. Capture LFR® remains the only product labeled and for wireworms only. Rick Foster did some work with this product and had some promising results. Seedcorn maggots typically lay their eggs in organic matter and feed on seed in the soil, however, they can also cause damage in cucurbit transplants. The adults are active in April and May laying eggs in the field. When soil temperatures reach 70°F the[Read More…]

 Crops
  
 Tags
  

Low Temperature Caused Watermelon Establishment Failure

May 21, 2019 - From Issue:
By: and
Figure 1. Watermelon seedlings planted in a week

In the past week, we have observed a few cases where newly planted watermelon seedlings were severely damaged or dead (Figure 1). In some fields, we observed rotted roots and lower stems caused by fungal pathogens. However, such diseases were in response to the cold soils and would not normally cause problems in warm soils. Most of the dead plants had intact stems, although growers did report seedcorn maggot and wireworm in the stems of a few dead plants. The same thing happened in May 2016. Coincidentally, rain, cloudy days, and lower than normal temperatures were observed in the same period in both years. Since early May, We have had consecutive days with the lowest temperatures in the 40s°F. There was no risk of frost damage, however, this temperature was low enough to cause chilling injury on young cucurbit plants.  This article ‘Protect Early Planted Warm-Season Vegetables from Low Temperature’[Read More…]

 Crops
  
 Tags
  

Abnormal Transplant Symptoms might be Caused by Poor Media

May 9, 2019 - From Issue:
By: , , and
Figure 2. Wilt of watermelon seedlings due to grown in a high EC medium.

Producing healthy transplants is a critical step for a successful growing season. Choosing the proper growing media is an important first step. Supported by a USDA Specialty Crops Block Grant through the Indiana State Department of Agriculture, researchers from Purdue have been evaluating different organic growing media with and without adding supplemental organic fertilizers for tomato and cucurbit transplant production. In this article, we have highlighted a few transplant symptoms that are associated with growing media with excessively high or low electrical conductivity (EC) or pH. It is always a good idea to test EC, pH, and other important nutrient content of a medium when you are making your own or using an unfamiliar media. Most soil laboratories provide a saturated media extract test that provides information on these important parameters. More information about this test and suggested range of EC and pH can be found in this article http://www.soiltest.uconn.edu/factsheets/InterpSMEGreenMedia.pdf[Read More…]

 Crops
  
 Tags
  

Lettuce drop

May 9, 2019 - From Issue:
By:
Figure 1: Bottom rot of lettuce often causes stunting and wiling.

Although Indiana is not known for lettuce production, an increasing number of growers find that augmenting retail sales with leaf lettuce can be profitable. Since lettuce is a cool season crop, field planted leaf lettuce around Indiana may be reaching harvest stage. Leaf lettuce can generally be grown with few pests. However, lettuce drop was recently observed in a field of mixed lettuce varieties. Lettuce affected with lettuce drop often first appears stunted. A closer inspection may reveal that outer leaves are wilted and necrotic (Figure 1).  Eventually, the entire plant may die. If the plant is removed from the ground and observed, the leaf ribs that touch the ground may exhibit dark, rotten appearing lesions (Figure 2). The lesions may be associated with dark fungal bodies known as sclerotia (Figure 3).  Fortunately, lettuce drop does not often spread from plant to plant. The plants that are diseased will most[Read More…]

 Crops
  
 Tags
  

Fungicide Schedules

April 25, 2019 - From Issue:
By:

Ever year, I put together fungicide schedules for cucurbits. These may be found at purdue.ag/pumpkinfs and purdue.ag/melonfs. They may be downloaded as PDFs on legal sized pages.  Please use these tables along with the MW Vegetable Production Guide and the fungicide label.  If you have trouble with accessing the tables or have other questions. please let me know.

 Crops
  
 Tags
  

MW Vegetable Guide Updates

April 25, 2019 - From Issue:
By:

From time to time, I will make changes to the MW Vegetable Production Guide.   These changes will appear automatically in the on-line version.  For those who purchase a hard copy, watch the Vegetable Crops Hotline for changes. See below for the changes that have been made to the Production guide for 2019   Page Comment 1 Add “Anthony Hanson, IPM program” under contributors, University of Minnesota 117 Under powdery mildew, last sentence in disease notes-“Protect pumpkin vines until approximately 21 days from last harvest.” 128 FRAC code for Actigard should be P01 147 Buckeye rot products, Orondis Opti 3-day PHI. 148 Under late blight, Orondis Opti 3-day PHI. 164 Footnote 2 should read “X=permitted for at least one crop.” Footnote 3 should read “X=may be used for that crop.  *=processing crops only.” 226 Define herbicide should be omitted.  

 Crops
  

Midwest Vegetable Production Guide

April 25, 2019 - From Issue:
By:

The Midwest Vegetable Production Guide for Commercial Growers 2018 is available for sale as a hardcopy ($15) or free on-line (be sure to check the article in this issue about changes that have been made to the on-line version).  Actually, the Vegetable Guide has been available since last December. The guide may be purchased through the Education Store, at various extension meetings held around the state or from your Purdue University county educator. The website to either view or purchase the Guide, known in Indiana as the ID-56, is mwveguide.org. The Midwest Vegetable Production Guide is a collaboration of 8 states and 9 institutions. Are you thinking that you already have a Vegetable Guide from a past year and wondering if it is worth getting a new one? The article below represents just some of the changes to this year’s Vegetable Guide.  New and Revised Sections The three new tables created last year — Selected Information About[Read More…]