Dan Egel

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

138 articles by this author

Article List

Harvest and Postharvest Storage of Pumpkins and Winter Squash

September 20, 2018 - From Issue:
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With the start of pumpkin harvest, it is a good time to review important considerations for harvest and postharvest storage of pumpkins and winter squash (butternut, acorn and hubbard squash etc.). Pumpkin and winter squash should be harvested fully mature to reach their optimal quality and fulfill their potential for long shelf lives. Characters indicating fruit maturity include loss of rind surface gloss, ground spot yellowing, and hardening of the skin to the level that it is resistant to puncture with a thumbnail. Except for some striped varieties, mature fruit should have solid external color. If fruit have to be harvested pre-mature because of plant decline, these fruit won’t store as well as mature fruit. The best practice is to harvest the fruit as soon as they are fully mature and then store under proper conditions. If mature fruit are left attached to the vines, it increases the chance of[Read More…]

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Late Season Pumpkin Disease Management

September 20, 2018 - From Issue:
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Several pumpkin growers have asked me when to stop managing for pumpkin diseases. That is, when should a pumpkin grower stop applying fungicides? I cannot provide a definitive answer for this question; every grower will have to make his or her own decision. Below, however, are some factors to consider. Estimate the crop yield-walk through the field and evaluate the yield of pumpkins that are ready to harvest. Be sure to only consider fruit of marketable quality. If the yield is at or above what is expected, it may be time to put the sprayer away. Estimate when harvest will take place-Pumpkins that are scheduled for harvest in the next week or two are less likely to need any fungicide treatment. A longer period to final harvest may indicate that there is time for immature fruit to ripen. For example, pumpkins that are to be picked by the consumer up to Halloween may have time to mature.[Read More…]

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Plectosporium Blight of Pumpkins

August 30, 2018 - From Issue:
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Plectosporium lesions on pumpkin fruit are less common.

Before writing this article, I went back to an old article from 2015. In 2015, I had written, Plectosporium blight was more severe than normal. In 2018, I have also observed more Plectosporium blight than usual. It is not clear to me why this disease seems to be more widespread compared to recent seasons. However, it makes sense to review Plectosporium blight here. I would rank Plectosporium blight behind powdery mildew, bacterial leaf spot and Phytophthora blight in economic damage caused. The occurrence of this disease is usually sporadic. However, when it occurs, it can cause yield loss if left uncontrolled. Plectosporium blight can be recognized from the light tan spindle shaped lesions on stems and leaf petioles (Figure 1 and 2) Lesions on leaves may be dimple like. Lesions may also occur on the fruit (Figure 3), although these symptoms are less common. Yield loss is most often caused[Read More…]

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Downy Mildew Update

August 30, 2018 - From Issue:
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Cucurbit downy mildew has been observed on cucumber in LaPorte County and LaGrange Counties, in northern Indiana and Knox County in the southwest. Downy mildew of cucurbits has also been reported in Kentucky and Michigan. See this article (https://vegcropshotline.org/article/cucurbit-downy-mildew/) in the last Hotline issue about details of downy mildew. Whether growers manage for downy mildew at this late date will depend on when last harvest is anticipated. Cantaloupe and watermelon growers who plan a final harvest at or close to Labor Day should not have to apply any specialized fungicides. Pumpkin growers often start to harvest in early September. Such growers will have little to worry about from downy mildew. However, cucurbit growers who anticipate harvesting fruit that is still developing may want to consider products that were discussed in the last issue of the Hotline. Remember, downy mildew doesn’t affect the fruit directly. Downy mildew affects fruit development by[Read More…]

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Tomato Leaf Mold Diseases

August 16, 2018 - From Issue:
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Cercospora leaf mold symptoms on the upper leaf surface. Note distinct chlorotic lesions.

In the fall of 2015, I wrote an article for the Hotline about Cercospora leaf mold of tomato since this disease had been observed twice in the 2015 season. I wrote that Cercospora leaf mold was normally a subtropical disease. There have been several observations of Cercospora leaf mold on tomato in Indiana this year. I’m still not certain of the importance of this disease, but this article will compare Cercospora leaf mold and leaf mold of tomato. Leaf mold of tomato is caused by Passalora fulva and is common in Indiana, especially in high tunnels where the high relative humidity favors this disease. Cercospora leaf mold is caused by Pseudocercospora fuligena and is more common in the warm, humid climate of the tropics or subtropics than in the Midwest. Both diseases cause chlorotic (yellow) lesions which are visible on the upper side of the leaf. The chlorotic area caused by[Read More…]

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Cercospora blight of Aspragus

August 16, 2018 - From Issue:
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Lesions of Cercospora blight of asparagus are gray to tan and may have red borders.

This disease was confirmed in Indiana recently. Cercospora blight initially causes small, oval, gray to tan lesions with red borders (Figure 1). If a 10X hand lens is used, dark flecks within the lesions may be observed; these flecks are where the spores of the causal fungus are produced. Severe infections may cause entire ferns to turn yellow or brown. Cercospora blight may cause reduced vigor and yield of spears the next spring. The causal fungus overwinters on fern residues left on the soil. When weather in the late spring or summer becomes favorable, spores on this debris may cause disease on the ferns. High humidity in the fern canopy of 95% or higher and average temperatures of 77 to 86°F favor infection. Splashing water from rain or irrigation is important in spread of this disease. Any practice that minimizes fern debris will help to lessen the impact of Cercospora[Read More…]

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Cucurbit Downy Mildew

August 7, 2018 - From Issue:
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Cucurbit downy mildew has been observed on cucumber in La Porte County and LaGrange Counties, Indiana. Downy mildew of cucurbits has also been reported in southern and central Kentucky. All cucurbit growers in Indiana should be scouting and managing for downy mildew. The organism that causes downy mildew of cucurbits doesn’t overwinter in Indiana. It has to be blown in every year. It is common for downy mildew to start the season in the Gulf States and migrate north with the cucurbit crops. Downy mildew apparently overwinters in northern Michigan/southern Ontario in greenhouses where cucumbers are grown year round. Therefore, downy mildew is often found in Michigan before it is found in Indiana. Many cucumber varieties have some resistance to downy mildew. For susceptible cucumber varieties or other types of cucurbits, specialized systemic fungicides will help to reduce the severity of downy mildew. Unfortunately, many of the most effective systemic fungicides for downy mildew are not[Read More…]

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Spray Pressure and Nozzle Type

August 2, 2018 - From Issue:
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Many years ago, I was told that to successfully use fungicides on vegetables, one must use high spray pressures and hollow cone nozzles. However, I had trouble finding any research on this topic, just rumors. So, I did my own research. Dennis Nowaskie, Superintendent at the Southwest Purdue Agricultural Center (SWPAC) built a single row sprayer that could be used to vary nozzle types between flat fans and hollow cones and spray pressures from 30 to 150 PSI. We used the sprayer to conduct experiments on Alternaria leaf blight of cantaloupe during three years of field tests. The fungicide we used to try to manage this disease was the contact product chlorothalonil (trade names include Agronil®, Bravo®, Echo® and Terranil®). Phillip Harmon, now a professor at the University of Florida, was my co-author on this paper. Try as we might, we could not find any statistical differences in disease severity[Read More…]

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10 Useful Rules for Fungicide Applications

August 2, 2018 - From Issue:
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Since there is an article about the application of insecticides in this issue, below I list 10 rules that will help vegetable growers apply fungicides effectively and safely. Apply fungicides prior to the development of disease. Although many fungicides have systemic (“kick back”) action they will not completely eradicate diseases after they have started. And by the time a single disease lesion is observed in the field, many more lesions too small to observe are already working at your crop. Most systemic fungicides move less than an inch toward the tip of the plant or may just move from the upper to the lower side of the leaf. Use shorter spray intervals during weather conducive to plant disease. Each plant disease has its own “personality” and thus prefers different weather. However, most plant diseases require leaf wetness. Therefore, during periods of rain and heavy dews, more frequent fungicide applications are[Read More…]

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Bacterial Spot of Tomato

July 19, 2018 - From Issue:
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Bacterial spot of tomato has been observed across Indiana this summer. Leaf spots are usually 1/16 inch, and dark. Where lesions are numerous upon a leaf, the tissue may be chlorotic (yellow) (Figure 1 & 2).  (In contrast, each lesion of bacterial speck is often accompanied by chlorosis whether lesions are numerous or not.) Lesions of bacterial spot on fruit are dark, raised and up to 1/3 inch in diameter (Figure 3). The disease prefers warm, wet weather. Overhead irrigation will also spread this disease. Although much of Indiana has been dry recently, rainy weather earlier in the year has increased the severity of bacterial spot. Bacterial spot is much more common in field tomatoes than in greenhouse or high tunnel tomatoes. This is because bacterial spot requires leaf wetness for infection to take place and rain to spread the bacteria from leaf to leaf and from plant to plant.[Read More…]

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