VERMONT VEGETABLE AND BERRY GROWER NEWS. July 1, 2026 – UVM Extension Commercial Horticulture

HOT WEATHER GUIDANCE FOR FARMING

Here are reminders to keep you, your family and employees safe; this guidance is from more detailed articles by University of Wisconsin and Michigan State University.

Steps to take to reduce heat stress:

· Plan strenuous tasks for cooler times of the day – morning or early evening.

· Help employees gradually acclimate to hot conditions by initially exposing them to short work periods and more frequent breaks.

· Arrange for work in shaded, well-ventilated areas whenever possible.

· Watch for high temperature/high humidity outdoor conditions and adjust assignments to reduce risk.

· Use fans to help evaporate sweat, providing an important cooling effect.

· Wear lightweight, breathable clothing.

· Wear a hat to provide sun protection when working outdoors. Hats should be loose-fitting and well-ventilated.

· Apply sunscreen to protect against sunburn and skin cancer.

· Drink often! Dehydration accelerates heat illness potential. Water is the best (and least expensive) drink for outdoor work. Sports drinks are OK for most people but avoid sugary soda and caffeine. Salt tablets are not recommended unless a doctor advises them.

· Anyone who must restrict fluid intake because of a medical condition should check with a doctor about how to work safely in hot weather.

If someone is experiencing heat-related symptoms:

· Take the affected employee to a cooler area, such as in the shade or air conditioning.

· Cool the employee immediately:

· Immerse the employee in cold water or an ice bath. Create an ice bath by placing all of the available ice into a large container with water. Ice baths are the best method to cool workers rapidly in an emergency.

· Remove outer layers of clothing, especially heavy protective clothing.

· Place ice or cold wet towels on the head, neck, abdomen, armpits and groin.

· Use fans to circulate air around the worker.

· Never leave an employee with heat-related illness alone. The illness can rapidly become worse. Stay with the employee.

· When in doubt, call 911!

REPORTS FROM THE FIELD

(Westminster West) Although it’s a little dry, we seem to be getting rain just when we need it. That’s allowed us to transplant on time and, I hesitate to say it, but I don’t think we’ve ever been on top of weeds as much as we are this year and most things are growing great.

The exception has been when kept planting lettuce during a cool April and everything just stood there and looked the same. Then after a week of high-80’s, all five plantings matured at once and I’ve been harrowing in $10,000 worth of lettuce every week. But we just keep planting. It always tends to even out.

It’s been our best strawberry year ever, and PYO has been robust. A lot of good dry weather has been a factor. But I don’t think we’ll make it until the Fourth of July because the berries have been ripening so fast.

All our winter squash is transplanted. It’s labor-intensive but it gives us a jump on weeds and potential cucumber beetle problems.

Our first planting of sweet corn was well-tasseled by June 20, although I don’t think we’re going to make a Fourth of July first picking.

(Ange-Gardien, Quebec) Nice spring so far. The working windows are quite small between two rainy days. We had to work on weekend to take advantage of the good conditions. Last frost was on average and we could transplant our melons on time.

We struggled in our direct edamame seeding: seeds rotted in the ground. We usually put agribon without hoops on top of our melons right after transplanting. This year we wanted to have cantaloup earlier so we started some of them a week earlier in 50’s instead of 72’s and transplanted them at 2-3 leaves instead of 1-2 leaves. Bad idea: the transplants were too long and there was too much friction between the stem of the transplant and the agribon because of the wind. That was our main learning this spring. Sales are not too bad!

(Burlington) Hard to believe it is nearly July, but June has flown by, as usual. CSA distribution is off to a good start, and members are happy to start seeing vegetables you can cook like broccoli and zucchini in addition to the early bounty of salad and herby stuff.

Our foray into plasticulture strawberries this season turned out well. Though the wet weather during harvest led to some fruit losses, the easy picking was popular with CSA members. I like having the plants in the ground for only 10 months instead of a year and a half, and that we can precede the August planting more easily with a cover crop. Another unfortunate example of more plastic being the answer.

The VVBGA/Extension strawberry workshop at Full Belly Farm in Monkton last week was so informative, and a great reminder that I always learn from taking the time to visit other farms.

Tunnels are busting out, with our beit alpha cukes pumping out fruit at nearly 1 per plant per day. We really see how the optimal temperatures lead to the biggest harvests, and when temps are above and below we notice it in our daily pick, albeit with a few day lag. I guess that is an argument for heating, which we don’t do.

Unfortunately a few spider mites showed in the cukes last week, but we are hoping the biocontrol program will keep a lid on them. Tomatoes look great, and we are waiting for the first harvests to come along shortly. Still working on our program for peppers. Plants look good and appropriately foliar, and we are hoping that will translate to a good fruit / foliar balance, after an over-nitrogen mix-up last year. Plant density remains a question, so we are trying a couple of approaches to see what pencils out.

Most field crops are doing well, though the abundant rains have led to some nutrient deficiency showing up in salad crops and other quick growing things, as well as some in longer season crops like potatoes. I am hoping that our naturally slow releasing chicken pellets and soymeal haven’t released most of their nitrogen yet in longer season crops, to that there will still be some available. That said, we are sidedressing some crops with some soluble N where we are seeing issues.

Working with Vic Izzo, we are hosting another broccoli variety trial to screen 10 leading cultivars for Swede midge tolerance. We ran our own about 10 years ago with a SARE Farmer grant, but most of those varieties are now unavailable. It will be great to have some updated options if we see any notable differences.

Insect populations seem right on schedule: started spraying our potatoes for CPB this past week, with the first leafhoppers showing up yesterday, also about on schedule. We have struggled with Mexican Bean Beetle for several seasons in our snap beans despite using the recommended release timing of Pediobius wasps, so this year we started 2 weeks earlier when the first adults show up. We will see.

No sign of onion thrips in any numbers yet, the frequent rains have been a real help keeping a lid on, I suspect. Happily also no sign of any onion foliar diseases, though with the weather it seems inevitable that Stemphyllium and/or Downy mildew can’t be far behind.

UPDATE FROM THE UVM PLANT DIAGNOSTIC CLINIC

Ann Hazelrigg

Four-lined plant bug damage has been noted on several herbs, peppers, currants and gooseberries, herbaceous perennials and other ornamentals. The damage always alarms people since it looks like a leafspot disease. The piercing/sucking feeding of both nymphs and adults produces dark, round, sunken spots, up to 1/8 inch wide. The spotting can coalesce and cause a lot of browning and sometimes wilting. The eggs hatch in late spring as the leaves start to emerge. Nymphs feed on the upper side of leaves for about four weeks and then molt into adults. Adults keep feeding until early July and then mate. There is only one generation/year.

The adult plant bug is about a quarter inch long and has four black longitudinal stripes surrounded by yellow to yellow-green on the leathery part of the wing covers. Nymphs are smaller, wingless, brightly-colored yellow to red, with black spots in rows on the segments of the abdomen. The insects don’t hang out long on the foliage so you may never see the bug.

Since they only feed in the early summer, row covers can be used to protect susceptible herbs. Damaged tissue can be removed after the bugs have stopped feeding in July. Neem or insecticidal soaps may help but would need to repeated often. https://homegarden.cahnr.uconn.edu/factsheets/four-lined-plant-bug/

Allium leaf miner identified from scallion pictures sent by a grower in Barnard. The foliage had lots of small white circles caused by their ovipositors, not in a row as are showed in all the factsheets, but more random. The grower also sent a picture of the pupa matching that of the leafminer. This pest of all alliums is new to Vermont and making its way north in the state it appears.

The adult is a fly and is hard to detect but the allium leafminer larvae/maggots are white to yellow and are easier to see growing to about a 1/3 inch. Pupae are red to dark brown and about one-eighth of an inch. There is no netting present as is on the onion leek moth pupae. The pests have 2 generations/year with the second typically being more damaging. They overwinter as pupae, the eggs hatch out in the spring and “mine” the inner leaf surfaces, moving downward towards the leaf base, or bulb and pupate in the plant tissue or on the soil. They emerge as adults in late summer or early fall and lay a second generation of eggs into the leaves of various alliums, whose larvae will mine the leaves. This second generation of allium leafminer larvae become the next overwintering generation, pupating inside crop tissues, or in the soil immediately surrounding them.

Rotation and row covers will help as will other insecticides noted in these factsheets: https://cals.cornell.edu/integrated-pest-management/outreach-education/fact-sheets/allium-leafminer; https://www.mofga.org/resources/fact-sheets/allium-leafminer/

Strawberry foliar and petiole disease-Lots of Mycosphaerella leaf spot on Jewel strawberry noted. Angular leaf spot also found on same cultivar after incubating in the moist chamber for several hours. This bacterial disease causes tiny water-soaked lesions on the undersides of leaves that are translucent. According to Ohio State University, the pathogen survives on previously infected dead leaves on or in the soil. Crowns of systemically infected living plants are another source for overwintering inoculum.

The bacterium that causes angular leaf spot is generally introduced into a planting on symptomless, systemically infected nursery plants. In spring, the bacteria become active in systemically infected plants and disease symptoms develop. The bacteria ooze out of lesions on the underside of infected leaves, and rain splashes these bacteria onto other strawberry plants. The bacteria enter the plant through wounds or natural openings. Free water on plant surfaces, high relative humidity, moderate daytime temperatures (~68°F), and cold nights favor the disease.

Management includes purchase of disease-free plants, avoiding moving equipment or harvesting when fields are wet and resistant varieties. Fixed coppers have shown variable success in controlling the disease once established. https://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/HYG-3212-11

Anthracnose (Colletotrichum) also noted on strawberry fruit causing sunken dark spots. Grower reported the diagnostic orange fruiting bodies were found on the fruit after holding overnight in a plastic bag with wet paper towels. https://extension.psu.edu/anthracnose-on-strawberry-fruit

No tomato leafspot diseases seen in the Clinic yet but I am sure they will be showing up shortly!

As always, send a picture (ann.hazelrigg@uvm.edu) or a sample to the Clinic at Jeffords Hall, 63 Carrigan Drive, Burlington.

VVBGA 2026 ON-FARM WORKSHOPS

Full workshop descriptions are posted here.

July 23 from 4 to 6:30. Soil health and pollinator strategies on organic veg farms at The Farm Upstream, Jericho

August 5 from 1-3. Vermont Herb Growers’ Initiative workshop at Zach Woods Herb Farm, Hyde Park.

August 25 from 4-6:30. Reduced Tillage, Insect Scouting, and NRCS practices on a small-scale diversified vegetable and cut flower farm at Stone’s Throw Farmstead, Shrewsbury.

September 23 from 4-6:30. Interseeding, Living Mulches and Cover Cropping Equipment at Hurricane Flats, South Royalton

October 21 from 3:30-6:00. Root crops (harvest, storage and marketing) and electric tractor, High Meadows Farm, Putney

VVBGA ANNUAL MEETING AND COMMERCIAL MEMBERSHIP

The Annual Meeting will be held on Tuesday, January 19, 2027 at the Lake Morey Resort in Fairlee, Vermont.

Commercial Membership for 2027 will open later this month and fees for 2027 are the same as for 2026. Dues range from $125 to $225 based on the size of the ad selected for the VVBGA annual report. An exhibit table at the annual meeting is $150. Annual meeting tickets are $65 per person. Space is limited for exhibit tables, so sign up as soon as you know that you would like to attend. Sponsorships, which include an ad, exhibit table and meeting tickets, are $1,000 or $2,000. Sponsorship helps to keep the meeting affordable for growers and provides businesses and organizations with increased marketing opportunities.

We appreciate the 75 commercial members currently in the VVBGA! They help support education and research that serves 425 farms and 1,000+ people in our organization.

Current commercial members will get their registration renewal information soon via email. Interested in becoming a member? Contact vvbga@uvm.edu. Farm Memberships for 2027 and annual meeting registration will open later this year.