First Signs of Frost

This morning as the dawn began a light frost settled on the grass and my vehicle. Another reminder we are progessing further into fall. The long range shows temperatures in the middle 30's for lows over the next few days. This is far from the hard frost it will take to see damage but reminds us the growing season is drawing to a close. Keep an eye on susceptible crops such as late planted corn. Likely we will begin to see some burn on leaf margins over the next week in some fields, however little actual damage should be done to the crop.

Soybean Aphids Continue to Dwindle

After scouting the Chambersburg plot again today for soybean aphids it appears that the population continues to decrease. As I stated before we never came close to the threshold, however now that hot weather has hit we are starting to see the populations react with a decrease in populations. The beans I'm scouting are in R6 so even if we hit a threshold population now (250 aphids per plant) it would not be economical to spray. If you do have late planted or double cropped beans make sure you still pay attention to the aphids. Hopefully the populations are dwidling all around, however you still may have heavy presure in some areas of the county.

Bean Pod Motle Virus

Good news. Monday I scouted for fields for bean pod mottle virus (BPMV) and today I got the results, all negative. The fields were located outside of Shippensburg, Mercersburg, New Franklin, and Chambersburg so they were from a broad area. I scouted only early plantings that had signs of bean leaf beetle feeding, so they were suceptible to BPMV. It would appear this is not a threat for now in our area. If you want to find out more about BPMV check out this information from Iowa State.

So here it begins

So I have now rocketed into the world of blogging. This blog will be mainly focusing on the area of crop and soil science (agronomy) in Franklin County Pennsylvania. With this being said I will warn you that comments on the dairy industry and livestock production will likely come into play as well. Hope you enjoy this and I'll do my best to keep it up to date with relevant information.