Highlights From The Great Lakes Fruit, Vegetable & Farm Market Expo

The Great Lakes Fruit, Vegetable & Farm Market Expo is taking place this week in Grand Rapids, MI, and American Vegetable Grower is there, reporting on some of the major talking points. Below are highlights from some educational sessions.

• During a presentation on the status of U.S. honeybees and what growers can do to support pollinator populations, Maryann Frazier from the Entomology Department of Penn State University discussed the effects that Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and crop protectants have had on the decline in bee populations. Overall, Frazier mentions that a weakening of the bees’ immune system is what is leading to the fatalities, but that their immune systems are failing for a variety of reasons including poor nutrition, viruses, genetics, and stress among other factors. Frazier also pointed to the synergistic interaction between different pesticides that increases their toxicity to the bees’ immune systems. For control, Frazier recommends less intensive management of weeds, establishing pollinator conservation areas, using pollinator strips, not applying crop protectants while plants are in bloom, and avoiding application during the day.

• In a food safety session presented by Michael Mahovic, consumer safety officer of USDA, Mahovic reviewed the outbreak in cantaloupes at Chamberlain Farms in Indiana in 2012, referencing the codes of Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) that were violated in the case, and how improved food safety would have prevented the spread of disease.As far as how the contamination spread, Mahovic pointed to unsanitary wood equipment that was not designed to be properly washed, wet packing and handling, and contaminated water that was lying in pools around the facilities and the field perimeters.Mahovic stated that under FSMA regulations, growers must assess the packinghouse equipment design so that it is fully cleanable, minimizing the possibility for infection, and they must use sanitized water.

• In Fred Springborn’s discussion on future challenges in nutrient management for potatoes, he discussed the status and availability of critical nutrients for potato crops, including sulfur and phosphorus.Springborn, county Extension agriculture and natural resources agent at Michigan State University, explained that acreage is being formed and rotated intensively, contributing to low-nutrient levels in the soil. Research shows that native soils test very low for phosphorus, which potatoes require in high amounts for adequate tuber growth. Environment concerns such as algae blooms, surface water quality, and reduced levels of oxygen in water have halted its use, but he recommends that growers stay up to date on the latest regulations, and speak out on behalf of the industry to encourage research and policy changes.

• During the potato disease update presented by William Kirk, from the Plant, Soil, and Microbial Sciences Department at Michigan State University, major challenges Michigan growers experienced in 2013 were discussed. Those challenges included a severe case of potato dry rot that sometimes resulted in the re-planting of entire fields. Kirk mentioned that currently there are at least 13 known species of Fusarium in the U.S. that lead to potato dry rot, 11 of which have been reported in Michigan.

• Another major issue was potato late blight, which was confirmed in Allegan County in mid-July. Weather conditions including a moderate to mild winter are thought to have favored the disease’s reappearance, and the genotype for all cases was US-23.Recommendations for treatment can be found at www.lateblight.org/fungrate.html.

Be sure to stay tuned for more extensive coverage of this year’s Great Lakes Expo in American Vegetable Grower, and on growingproduce.com.