D2-Uncaster Fanning, Saturday, August 19, 2000
Hotspot Hunting Sign-Up
CAMP HILL (Cumberland
Co.) Pennsylvania Farm
Bureau is reminding farmers
that the deadline for sign-up in
this year’s “hotspot” deer hunt
is Thursday, Aug. 31.
Farmers suffering deer
damage to crops who wish to
enroll in the program should
contact their regional Pennsyl
vania Game Commission office
by that date.
The “hotspot” program,
known officially as the Deer
Damage Area Program, allows a
hunter with an anterless license
for that county to harvest an an
tlerless deer on an enrolled farm
during the regular firearms ant
Late Blight Could Pose Problem In Fields
Eric Oesterlins
Westmoreland County Agent
The plentiful rainfall and
cooler temperatures have made
this a much better growing
season than we have seen in
recent years, especially com
pared to last year’s drought.
However, this weather has
also been ideal for some fungus
diseases.
Late blight has the most po
tential to do severe damage to
the home vegetable garden. It
only affects potatoes and toma
toes but it can destroy a planting
of either one of these vegetables
in a week or two of wet weather.
This same disease caused the
failure of Irish potato crops 150
years ago, resulting in the in
famous Irish potato famine and
subsequent mass emigration of
Irish to America.
No, I don’t expect to see mass
starvation in western Pennsylva
nia because of late blight, but 1
would not be surprised to see a
lot of very disappointed garden
ers. After all, what single crop is
more important to vegetable
gardeners than tomatoes?
Late blight can destroy entire
plantings of tomatoes and make
the fruit useless. You may re
member the outbreak of late
blight in 1994 that killed plants
and rotted tomatoes in local gar
dens from mid-August on.
The potential for an even
more destructive outbreak is
present this year. The disease
has already been positively diag
nosed in tomatoes in Westmore
land and Allegheny counties
and potatoes in a commercial
potato planting in Crawford
County. Since the spores can
blow 50 miles or more during
wet weather, we have to assume
innoculum for this disease is ev
erywhere and wet weather
makes conditions ideal for infec
tion.
Symptoms of the disease in
clude dark spots on leaves and
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lered deer or “buck” hunting
season. This year’s season runs
from Nov. 27 to Dec. 8.
Farmers interested in the
“hotspot” program will be vis
ited by a wildlife conservation
officer this fall and given the op
portunity to enroll in one of the
agency’s public access pro
grams. The farmers will be given
green signs which will alert
hunters that identified areas
contain too many deer and are
open for public hunting.
Hunters will be able to obtain
listings of properties enrolled in
the “hotspot” program by send
ing a stamped, self-addressed,
business-size envelope to the re
stems, often with a light green
margin around the dark spot. In
wet weather there can be a whit
ish downy growth on the spots,
especially on the undersides of
the leaves. During wet weather
the spots will extend rapidly
right across leaf veins and up
and down stems. With a week or
two of wet weather, the entire
plant can look like it has been
scorched. The disease shows up
on the fruit as a firm chocolate
brown rot.
So what can gardeners do?
The only protection is spraying
fungicides on a weekly basis. In
order of effectiveness from most
effective to least, the suggested
active ingredients are chlo
rothalonil, mancozeb, maneb,
and copper. Trade names in
clude:
• Chlorothalonil: Ortho Vege
table Disease Control, Daconil,
and others.
• Mancozeb: Manzate 200, Di
thane M-45 and others.
• Maneb: Maneb. Copper
fungicides: Check garden cen
ters for trade names.
Remember that tomatoes and
potatoes must be listed on the
label for the product to be legal
on these crops. Organic garden
ers who don’t want to use
“chemical” fungicides may be
willing to use a copper contain
ing material. Copper is fairly ef
fective but not as good as the
other ingredients. It is an arbi
trary distinction copper is not
as effective nor is it any safer.
> Fungicides are preventive, not
curative, and these are not sys
temic chemicals, so coverage
must be thorough and repeated
weekly. Once infection is wide
spread in the garden, it will be
too late to save the planting, and
it probably should be destroyed
to minimize spread to gardens of
neighbors and friends.
Unless the weather does an
about-face, gardeners will be
bringing in samples and asking
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gional office for the county in
which the hunter holds an an
tlerless deer license.
For more information about
enrollment in the “hotspot
hunt” program, farmers should
contact the Game Commission
regional offices at the following
toll-free numbers:
• Northwest region (814)
432-3187 for Butler, Clarion,
Crawford, Erie, Forest, Jeffer
son, Lawrence, Mercer,
Venango, and Warren counties.
• Southwest region (724)
238-9523 for Allegheny, Arm
strong, Beaver, Cambria, Fay
ette, Greene, Indiana, Somerset,
Washington, and Westmoreland
questions about late blight. If
gardeners want to harvest a
good crop of tomatoes and/or
potatoes this August and Sep
tember, they need to be spraying
to protect their plantings.
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USDA Launches New
Online Report On
Ocean Container Market
WASHINGTON, D.C. The
USDA recently announced the
publication of Agricultural
Ocean Transportation Trends, a
semiannual, online report that
provides information on the
ocean container market’s cost
and service trends.
“We created this report in re
sponse to a growing need among
agricultural shippers for reliable
information and assistance in
the area of containerized ship
ping,” said Kathleen Merrigan,
administrator of USDA’s Agri
cultural Marketing Service. “It
will give them the best, most up
to-date information that we can
provide to help them remain
competitive and deal with leg
islated changes in the ocean
shipping market.”
Information in the report was
developed using data reported
monthly in the AMS Ocean Rate
Bulletin, which tracks agricul
tural container rates to most
Asian and some European coun
tries and covers high-valued ag
ricultural commodities. The
data are used to generate
wanna, Luzerne, Monroe, Mon
tour, Northumberland, Pike,
Sullivan, Susquehanna, Wayne,
and Wyoming counties.
• Southeast region (215)
926-3136 for Berks, Bucks,
Chester, Dauphin, Delaware,
Lancaster, Lebanon, Lehigh,
Montgomery, Northampton,
Schuylkill, and York counties.
Pennsylvania Farm Bureau is
a nongovernmental, statewide
farm organization representing
more than 28,000 farm and rural
families.
monthly container rate trends in
the ocean container market to
provide shippers and carriers
with a better view of how the
market is responding to changes
in trade patterns or U.S. regula
tions.
The report also provides a
perspective on the new confi
dential service contracting pro
cedures that came into effect
May 1, 1999. This information
and other factors which affect,
or are expected to affect, the
market are collected from inter
views with agricultural shippers
that control more than 150,000
40-foot equivalent units.
Agricultural Ocean Transpor
tation Trends can be viewed on
the Internet at www.ams.usda
.gov/tmd/agott.
For more information, con
tact Heidi Reichert, Shipper and
Exporter Assistance, Transpor
tation and Marketing, Agricul
tural Marketing Service, USDA,
Room 1217-S, 1400 Independ
ence Avenue, SW, Washington,
DC 20250-0267; (202) 690-2325
or e-mail Heidi.Reichert@usda
•gov.