Welcome to 2012 Vegetable Blog!
It has been a phenomenal spring for vegetable crops establishment, growth and development. Despite some frost injury late in April crops in general are doing very well. Majority of crops are 7-14 days ahead of last year. This is a good news for vegetable farmers as being early in the market usually means higher prices. It also allows growers to expand the harvest window for longer season crops and better contribute to a farm's bottom line.
The lack of precipitation is a concern to vegetable producers. In the month of April, Kentville recorded 54.5mm of rain (10 year average of 85.4mm) while the month of May has been even drier with total precipitation of 25.5mm (compare to 84.7mm 10 year average). Last year during the month of May, Kentville recorded 170 mm of rain!!!
The warm and dry weather has accelerated insect development. Insects such as cabbage maggot, flea bettle and Colorado potato beetle are in much greater numbers that in previous years. Cucumer bettle has already emerged.
Aside from keeping crops irrigated growers will be busy to manage what I would call greater insect pressure than what we experienced in previous years.
Let's cross our fingers that we receive moisture soon so that crops can continue to prosper and this great start of a season ends on a high note.
