Upcoming Events/Perennia Updates
Below is a summary of some of the industry events that are coming up in the next few weeks! The events listed below are primarily hosted by Perennia, and more information on each of them can be found here.
- TunnelTalk (virtual webinar series)
- June 2 - Introduction to Hydroponic Production
- Suitable for those who are growing in substrate (pots, containers, grow bags etc), as well as Nutrient Film Technique (NFT) and Deep Water Culture (DWC) setups
- June 23 - Virtual Office Hours
- Bring questions, comments and queries to discuss with myself and your peers! This session is all yours to chat about all things protected production
- July 7 - Virtual Office Hours
- Bring questions, comments and queries to discuss with myself and your peers! This session is all yours to chat about all things protected production
- Pesticide Certification Training
- June 9, Truro
- June 11, New Germany
- June 13, Berwick
- Implementing Anaerobic Soil Disinfestation on Farm
- North American Strawberry Growers Association Summer Tour
- In person, August 12 and 13
- Focusing on Truro and Valley locations
Weather Updates
Growing Degree Days (GDD)
Growing degree days (GDD) are important for anticipating key dates for crop growth stages, as well as pest emergence and flights. Consider some of the most persistent critters on your farm, and when they typically start to show up.
We are tracking slightly ahead of our typical 5 and 10 year averages in terms of plant development (base 5C), but similarly to 2024. Looking at insect development (base 10C), we are a bit behind what was recorded by this time last year, and only slightly ahead of the 5 and 10 year averages.
Figure 1. Degree day accumulations as of May 25. All data is taken from the Environment and Climate Change Canada weather station located at the Kentville Research and Development Centre. Calculations are based on a start date of March 1. Provided by Jeff Franklin.
Curious to see how your region compares? Check out Perennia's Farm Data Tools platform, which houses our Growing Degree Calculator. Choose a weather station near you, and crank out those GDD numbers for Base 5 (plant development) or Base 10 (insect development).
Farm Data Tools houses a handful of online tools to help guide management decisions on farm. You do need an account to access and use these tools, but never fear - the account is free to make! It also allows you to set preferences etc, so you won't have to root through weather stations, for example, after that initial setup.
Temperature and Precipitation
Figure 2. Daily precipitation totals and mean temperatures as of May 25. All data is taken from the Environment and Climate Change Canada weather station located at the Kentville Research and Development Centre. Calculations are based on a start date of March 1. Provided by Jeff Franklin.
Solar Radiation
Table 1 recaps the average light levels per day, from May 1-May 25 across the province. These numbers reflect the overcast weather we have been experiencing, and lack of blue sky/sunny days the last month.
This information was pulled from the Farm Weather Map. I will continue to provide these updates every month, and will make year-to-year comparisons as that data becomes available. If you aren't seeing your area represented, the solar radiation layer is accessible to everyone who has an account on Farm Data Tools
Table 1. Average solar radiation per day, through May 2025.
Seasonal Considerations: 5 Golden Rules for Drip Irrigation of Container Crops
As plant canopies are expanding this time of year, let's quickly review the 6 Golden Rules for irrigating plants in pots, grow bags and containers:
1) Apply water using the 'little and often' mentality to avoid over watering and accidental dry down periods
Pots, grow bags, and containers hold limited volumes of growing media, making them much more prone to drying out compared to a soil-based crop. Soaking the pots once or twice a day isn't going to work to maintain an evenly wet growing media, so we do need to try and prioritize as many waterings per day as we can. This should help maintain plant growth throughout daylight hours.
2) Start dripping 1-2 hours after sunrise and finish 1-3 hours before sunset
The crop's demand for water is significantly lower at night, so it is important to introduce a 'dry down' period leading up to sunset. By preventing inactive roots from sitting in a wet growing matrix throughout the night, you can significantly improving the health of the root system, and supporting a strong base that will carry you through the growing season.
3) When there is little/no transpiration happening, the substrate is allowed to dry back a little
Our daily irrigation schedules should reflect the growing conditions of the day - May has seen a lot of overcast, cloudy days and not a lot of sunshine, meaning that plants are not photosynthesizing as actively as they can. They do not need the same amount of water for a still, cloudy day compared to a sunny one, and we need to be responding to that. Our ultimate goal is to make sure the substrate doesn't sit wet for too long, or dry out completely...and adjusting based on the weather is going to increase irrigation efficiency and maximize plant health.
4) Leachate is a necessary evil!
Monitoring the fertilizer solution that runs out the bottom of the pot gives you a lot of information about how the crop is doing. Volume, EC and pH, are very useful metrics to track, and give you feedback to facilitate irrigation/fertigation schedule adjustments before we start to see negative things happening in the crop.
Check out these guiding principles related to volume of leachate, taken from Perennia's Long Cane Raspberry Production Guide. You can reference Chapter 6, Table Six, in the Guide itself for more information on irrigating a containerized system.
5) Plan for irrigation events around peak water use
This final point is pretty straight forward - make sure the crop is getting water when it needs it most. There is no crop benefit to clustering the majority of the irrigation events early in the morning, or late in the afternoon. Water needs to be readily available to the plant roots throughout the most intense parts of the day (10am-4 pm), so our frequency of water delivery should be higher through the middle of the day. While the plants need water in the morning and evening, they likely do not need water as frequently compared to the heat of the day.
Our leachate volumes will help to determine how we are doing, whether we need to increase, or decrease the amount of water going to the crop.
6) Plant stage will play into irrigation volume and frequency
While we focused a lot on the flow of water that takes place throughout the day of a container crop, its important to remember that there is also the over-arching cycle relating to crop production. Younger plants are not going to need as much water as a fully loaded plant in the middle of harvest. It is important to adjust your irrigation strategy based on the life stage of the crop.
Small canopy/young plants: infrequent drip cycles to avoid excess run-off
Large canopy/high fruit load: frequent drip cycles required, cluster around peak use period. Additional rounds may be required in small pots in the afternoon
Production Tidbits: Preventative Product Application
Preventative product applications are a great tool in the toolbox when it comes to reducing disease onset/severity on farm. Whether you are managing the farm in a conventional or biological way, we want to give our plants as much of a leg up as we can at this stage in the game.
The conditions through May have been quite tricky - very little sunshine, regular moisture and cloudy, cool conditions. These are very conducive to root disease, as well as generally slowing the establishment of all of our new transplants.
To me, this is a fantastic time to apply a first, or second...or even third round of our root protectant! There are quite a few biologically-based active ingredients available for use, including some of the options listed below:
- Gliocladium cantenulatum
- Bacillus subtilis
- Streptomyces lydicus
- Bacillus amyloliquefaciens
- Trichoderma harzianum/virens
- Mono- and di-potassium salts of phosphorus acid
This list highlights a range of 'mode of actions', that are going to work in different ways. They work best when applied before the disease impacts the root system: they are not nearly as effective at controlling disease as they are suppressing it.
A recent paper by Bulgari, R., et al. 2025, looked at the impact of various biotic (disease) and abiotic (environmental) stresses on lettuce production. Their work revealed that Fusarium had the greatest impact on the lettuce crop, with a 69% reduction in fresh weight in infected plants. The treatments of water stress, and nutritional stress, did not result in the same reduction in plant yield.
Pest and Disease: Cucumber Beetle/Wilt
In Nova Scotia, striped cucumber beetles (yellow-green, about 6 mm long, with three black stripes down the back) are most common. They typically make their annual debut in the Annapolis Valley end of May, early June. These pests are problematic in many ways:
- Feeding damage can stunt plants
- Predated flowers reduce fruit set and yield
- Scarring on fruit by adult beetles reduce the marketability of the crop.
- Cucumber beetles vector bacterial wilt.
Bacterial Wilt:
Bacterial Wilt is caused by the bacteria Erwinia tracheiphila, which overwinter in the gut of cucumber beetles. They are picked up by insect feeding on infected plants, then is transmitted to new plants through feeding wounds created by the beetles. The bacteria spreads quickly once introduced to the plant, and there is no way to control the disease once its been introduced. This pathogen can cause significant losses in cucumber and musk melon. It can infect squash and pumpkin, but typically to a lesser degree.
What does it look like:
Initially presents as wilting tissue during the day that recovers at night. Leaf margins eventually turn yellow/brown, and the plant is unable to recover, leaving a permanently wilted leaf/plant.
Figure 3. A cucumber plant that was diagnosed with bacterial wilt.
One way to distinguish between this and other wilt-causing agents is to do a bacterial stream test. Cut through stem tissue on your cucurbit, pushing the newly cut edges together and then slowly pulling them apart is a great way to start identifying the causal agent.
Figure 4. Bacterial 'streaming' observed in a canteloupe stem (Photo Credit: University of Minnesota Extension)
As always, your Perennia specialist and/or Plant Health Lab are happy to help you through the identification process if you have some unhappy plants cropping up.
Early season control of cucumber beetle is essential for limiting the direct (feeding) and indirect (bacterial wilt) impacts on your crop. Regular scouting is crucial to properly identify the risk period on your farm. Cucumber beetle control should be implemented as soon as seedlings emerge. Newly emerging cucurbit plants are particularly susceptible to stunting and bacterial wilt, while older plants can withstand up to 25% defoliation. Early treatment is essential for beetle management.
Treatment options:
Applications of foliar insecticides may be required during peak beetle activity. Row covers and/or insect nettings are very effective means of excluding cucumber beetles in pesticide free or organic production. Covers should be placed overtop of plants as soon as they are growing outdoors, and uncover when plants begin to bloom. Delayed removal of the cover will impact pollination and fruit set.
Some longer-term strategies for managing this insect include rotate your cucurbit crops, and rely on transplants instead of directed seeding to protect the plant during its most vulnerable stages. For additional options, check out this summary on managing cucumber beetles from eOrganic.
Click here for Perennia's Pest Management Guides. If you haven't had a chance to play around with our newly formatted guides, our team hosted a webinar on how to navigate the tool and showcased some of its capabilities. You can find it in the "Recent Uploads' section below if you need a refresher.
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This is by no means the only uninvited guests we should be looking out for. If you have any questions or concerns regarding pests, diseases, or plant production in general, don't hesitate to reach out!
Recent Uploads:
Below you will find a collection of summary videos for some of the tools located on Farm Data Tools:
That's all for now! If you have any questions, feel free to reach out :)
Happy growing everyone!
Talia (tplaskett@perennia.ca)
