Rain?! Highly desirable for some reasons, and not for others (disease!). We recognize that some of you have experienced significant flooding and crop loss. Please reach out if there is anything that we can do to help recover from those events. On the disease side of things, we can expect an uptick in cases of bacterial spot and early blight on tomato as well as Phytophthora blight on pepper and squash.

While we hope that many of you already have one of these in your hands, the 2026 spray guide for tomato and pepper in NC can be found here: https://plantpathology.ces.ncsu.edunews/2026-fungicide-guide-for-tomatoes-in-north-carolina/

Perhaps the biggest standout from previous years' programs is the recommendation to reduce copper applications to once or twice per season. We recognize that many of you are spraying copper weekly or biweekly, and don’t recommend changing that if you think that it is providing disease control for you. If you see control failure with this program, call us! Populations of the bacterial spot pathogen can evolve to be resistant to copper, and if that is the case in your field, copper may not be worth applying. We recommend using a fixed copper (Kocide, Champ, Badge, Nordox) over soluble (MasterCop). Application of Actigard every week at the labeled doses (start at 0.33 oz/A, move to 0.5 oz/A when plants are 9 to 10 weeks old) should not harm plants, but we have observed comparable levels of control when Actigard is applied every other week. From talking with some of you it sounds like Agriphage may be providing some control of bacterial spot on tomato and pepper when applied in the evening. Agriphage should not be tank mixed with copper (per label directions, it may reduce survival of the phage). We will be looking at Agriphage this year in our trials, comparing morning and evening applications.

For control of early blight, following one program that includes single site fungicides is the way to go. If you have applied strobilurins (FRAC 11) in previous years with little to no control of early blight, you may be dealing with resistant populations and should choose two non FRAC 11s to apply every other week for this disease. If you’d like us to test for resistance in early blight populations this year, give us a call.

Let’s talk about Phytophthora. If you’re putting pepper or squash into a field with a history of Phytophthora blight, consider running Orondis Gold, Presidio, Revus or another product in this pepper spray guide through the drip at transplant or in transplant water per label directions. If you think that these products are failing to control Phytophthora, call us and we can evaluate resistance of the pathogen to fungicides to provide you with more precise recommendations. There are numerous options for products to apply via foliar spray to control the aerial phase of this disease, which is a heightened threat when rainfall events are frequent. Be sure to tank mix these products with copper when applying as a foliar spray.

We want to know what your questions and problems are so that we can work towards solutions, so please don’t hesitate to reach out via call or text to Ella (540-577-8607) and/or Sara (315-871-9317).