FORECAST SUMMARY: Thursday, May 16:
*** Disease Update - 16 May *** Our thanks to Jim Strandberg.... who informs us that downy mildew has been discovered in Lake County in central FL, near the town of Groveland. Half of a 10 acre field of watermelon is infected. Disease is thought to have been present about 2 weeks. We are adding this source to the forecasts.
*** Disease Update - 14 May *** This information recently in from Gene McAvoy (FL) and Tony Keinath (SC)..... FL: Downy mildew is widely present in squash plantings around Immokalee and is now being seen more widely on cantaloupe and watermelon around southwest Florida. SC: Downy mildew has been discovered in two additional fields of cantaloupe at Clemson University's Coastal Research and Education Center. Symptoms of necrotic and chlorotic spots with some sporulation were found in non-sprayed control polots of two experimental fields.
*** Scattered showers and thunderstorms for the FL peninsula for the next several days. A cold front moving into the Southeast will also trigger some shower activity this weekend *** There appears to be little long-range threat from any of the known sources. Trajectories are generally moving away from land. Persistent daily shower acitivity in FL has the potential to generate some disease development. Disease development is also possible near the Charleston source as the cold front approaches on Saturday. Sky conditions and rain chances are mixed for all the disease development scenarios. For the FL sources..... Moderate Risk Thursday and Friday for southern, central, and northeast FL. Moderate Risk Saturday and Sunday for central and southern FL. Near Charleston.... Moderate Risk Saturday for the central SC coastal area; Low Risk other days. Low Risk for all other areas Thursday through Sunday.
TK
Current Sources:
Previous Sources:
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This service is provided by the North Carolina State University departments of Plant Pathology and Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences.