Extension/Outreach Team | 2019 CucCAP Progress Report

Obj. 3. Economic impact analyses, disease control information

Team members:, Jonathan Schultheis (N. Carolina St.Univ.), Mary Hausbeck (Michigan St. Univ.), Angela Linares (Univ. Puerto Rico), Jim McCreight (USDA, ARS), Lina Quesada (N. Carolina St. Univ.), Chris Smart (Cornell Univ.), and Linda Wessel Beaver (Univ. Puerto Rico)

3.2. Provide readily accessible information to facilitate disease control

The CucCAP Extension team communicates the grant’s goals, progress, results and its applications from those directly involved in the grant to stakeholders including breeders, seed company personnel, allied industry partners, growers, and other interested persons. Leadership for extension in each commodity is provided mainly by Mary Hausbeck (cucumber), Lina Quesada (watermelon), Chris Smart (squash), and Jim McCreight (melon). The focus is on aspects related to disease. Jonathan Schultheis complements the plant pathology PIs with pertinent cultural management information. He is also providing leadership with respect to the Cucurbit CAP webpage in conjunction with Mary Lorscheider, the web manager for this project.
Extension activities include both stakeholders and extension personnel via field days, workshops, and commodity meetings at the local, state, national, and international levels. The following information provides updates for April 2018 through March 2019 regarding the objectives and their associated results or outputs. Pertinent extension or research activity inadvertently missed in previous reports has been included with this report.

3.2.1 Develop a centralized cucurbit disease website.

The CucCAP website was first presented at the CucCAP Annual meeting in March 2017. News about cucurbit disease management including disease outbreaks, current CucCAP research activities, announcements of new publications, upcoming presentations by CucCAP researchers at scientific meetings and cucurbit commodity events is posted on the website throughout the year. An email newsletter called the CucCAP Chronicle was sent monthly since June 2017. The newsletter reports recent news and events posted on the CucCAP website. The newsletter is also shared on the CucCAP Facebook and Twitter sites. A monthly post featuring important CucCAP team accomplishments was added to the website and newsletter in October 2018. The number of subscribers to the CucCAP Chronicle has grown from the initial 21 members of the CucCAP team to 93 subscribers in March 2019. A link to previous installments of the CucCAP Chronicle is available at:
https://us15.campaign-archive.com/home/?u=925e5a7bece071d0c087e746f&id=e0b5619a11

Google Analytics was set up for the website on September 1, 2017 and 1 ½ years of website visitor data has been collected.

Figure 1. Site user and session data for the CucCAP website from Sept. 1, 2017 to March 28, 2019.
(Users 11,651; new users 11,623; sessions 16,013; sessions per user 1.37; page views 34, 875; pages / session 2.18; average session duration 2:35; bounce rate 72.6%)

Figure 2. CucCAP website page views from Sept. 1, 2017 to March 28, 2019.
(page views 34,845; unique page views 26,474; average time on page 2:11; bounce rate 72.6%; exit rate 45.92%)

View figures on page 63 of the pdf

3.2.2. Develop and post diagnostic resources and disease control information

Cucurbit disease factsheets, crop production manuals, and integrated pest management resources for the Northeast, Southeast and the Midwest are maintained and updated on the website. Notices of regional commodity meetings and Extension education sessions are posted on the CucCAP website events

3.2.3. Provide disease alerts and forecasting tools

Weekly conference calls, NCSU Vegetable Team (Quesada): These calls occurred from June 7 to September 27 in 2016, from April 4 to October 31 in 2017, and from April 13 to October 12 in 2018.
Weekly conference calls, Cucurbit ipmPIPE (Hausbeck, Quesada, Smart): These calls begin in May and continue through August every year and include plant pathologists from the eastern US. Smart has active Facebook and Twitter accounts, and is also active in the Cornell Vegetable alerts blog (which sends messages to vegetable extension educators). As soon as diseases of cucurbits are first reported in NY, she alerts growers through these avenues. Additionally, any new advances made through CucCAP are also shared through these methods.

3.2.4 Provide diagnostic and disease management assistance.

In 2018, Quesada provided diagnostics and disease management recommendations for 19 cucumber, 24 watermelon, 10 melon, 21 squash, and 5 pumpkin samples submitted to the NC State Plant Disease and Insect Clinic. In 2017, Quesada provided diagnostics and disease management recommendations for 22 cucumber, 31 watermelon, 9 melon, 10 squash, and 6 pumpkin samples submitted to the NC State Plant Disease and Insect Clinic. In 2016, Quesada provided diagnostics and disease management recommendations for 12 cucumber, 33 watermelon, 8 melon, 12 squash, and 9 pumpkin samples submitted to the NC State Plant Disease and Insect Clinic. In 2015, Quesada provided diagnostics and disease management recommendations for 40 cucumber, 28 watermelon, 10 melon, 13 squash, and 11 pumpkin samples submitted to the NC State Plant Disease and Insect Clinic. Quesada has also been involved in providing disease management recommendations through oral presentations, social media (Twitter: 1,922 followers, Facebook: 705 followers, LinkedIn: 1,641 followers), and generating disease management resources such as the NC Agricultural and Chemicals Manual and the Southeastern US Vegetable Crop Handbook.

Smart diagnosed over 60 samples during the 2017 growing season, in addition to over 100 disease issues diagnosed via photo through email or text message. Of the cucurbits, 30 were pumpkin, 15 summer squash, 10 winter squash, and 5 cucumber. She also provides management recommendations through oral presentations and updates to regional extension educators (both conventional and organic). Smart diagnosed 118 samples during the 2018 growing season, in addition to over 80 disease issues diagnosed via photo through email or text message. Of the cucurbits, 24 were pumpkin, 20 summer squash, 17 winter squash, and 10 cucumber. She also provides management recommendations through oral presentations and updates to regional extension educators (both conventional and organic).

3.2.5. Field days and demonstration plots

• Hausbeck hosted a series of Phytophthora and Downy Mildew workshops for growers in Michigan. Smart and Quesada were guest speakers at two of the Michigan workshops.
• McCreight Hosted a Cucurbit Field Day at the University of California Desert Research and Extension Center, Holtville, CA. The event focused on cucurbit powdery mildew differentials and the proposed melon core collection.
  Powdery Mildew. The replicated test included 47 entries, including the standard powdery mildew race differentials, candidate accessions, and the 21-line triple septet differential set proposed by International Cucurbit Powdery Mildew Initiative Core Collection. This includes ca. 384 melon cultigens tentatively selected to represent the genetic variation in the larger set of 2000+ USDA, GRIN accessions and ‘heirloom’ lines.
• Schultheis conducted Variety trials on watermelon, melon, squash, and pumpkins in North Carolina in 2018.
• Quesada is evaluating commercial watermelon varieties for anthracnose resistance and supported demonstration plots to evaluate fungicides for disease control and combinations of tolerant varieties and fungicide applications.
• Smart has yearly demonstration plots at the Phytophthora blight farm with variety trials for squash (winter squash and summer squash) and other vegetables.