New Mexico Chile Task Force

Pre-Harvest and Harvest

Pre-Harvest Cosiderations
Pest Management
Irrigation
Cultivation
Fertilization
Harvest Considerations
Post-Harvest Handling

Chile Pepper Growers' Notes : Pre-harvest and Harvest

Management practices immediately prior to and during harvest can have a significant impact on chile crop profitability. The following recommendations for this final production stage are based on research findings and the collective experience of the industry's top growers and consultants. These strategies have been identified to help growers efficiently bring high quality chile to the processor.

Pre-Harvest Considerations

Communication. Communication among the grower, company field representative and the processing plant becomes even more critical as the time for harvest nears. Everyone needs to be on the same page about harvest schedules and any problems that have developed. Communication is a must among all parties.
Pre-Harvest Fertilization and Irrigation.
- Jalapeño, green chile and cayenne. Fertilization and irrigation practices should be timed to enhance crop growth throughout the harvest season. During multiple harvests, the objective is to maintain pod size and get the plant ready for the next harvest by maintaining the fertility levels in the plant. Cayenne's fertility levels can differ by variety type. Growers must coordinate irrigation around harvest schedules, but in the process keep fields at or near field capacity to ensure maximum yields.
- Red chile. Fertilization and irrigation practices should be timed to slow crop growth before the first frost to enhance fruit color development and to promote fruit dry-down. For color development, it is important to slow crop growth prior to frost by not fertilizing late in the season. Crop irrigation should be stopped a few weeks prior to the first frost. The plant ceases new growth and the pods more actively change from green to red.
Plant Growth Regulator and Defoliant Use on Red Chile.
Any application of a growth regulator should be only by mutual agreement between the grower and processor to fit harvesting schedules. If the determination is made that ethephon application is needed to hasten red chile ripening in a particular field:
- Apply when about 30% of the fruit are red and about 50% are "mature green." Ethephon will not ripen immature fruit and can reduce yields if applied too early.
- Response is minimal at best if plant nitrate levels are high. If the canopy foliage does not have a yellow cast, nitrate levels are probably too high for ethephon application.
- Temperature can greatly affect the activity of ethephon. Use higher concentrations under cool temperature or dense foliage conditions, but lower rates at warmer temperatures.
- Growth regulators should not be applied when temperatures exceed 95° F. (Excessive defoliation and fruit drop can occur.)
- Temperatures below 60° F. reduce or negate the growth regulator's effect.
- Crops receiving ethephon should be harvested within 3-4 weeks of application. Crops scheduled for delayed harvest (after frost) should not receive ethephon treatment.
- Defoliant to Aid Harvest. Some growers use sodium chlorate (NaClO3) as a crop desiccant, when crop canopies are thick. Desiccants cause leaves to drop, exposing the pods to more sunlight. Increased light penetration hastens pod maturity, helps partially dehydrate the pods and reduces pod diseases caused by slower dry-down and higher humidity under leafy canopies.

Pest Management

Read the label before using any pesticide. Do not use any chemical, whether it is an herbicide, insecticide, nematicide or fungicide, if it is not labeled for chile (peppers). If you have any question about appropriate product use, consult your County Extension Agent, New Mexico State University (NMSU) specialist, chemical company representative or New Mexico Department of Agriculture (NMDA) Pesticide Division staff (505-646-2133) before using the chemical.

Insects
- Scout (inspect for insects) weekly during and up to last harvest. You cannot spend too much time scouting. It needs to be a continual process. Be constantly aware of insect problems in the immediate area.
- Insecticide use prior to and through harvest. Read and follow label directions. If in doubt, contact a crop consultant, NMDA Pesticide Division staff member or NMSU Cooperative Extension Service specialist or agent.
  - Maintaining low pesticide residuals is critical at harvest onset. Pay attention to recommended harvest intervals on label (days between last application and harvest), using pesticides that will leave the lowest residuals.
  - Processor representatives test all fields for pesticide residues. Processors cannot accept crops with pesticide residues that are not within tolerance ranges.
- Insects of primary concern during this growth stage are pepper weevils, beet armyworms, fall armyworms, corn earworms, stinkbugs, loopers and leafminers. Insecticides registered in New Mexico that control these insects at this time include:
  - Actara. Controls pepper weevils, stinkbugs, aphids, leafminers and beetles.
  - Asana® XL. Controls beet armyworms, corn earworms and loopers. Also, aids in control of pepper weevils.
  - Avaunt®. Controls beet armyworms and loopers.
  - Azatin. Controls aphids, armyworms and leafhoppers.
  - Confirm. Controls beet armyworms and fall armyworms.
  - Lannate® LV. Controls fall armyworms, loopers and beet armyworms.
  - Proclaim®. Controls beet armyworms, fall armyworms, loopers and leafminers. (Labeled for aerial application.)
  - Spintor. Controls leafminers and beet armyworms.
  - Vydate® L. Controls leafminers and pepperweevils.
  - Warrior with Zeon. Controls beet armyworms, fall armyworms and corn earworm.
  - Bacillus thurengiensis. Biologically controls armyworms.
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Diseases
- Viral diseases can spread like wildfire under the right conditions. Diseases may be spread by hand pickers in a field or by mixing harvested pepper loads from different parts of one field or from several fields. Therefore, it is important to isolate diseased areas in a field to avoid contamination of disease-free peppers during harvest.
- Biotic diseases that could be present prior to and during harvest include those in the following list. There is no effective chemical control for viral diseases after infection.
  - Phytophthora Pod Rot. The same fungus that causes phytophthora chile wilt also can cause pod rot. Infected pods shrivel and rot. A white mold often can be found inside the pod. Inoculum in the soil can be spread to aboveground parts of plants by wind or by splash dispersal during rainfall or overhead irrigation.
  - Powdery Mildew. This disease favors warm temperatures with high humidity. The most noticeable sign of the disease is a white, powdery growth on the underside of leaves. Infection can lead to defoliation and production losses. Effective chemical control depends on early disease detection and thorough application coverage, with the fungicide reaching the underside of the leaves and lower plant canopy. The following chemicals show some signs of control for powdery mildew:
    For above fungicides, read and follow label directions. If in doubt, contact a crop consultant, NMDA Pesticide Division staff member or NMSU Cooperative Extension Service specialist or agent.
- Blossom-end Rot. This fruit disorder is associated with inconsistent watering and calcium deficiency. To increase calcium availability, consider the addition of boron if soil/plant boron levels are low. Root pruning aggravates this disorder.
- Bacterial Leaf Spot. Bacterial spot pathogens can infect all aboveground parts of the plant. Spots form on leaves, stems and fruit, beginning as small, brown, water-soaked lesions. Warmer temperatures, high precipitation and high relative humidity promote disease development. Bactericides or fungicide-bactericide combinations may be applied where recommended. The following fungicide-bactericides are labeled for use in New Mexico for bacterial leaf spot control:
  - Kocide‚ 101.
  - Tenn-Cop‚ 5E.
  For above fungicides-bactericides, read and follow label directions. If in doubt, contact a crop consultant, NMDA Pesticide Division staff member or NMSU Cooperative Extension Service specialist or agent.
- Verticillium wilt. Severe wilting of random plants occurs when pod production starts. The stress of a maturing crop induces the disease's onset. There are no effective measures for controlling verticillium wilt once the disease has occurred in a field.

Weeds (Control weeds in fields, along field edges and on ditch banks.)

If all prior best management practices have been followed, including a lay-by herbicide application, weed control practices for this period should be minimal or unnecessary. Address any minimal problems with hand labor.
Bindweed and morning glory need control because they can cause severe problems during hand and mechanical harvesting.

Irrigation

Common Irrigation Scheduling
- Continue to use alternate row irrigation to manage salinity problems. Keep irrigating on the same rows. If water starts to break across the top of beds into un-irrigated rows, open the tail ends of the rows to provide good drainage.
- Good drainage is essential at all times. Phytophthora can develop from water standing in any part of the field at any time. Avoid tailwater (ponding). Monitor weather closely to avoid watering around predicted monsoon rains. During the rainy season, always provide a means to drain fields quickly. (Keep end-borders knocked down after irrigations.)
- Jalapeño, green chile and cayenne irrigation schedules. To ensure a continuous flow of product to the processors, it is important for growers to coordinate irrigations around harvest schedules. It is equally important to keep fields at or near field capacity to ensure maximum yields.
- Red chile cut-off date for furrow irrigation is around September 15. The only exception might be unseasonably warm temperatures occurring in late September and early October. This could warrant an additional light watering the last week of September. Should phytophthora pod rot be present in red chile fields after September 1, do not irrigate further.

Cultivation

By now, cultivation may not be feasible. Crop canopy is full or nearly full and any cultivation may do more harm than good.

Fertilization

From lay-by through harvest, fertilization needs become dependent on type of harvest (jalapeño, green, cayenne or red).
- Jalapeños and green crops. Jalapeños are subject to a multiple harvest (2 to 3 picks). For the most part, green chile is harvested only once, although early harvested green does have potential for a second pick. Jalapeños require nitrogen earlier than green and red chile. They also require more nitrogen at first application in order to achieve plant size. Maintain fertility levels in the plants by applying nitrogen during the irrigations immediately prior to and after harvest. This is done to maintain pod size and get the plant ready for the next harvest.
- Cayenne crops. Actual fertilizer applications depend on end use and crop potential. If no better data is available, follow red crop recommendations for cayenne.
- Red chile crops. Do not over fertilize. To insure adequate maturity at harvest time, cut off fertilization of red chile around August 15 (or sooner if nitrate levels are sufficient prior to August 15).
Before full canopy cover, test soil nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) levels to ensure that they are sufficient to get through harvest. Verify sufficiency with tissue testing.
Nutrient management decisions should be based on data from soil testing and leaf petiole analysis. Do not over- or under-fertilize plants.

Harvest Considerations

Communication. (This cannot be overemphasized.)
- Daily communication among the grower, company field representative and processing plant is an integral part of the harvest.
- A single load of peppers on one farm that is not harvested or processed according to schedule may not affect the overall harvest. However, cumulatively from farm to farm, these small delays can be devastating, extending the overall harvest by two to three weeks.
- Growers, field representatives and processors should inform the appropriate parties if their operations are not going according to plan so that all concerned can adjust operations accordingly.
Inclement Weather
- During periods of inclement weather, it is important that growers who are able to pick will to do so.
- In some years inclement weather is the rule and not the exception. Growers must keep this in mind and commence harvest operations whenever possible to maintain as constant a flow of product as possible through the system.
Field Invoices (bills-of-laden)
- Make sure that every load leaving your farm has a properly filled out and signed bill-of-laden including grower field identification and variety.
- It is important to have valid grower/driver/processor-signed invoices to insure proper credit for incoming pepper loads.

Post-Harvest Handling

Promptly move harvest from field to processing plant. Once harvested, crops should be moved from the field to the food processing facility as quickly as possible. Delayed harvest is more desirable than backlogs of harvested product in the field or at the food processing facility.
- Crops suffer rapid quality loss beginning 24-36 hours after harvest if temperatures are above 50-55 degrees F.
- Simply stated, don't harvest more than you are scheduled to harvest in any 24-hour period.
Guidelines for loading jalapeño, green chile, cayenne and red chile.
- Do not mix varieties on a harvested load of peppers. If a field change makes mixed loading necessary, keep the harvested boxes separate and labeled. Let the processor know to expect a mixed load. Even the same variety from different fields should be kept separate and labeled as such. (Again, let the processor know.)
- It is important to isolate diseased areas in your fields to avoid contamination of disease-free peppers that you're harvesting. Viral diseases can be spread by hand pickers in the field. Contamination from a small part of a load can spread rapidly throughout the entire load.
Additional guidelines for loading red chile.
- Early in the red harvest, peppers are in a fresh succulent state. As the season progresses, the pepper pods begin to field dry. The first hard killing freeze results in pods that are sloppy because of membrane breakage in the pod. Typically in 10 - 14 days the sloppy-state pods begin to dry, turning into leather-like chile pods. In the leather state, chile pods are very flexible. The last state is completely field-dried chile.
  - Fresh succulent state. In most cases, loading peppers level across the top of the load, with no packing in of peppers, will result in the load being near the legal gross weight for over-the-road travel.
  - Sloppy state. Do not allow packing of the chile pepper pods at this time. Packing and over-loading will increase greatly the processing time. Harvest only from your driest available fields during this critical time.
  - Leather state. This is the time to maximize packing of chile peppers into your load. However, keep in mind the potential for exceeding legal gross weight for over-the-road hauling. Netting or a canvas tarp is needed to keep chile from blowing out.
  - Field dried state. Do not allow packing or tromping. It will shatter the pepper pods and the processor cannot capture the lost seed. Heap these loads as high as possible because the load will settle tremendously, even before it leaves the farm. Loads in this state absolutely must be covered with netting or a canvas tarp.
- Mechanical Harvest v. Hand Harvest of Red Chile.
  - When optimum field conditions are achieved during red chile harvest, processors are able to run at peak capacity. Due to today's limited and expensive labor pool, growers often cannot keep up with processor demand. This is fueling the trend toward mechanical red chile harvest. As the industry enters this new era, all members must work together diligently to maintain New Mexico's superior quality product. To the industry's credit, a spirit of co-operation is characterizing the current mechanization effort.
  - Even with increasing mechanization, some hand labor will continue to be needed and growers must remain informed of agricultural labor laws and regulations. For helpful information, refer to The Farm Labor Employer's Handbook, New Mexico Chile Task Force Report 7. It may be downloaded from the Task Force Web site: http://www.chiletaskforce.org or obtained by mail from Rich Phillips at (505) 646-2353 or rphillip@nmsu.edu.
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