Many New York vegetable growers complained about the abundance of nightshades on their farms in recent years. A warm spring favors early germination of nightshade and other weeds.

For processing pea growers, nightshades can turn to nightmares as many fields with bountiful pea crops can be rejected by processors at harvest time because nightshade berries have similar size and shape as peas. Similar crop loss can occur in beans where nightshade berries stain and cause soil to stick to pods. Nightshades should be managed in other crops as well because they reduce crop yields, and harbor diseases of Solanaceous crops such as early blight and late blight of potatoes and tomatoes.  Nightshades may become more of a problem in NY if early, warm spring weather becomes a more frequent pattern.

Download a complete report on the species of nightshades in NY, physiological difference between them, emergence and growth data, and control strategies.

See nightshade complete report (pdf; 871KB)