Unfortunately, pests don’t know when to take the day off. Even though we have bees in the field and watermelons reaching peak bloom, we still need to watch out for pest infestation and disease outbreaks. First and foremost, scouting fields to monitor pests will ensure that infestations never reach high enough populations to threaten yield.[Read More…]
Cucurbits
For some, we may often forget about the pesky squash vine borer until it’s too late. This pest of cucurbit crops tends to be sporadic in our region; you are either battling it every year or it hardly makes an appearance. And, unfortunately, our urban farmers tend to get hammered. While it is not so[Read More…]
In early May, we had an extended cold period with daily average air temperatures in the 50s°F. Min temperatures are in the 40s°F, some nights even upper 30s°F. In most areas in southern Indiana, it is fortunate we did not encounter a frost with temperature dropped below 32°F, but the low temperature for the extended[Read More…]
Pumpkin planting is right around the corner. The recent Vegetable Beet Podcast produced by Great Lakes Vegetable Producers Network featured Brad Bergefurd from The Ohio State University and Nathan Johanning from University of Illinois talking about Pre-season Pumpkin Tips. They shared many of their insights in planting spacing, fertility management, weed control, no-till etc. A[Read More…]
In a recent Hoosier Ag Today/CCSI Soil Health Podcast, Stephen Meyers of Purdue Horticulture and Dan Perkins of Perkins Good Earth Farm covered spring management of cover crops on vegetable farms. They discussed a variety of methods for terminating: flail mowing and tarping, roller-crimping, tillage, and killing with herbicide. They pointed out that decisions about[Read More…]
MELCAST is a weather-based disease-forecasting program that helps growers schedule foliar fungicides applications for watermelon and cantaloupe. MELCAST stands for MELon disease for CASTer. This program, designed by Dr. Rick Latin, Professor of Plant Pathology at Purdue University, keeps track of weather conditions so that cantaloupe and watermelon growers can apply foliar fungicides to their[Read More…]
Many cantaloupe and watermelon growers are either growing transplants in a greenhouse or are expecting delivery of transplants in the next few weeks. Either way, growers should inspect transplants for disease before planting in the field. Below I will describe several common transplant diseases of cantaloupe and watermelon as well as management options. Gummy stem[Read More…]
The average American eats almost 9 pounds of cantaloupe and 2 pounds of honeydew each year (Agricultural Marketing Resource Center, 2018). An increased melon consumption is mainly explained by consumer awareness of melon health benefits, year-round availability, creative marketing strategies, and improved cultivars. To address these economic opportunities, retailers, growers, and other industry stakeholders should[Read More…]
At the Pinney Purdue Ag Center in northern Indiana we had plots in 2020 with no-till sweet corn, pumpkins and winter squash following a rye cover crop. As is common when adapting new planting and tillage systems, we had both challenges and successes. Check out the video presentations to see photos of the plots, and[Read More…]
Melon is a crop with diverse fruit characteristics. They have different color, shape, rind pattern, texture, and flavor. In major food stores, cantaloupe and honeydew melons may be the only melon types sold, while the fantastic experience of melon consumption is far more than that. This created an opportunity for selling unique melon fruit at local farmers’ market and with a potentially higher price. It[Read More…]