Dr. Janna Beckerman, Professor and Extension Plant Pathologist in the Dept. of Botany and Plant Pathology joined our discussion to talk about Spring Diseases and Management. Our discussion focused on Anthracnose fruit rot and Botrytis fruit rot. Janna described the biology of the pathogens and provided cultural and fungicide recommendations for managing these diseases. You[Read More…]
Strawberry
We are concerned about frost/freeze damage to the crops at this time of year. As I am writing this article, we had forecasted low temperatures in the lower 20sºF on March 14 and 18 in southern Indiana. How does this affect plasticulture strawberries? I want to share my thoughts in this article. Before discussing whether[Read More…]
What is Optogen®? The active ingredient in Optogen® (Figure 1) is bicyclopyrone. Corn growers may recognize bicyclopyrone as one of the four ingredients in Acuron® herbicide. Bicyclopyrone is a Group 27 herbicide with pre- and post-emergence activity on select weed species. Group 27 herbicides inhibit an enzyme known as “HPPD”, resulting in an inhibition of[Read More…]
5I have heard concerns about the size of strawberry plants this year. To provide a timely update of crop status, we created a blog site where there will be frequent updates of plasticulture strawberry status across Indiana. If you are interested in learning the current crop status, please visit this site https://www.purdue.edu/hla/sites/guan/blog/. We saw a[Read More…]
Row covers are used in plasticulture strawberry production for winter protection. There is also interest in using row covers to encourage fall growth. The different purposes of using row covers affect when farmers should consider applying the row covers, and what type of materials best meet these goals. At Strawberry Chat on Plasticulture production, Brad[Read More…]
Strawberry Chat in Sept. is about substrate production. You will learn the basics of substrate production and hear about two substrate strawberry production systems. Dr. Chieri Kubota and Mark Kroggel from The Ohio State University talk about root zone management in substrate production and introduce the greenhouse system. Richard Barnes is the owner of Tanglewood[Read More…]
The Aug. topic of Strawberry Chat is about plasticulture strawberry production. Our special guests were Brad Bergefurd, former Horticulture Specialist at The Ohio State University, Calvin Beasley from Beasley Orchard in Danville, IN, and Danny Vanmeter from Vanmeter Family Farm in Clarkston, KY. We discussed many important topics in plasticulture strawberry production, including site selection,[Read More…]
August Strawberry Chat will be about plasticulture production. Our guests are Brad Bergefurd, a former horticulture specialist at The Ohio State University; Calvin Beasley from Beasley Orchard in Danville, IN, and Danny VanMeter from VanMeter Family Farm in Clarkson, KY. The live session is on Aug 10, 12:00-1:00 pm EST. If you are interested in[Read More…]
We discussed insect pests and weed control during renovation in the July episode. Our special guests are Drs. Stephen Meyers, Samantha Willden, and Mr. David Doud. Steve and Sam are researchers from Purdue. Steve is the weed scientist in the Horticulture department; Sam is a postdoc researcher in the entomology department. David is the owner[Read More…]
Strawberry plug plants that have active growing root systems are easier to establish than bare-root plants. Interest in growing strawberries using plug plants and plastic mulch is growing. Strawberry plug plants are produced from the runner tips of mother plants. In commercial production, mother plants may be grown in climate-controlled greenhouses or open fields in[Read More…]