Recent rain and cold conditions have brought detrimental effects to some of the early planted vegetables. In southwest Indiana, air temperatures have dropped into the 40s °F and soil temperatures have dropped into the 50s °F in early May. The low temperatures would have greatly inhibited absorption of water and mineral nutrients for many warm season vegetables. In one…Read more about Effects of the Recent Rain and Cold Conditions on Vegetable Production[Read More]
Vegetable Crops - General
Recent heavy rains across much of the state have resulted in widespread ponding and flooding in fields. This creates multiple considerations for those growing produce for fresh consumption. Flooding and pooling create food safety challenges because of their potential to introduce contaminants (i.e. risk) into the production system. However, with proper management, many of these…Read more about Food Safety Considerations for Flooded Fields[Read More]
We have had substantial black cutworm moth (Figure 1.) catches in our pheromone traps. Black cutworm moths typically lay their eggs on winter annual weeds growing in un-tilled fields. When the eggs hatch, the larvae will begin feeding on the weeds. Then, when you kill the weeds with either tillage or a burndown herbicide, the…Read more about Black Cutworm[Read More]
Southwest Purdue Ag Center Field Day Save the date June 29 for Southwest Purdue Ag Center Field Day Beginning Farmer Tours and Workshops Join Purdue’s beginning farmer team for farm tours in 2017. June 15. Clay Bottom Farm near Goshen, IN uses intensive growing methods to support a CSA program on less than an acre…Read more about Upcoming Events[Read More]
A plant is considered to be seedless if it is able to produce a fruit without or contain a much-reduced number of seeds, or in some cases, only present traces of aborted seeds. Seedlessness is a desirable fruit character because seeds are often hard, have a bad taste and produce hormones that lead to fruit…Read more about Seedless Fruit Production[Read More]
One way insects communicate with individuals of the same species is with pheromones. Pheromones are volatile chemicals released by an insect that usually can be detected only by individuals of the same species. There are a number of different types of pheromones, but the most common type is the sex pheromone. Usually the females will…Read more about Pheromones and Pheromone Traps[Read More]
Indiana Grown is an initiative through the Indiana State Department of agriculture that supports products made by Hoosiers for Hoosiers. If you grow, raise, package or produce a product in Indiana then Indiana Grown is right for you. As a member, you will have access to the Indiana Grown logo, promotional and marketing support, a…Read more about Indiana Grown[Read More]
The use of tractor drawn pesticide sprayers is not practical for many smaller growers. Two alternatives are garden-sprayers or backpack sprayers. I will argue here that garden-sprayers are not suited for most commercial pesticide use. The typical garden sprayer that may be found at a garden shop or hardware store usually has a 1 or…Read more about Garden Sprayer vs Backpack Sprayer[Read More]
Small vegetable growers may find pesticide applications with a tractor driven sprayers impractical. Such growers may turn to hand sprayers. In a separate article, I argued that garden sprayers are not appropriate for most commercial pesticide applications. In this article, I will discuss the use and calibration of a backpack sprayer, an excellent alternative to…Read more about Backpack Sprayer Use[Read More]
We can never emphasize too much the importance of conducting soil tests. Ideally, soil test should be conducted on a yearly basis. The reason soil testing is so important is because it provides information about the nutrient composition of the soil so that growers will know how much fertilizer to apply for the following season….Read more about Soil Tests[Read More]