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57 articles tagged "Crop Culture".

Summer Squash Cultivar Selection for High Tunnel Production

February 17, 2020 - From Issue:
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Warm-season vegetables like tomato, cucumber, pepper etc. often receive premium prices if they were sold at farmers’ markets earlier in the season. The same happens on summer squash, with the different fruit shape and color, summer squash provides a great diversity to the market. High tunnels that  are planted with warm-season vegetables are often closed to maintain heat inside the structure in the spring. Growers often hesitate to bring beehives to high tunnels because of the increased production cost and potential worker safety concerns. Under such circumstances, crops that can set fruit without pollination (parthenocarpic) have an advantage for early-season high tunnel production. Previous studies indicated parthenocarpic character exists in some summer squash cultivars. But such information is not always clearly indicated in seed catalogs. Without knowing the information, farmers may miss the opportunity of growing summer squash and targeting for an early harvest in high tunnels. In the spring[Read More…]

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Broccoli under Heat Stress

October 21, 2019 - From Issue:
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Figure 1. Broccoli grow leaves in the head. A response toward heat stress (Pictures was provided by ANR educator Luis A. Santiago)

Cool nights have finally arrived after the first week of October. Before, we had quite a few days when temperatures were above 90°F. The unusual high temperature has caused problems on early-planted broccoli. Broccoli is a heat-sensitive crop. The critical period for heat sensitivity is when plants shift growing tips from vegetative growth to flower bud initiation. This is about 10 days before the crown is visible. Temperatures above 90°F during the critical period cause injury on the flower buds. As the crown continues to grow, an uneven head becomes noticeable, and these heads are inclined to be affected by pathogens. Another response broccoli often has toward the heat stress is to grow leaves in the head (Figure 1), although it may be less a concern compared to bud damage. Varieties are varied by heat sensitivity, and they may have slightly different responses toward high-temperature. For example, the very popular[Read More…]

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Results of Wet Condition on Watermelon and Cantaloupe

July 5, 2019 - From Issue:
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The 2019 production season started with above-normal rains. The wet conditions affected agriculture production, including watermelon and cantaloupe. In this article, we will review some of the watermelon and cantaloupe problems that are often associated with wet conditions. Manganese toxicity– This nutrient disorder occurs more often on cantaloupe that is grown in soils with pH lower than 5.5. Although liming before planting is a common practice, it is not unusual that we see soil pH that has dropped below 5.5 in sandy soil, especially during wet years. Manganese exists in soil solution as either reduced (Mn2+) or oxidized (Mn3+) form. Plants take up manganese in the reduced form (Mn2+). The proportion of exchangeable Mn2+ increases dramatically as soil pH decreases, and this reaction is promoted in waterlogged soils with low oxygen condition. As raindrops fall through the air, they dissolve CO2 and form enough carbonic acid to lower the pH of[Read More…]

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Considerations with Delayed Pumpkin Planting

July 5, 2019 - From Issue:
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The wet spring has likely delayed some planting of pumpkins. What does delayed planting mean for yield? Data and observations from Purdue Ag Centers offer some perspective to supplement other experience. Figure 1 shows how pumpkin yield was affected by planting date for 6 trials. Each line represents a different trial. The Y-axis shows relative yield within in each trial. Yield of the first planting date for each trial is set to 100. For the two trials at Pinney Purdue (orange lines, PP2002 and PP2003), pumpkins seeded June 20-25 yielded 70%-85% of pumpkins seeded by early June. In the 1995-1996 trials at Southwest Purdue Ag Center (light green lines, SW1995 and SW1996), pumpkins transplanted June 25-30 produced about 50% of those transplanted two weeks earlier (June 10-15). Transplanting two weeks later (July 10-15) produced only 30% of the yield compared to the June 10-15 plantings. In the 1997-1998 trials at[Read More…]

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Growing a Bountiful Zucchini Crop

May 22, 2019 - From Issue:
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Finally the time has come to plant warm season crops. Zucchini is a popular summer squash grown throughout Indiana and the United States. It always delivers a bounty of fruit. Yes, technically zucchini is a fruit (botanically classified as a modified berry) but as per the USDA it is listed under the ‘Vegetables and Vegetable Products” food group. Zucchini have a multitude of fruit colors and flavors. Therefore, this makes a great vegetable to present to consumers. Characteristics of zucchini – Typically, zucchini is non-vining and bushy but some varieties could have a creeping habit. Some varieties have prickly trichomes on both the stems and leaves. Male and female reproductive structures are produced on the same plant but in different flowers. The large yellow-orange unisexual flowers (a flower that possesses either stamens or carpels but not both) attracts bees, beetles and other insects to pollinate the flowers. The pollen is[Read More…]

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Spring Planted Day-neutral Strawberry Update

May 22, 2019 - From Issue:
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Figure 2: Eight day-neutral stawberry cultivars grown under retractable low tunnel systems (picture was taken on May 20)

With the support of the Purdue Extension AgSeed Program, we are currently evaluating different production systems for growing strawberries in an open-field with plastic cultural systems for our area at Southwest Purdue Agricultural Center in Vincennes, IN. A day-neutral strawberry cultivar evaluation trial was established in the Spring of 2019. The evaluated cultivars include Portola, Evie-2, Mara Des Bois, Albion, Seascape, San Andreas, Monterey, and Tribute. Bare-root plants purchased from Nourse Farm and Indiana Berry were planted on black plastic mulch on Mar. 22. Cultivar Portola was planted on Apr. 10 due to back-order. Each of the eight cultivars were grown either with a retractable low tunnel system or without it (Figure 1). Although strawberries were planted this spring, most cultivars started to bloom toward the end of April. Removing runners started in early May. During the week of May 13, harvest started on the early cultivars: Tribute, Mara Des[Read More…]

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An Alternative Trellis System may Improve Tomato Yield

April 25, 2019 - From Issue:
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Figure 4. Connect four stakes in a rectangle shape (A), cross the hook (12’’) with the central-string (B) and hook it to the side-strings between the two tomato plants (C).

The Florida-weave or sometimes called stake and weave is a commonly used tomato trellis system (Figure 1). It has several benefits and is easy to implement. However, sometimes the plants grow too tall and can hardly be supported by the stakes, or they may be too vigorous and break the strings. In this article, we will introduce an alternative tomato trellis system, Spanish-weave, and discuss its usage in tomato production. How to trellis tomato plants with the Spanish-weave system? Materials: tomato stakes, tomato strings, and hooks. We made the hooks from steel wire. They were made at 4-inch, 8-inch and 12-inch length (Figure 2). Prune bottom leaves of the tomato plant and suckers until the first flower cluster (Figure 3). Install tomato stakes on each side of the rows at every two tomato plants (A); Tie strings across the two wooden stakes at the beginning and the end of each[Read More…]

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Protect Early Planted Warm-Season Vegetables from Low Temperatures

April 11, 2019 - From Issue:
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Two types of injury on young warm-season vegetable plants are caused by low temperatures: frost/freezing injury and chilling injury. Frost/freezing injury occurs when temperatures drop below 32°F. Ice formation in plant tissues cut cell membranes. When the tissue thaws, the damage results in fluids leaking from the cell, causing water soaked damage. Frost/freezing injury is detrimental to warm-season vegetables, such as melons, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, beans. To avoid damage, the best way is to plant warm-season vegetables later in the spring, after the last frost has passed. However, weather is difficult to predict, and there is a growing trend of planting early to achieve early harvests. For the early planted warm-season vegetables, here are a few suggestions that may protect plants from low temperature damages. Covering. The idea of covering the seedlings is to create a microclimate around plants. Because the heat accumulated in soil irradiate back at night, covering[Read More…]

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Chilling Injury on Young Warm-season Vegetable Plants

April 10, 2019 - From Issue:
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Figure 1. Cucumbers start to wilt following a night average soil temperature was 58 °F

Chilling injury occurs when temperatures are above 32°F and below 55°F. The plant tissue becomes weakened that leads to cellular dysfunction. The most noticeable visual symptom of chilling injury is leaf and hypocotyl wilt (Figure 1). This is caused by the rapid decline in the ability of roots to absorb and transport water. It also caused by the plant’s reduced ability to close stomata. If temperatures do not improve, plants may be killed. Low temperatures also have an effect on mineral nutrient uptake of the plants. Absorption of ions by roots is difficult, as well as their movement in the above-ground parts of the plants. As a result, chilling injured plants often show symptoms similar to nutritional deficiency. Although warm-season vegetables are all susceptible to frost/freezing damage, their susceptibility to chilling injury varies among plant species. Pepper plants seem to have greater difficulty recovering after chilling injury compared to tomato[Read More…]

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Bolting and Blooming in High Tunnels

March 14, 2019 - From Issue:
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Bolting of crops overwintered in high tunnels is common in the spring. ‘Bolting’ refers to lengthening and blooming of the flowering stalk. Bolting is often a problem because the quality of the marketable part of the plant declines. Also, plants subject to bolting are programmed to die once they complete flowering and seed production so yield will decline in quantity as well as quality. Sometimes bolting is not a problem because the stalk, buds, and flowers can be sold as a new product while they last; this is often the case with kale,  mustards and related crops. Crops susceptible to bolting include those in the mustard family such as kale, mustards, tatsoi, bok choy (pac choi), mizuna, turnip, radish, etc.; carrots; beets and in some cases Swiss chard; onions; lettuce; and spinach. (Figure 1)   Bolting is triggered by environmental conditions. Some plant types are triggered to develop flowers by[Read More…]

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