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…]
Crop Culture
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…]
As tomatoes bloom and set fruit it is a good time to review practices for avoiding some common fruit problems. Water management is key to avoiding blossom end rot. Adequate potassium is important to reduce yellow shoulder and internal white tissue. This article provides more information on these topics, and includes some information previously published[Read More…]
Strawberry harvest is right around the corner. We visited a few fields last week, things are generally looking good at the farm visited. Damage from the freeze event about two weeks ago seems minimal. With last year’s lesson, growers are prepared and applied frost protection to the early cultivars. Under the protection, the blooms survived[Read More…]
Vegetable growers, we would like to hear your story about the freeze event on Apr. 20 and 21. What crops are you growing? Did you take protective actions? Did it cause damage on the crops? Hearing your stories would help us better design our extension programs. If you allow, we would like to share your[Read More…]
There is a frost and freeze warning for 4/20, 4/21, 4/22. Vegetable growers should be prepared to take protective actions on early-planted warm-season vegetables (tomato, cucumber, pepper, summer squash, bean etc.). For high tunnel growers, medium-weight floating row covers should provide sufficient protection. Growers should close the structure when inside temperatures drop below 80°F to[Read More…]
Last week when the heavy frost hit us, air temperature at Southwest Purdue Ag Center (SWPAC) in Vincennes, IN dropped to 24°F. We did not take action for frost protection on the strawberries growing with the annual plasticulture system, considering only two early cultivars start to bloom at that time. However, this appears to be[Read More…]
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[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…]