I know this may not come as a surprise to most of you, but it is rare that we get to observe the effectiveness of insecticides in such a dramatic way as we encountered when visiting a melon grower in southern IN recently. And in this case, the decision to apply an insecticide at transplant[Read More…]
Dan Egel
In addition to delaying much of our fieldwork, the cool set spring has wreaked havoc on some of the plants we have been able to squeeze in during brief dry periods. We have received reports of damage caused by seedcorn maggots (Figure 1) and wireworms (Figure 2). In preparation of this article I browsed the[Read More…]
In the past week, we have observed a few cases where newly planted watermelon seedlings were severely damaged or dead (Figure 1). In some fields, we observed rotted roots and lower stems caused by fungal pathogens. However, such diseases were in response to the cold soils and would not normally cause problems in warm soils.[Read More…]
Producing healthy transplants is a critical step for a successful growing season. Choosing the proper growing media is an important first step. Supported by a USDA Specialty Crops Block Grant through the Indiana State Department of Agriculture, researchers from Purdue have been evaluating different organic growing media with and without adding supplemental organic fertilizers for[Read More…]
Although Indiana is not known for lettuce production, an increasing number of growers find that augmenting retail sales with leaf lettuce can be profitable. Since lettuce is a cool season crop, field planted leaf lettuce around Indiana may be reaching harvest stage. Leaf lettuce can generally be grown with few pests. However, lettuce drop was[Read More…]
Ever year, I put together fungicide schedules for cucurbits. These may be found at purdue.ag/pumpkinfs and purdue.ag/melonfs. They may be downloaded as PDFs on legal sized pages. Please use these tables along with the MW Vegetable Production Guide and the fungicide label. If you have trouble with accessing the tables or have other questions. please[Read More…]
From time to time, I will make changes to the MW Vegetable Production Guide. These changes will appear automatically in the on-line version. For those who purchase a hard copy, watch the Vegetable Crops Hotline for changes. See below for the changes that have been made to the Production guide for 2019 Page Comment[Read More…]
The Midwest Vegetable Production Guide for Commercial Growers 2018 is available for sale as a hardcopy ($15) or free on-line (be sure to check the article in this issue about changes that have been made to the on-line version). Actually, the Vegetable Guide has been available since last December. The guide may be purchased through the[Read More…]
A recent observation of gummy stem blight on a watermelon transplant has reminded me to remind growers to inspect seedlings. Whether one is growing transplants or receiving transplants for delivery, seedlings should be inspected for possible disease problems. If one is uncertain of the cause of the symptoms, an official diagnosis can be obtained by[Read More…]