On April 17, 2018, Purdue University and Indiana University Bloomington teamed up to present a webinar about using high tunnels in Indiana. The recording is now available on the Purdue Extension Youtube channel at https://youtu.be/dpm4t4Ws5nQ. The 95-minute webinar introduces the upcoming High Tunnel Handbook for Indiana growers and summarizes key findings and recommendations from a[Read More…]
Have you ever wondered how much difference new plastic would make in terms of light getting to crops in a high tunnel? We replaced 6-year-old plastic on High Tunnel 1 at Pinney Purdue Ag Center last week. Figure 1 below shows the high tunnel before and after recovering, and pieces of the old and new[Read More…]
Many pesticides for use on vegetables have varying rules for use in different states. This article will review the different classes of labels for pesticides and where to find labels online. The shorthand names for classes of labels come from the section of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act that governs each class. National[Read More…]
The USDA lab out of Wooster, Ohio is interested in surveying Indiana sweet corn for virus. They are especially interested in sweet corn near johnsongrass, but other fields are ok too. If you are interested, please let me know or contact Mark Jones, USDA Agronomist,mark.jones@ars.usda.gov, (330) 202-3555 ext. 2837. Your participation would be pretty simple:[Read More…]
Reports of vegetable trials from 2017 are published online in the Midwest Vegetable Trial Report for 2017. There are reports of variety trials for green beans, cantaloupe/muskmelon, slicing and pickling cucumbers, ornamental corn, bell peppers in field and high tunnels russet potatoes, pumpkins, spinach in high tunnel, butternut squash in stripped-till rye, sweet corn, fresh[Read More…]
This article is my response to a grower’s question about lowering soil pH in a high tunnel. The soil test indicated pH of the soil in his high tunnel was 7.7. The high pH could be partially caused by alkaline water he used to use for irrigation. The grower has changed the water source, but[Read More…]
Winter farmers markets are becoming more and more popular. Lettuce is a primary type of vegetables grown for the market. As we are finishing up summer crops, it is a good time to learn and refresh knowledge about lettuce. This article discusses some of the basics of growing lettuce in high tunnels, as well as[Read More…]