Wenjing Guan

Vegetable Crops Hotline Editor & Clinical Engagement Assistant Professor
Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture
Area(s) of Interest: Commercial Vegetable and Melon Production
(812) 886-0198 guan40@purdue.edu
Wenjing Guan's website

192 articles by this author

Article List

Upcoming Events

June 6, 2019 - From Issue:
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Indiana Horticultural Society Summer Meeting  Date: June 25, 2019. 9:30 am. Location: Huber Orchard and Winery, 19816 Huber Road, Starlight, IN 47106 The summer meeting is co-sponsored by Indiana Horticultural Society and Indiana Vegetable Growers’ Association. The meeting will focus on commercial production of fruits and vegetables and farm marketing. All those interested are welcome to attend. A registration fee of $5.00 per family or farm is payable at registration. A catered lunch will be served onsite. This will most likely be fried chicken with vegetables and drinks. There is a $10/person charge for lunch, collected onsite. Please go to the following website to RSVP  https://purdue.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6oqUlioijOUNb0x 9:30 am    Convene and registration at Huber Orchard and Winery. 10:00 am  Introductions, a brief walking tour of facilities – winery, market, icecream store, banquet hall 10:30 am  Field tour – apples 11:45 pm Lunch – $10 – RSVP requested (see below) 1:00 pm   [Read More…]

Watch for Two-spotted Spider Mites on High Tunnel Cucumbers

June 6, 2019 - From Issue:
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Figure 3. Cucumber cultivar Taurus were grown in the front, cultivar Corinto was grown in the back.

Supported by NC SARE (LNC17-390), we are continuing research for improving high tunnel cucumber production. One of the biggest challenges for growing cucumbers in high tunnels in the summer is two-spotted spider mites. Dry and hot environments featured in high tunnels allow two-spotted spider mite populations to increase rapidly. The mites cause leaf yellowing, necrosis, and defoliation that interfere with plant photosynthesis. Yield can be significantly reduced. The pest also causes direct damage on cucumber fruit, resulting in a sandpaper-like texture to the rind (Figure 1). Early detection is the key for controlling two-spotted spider mites. As soon as two-spotted spider mites are detected, control efforts need to be taken. In the early stage, yellowish specks on the upper side of the leaves may be noticed (Figure 2). Turn the leaf over, on the other side of where the yellow specks are, you may find the presence of two-spotted spider[Read More…]

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Upcoming Events

May 22, 2019 - From Issue:
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Southwest Purdue Agricultural Center Field Day Date: June 27, 2019. Registration begins at 8:30 am. Location: Southwest Purdue Agricultural Center, 4669 N. Purdue Road in Vincennes, IN 47591 Topics related to vegetable production include: Organic Tomato Production: Dan Egel will discuss the Tomato Organic Management and Improvement Project — including foliar disease management of tomatoes. High Tunnel Grafted Cucumber & Specialty Melon Production: Wenjing Guan and Petrus Langenhoven will discuss cucumber and melon production in high tunnels. Applying IPM Principles across Cropping Systems to Increase Insect Pollination and Profitability: Laura Ingwell will discuss best management practices for watermelon production by quantifying pest pressures, pollinator health, and crop yields. Annual Strawberry Production: Wenjing Guan will discuss annual plastic culture for strawberry production in southern Indiana. Other topics include: Termites to the Rescue: In this presentation, Rick Meilan will discuss the use of enzymes derived from termites to control invasive woody species. Removing[Read More…]

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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Low Temperature Caused Watermelon Establishment Failure

May 21, 2019 - From Issue:
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Figure 1. Watermelon seedlings planted in a week

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. Most of the dead plants had intact stems, although growers did report seedcorn maggot and wireworm in the stems of a few dead plants. The same thing happened in May 2016. Coincidentally, rain, cloudy days, and lower than normal temperatures were observed in the same period in both years. Since early May, We have had consecutive days with the lowest temperatures in the 40s°F. There was no risk of frost damage, however, this temperature was low enough to cause chilling injury on young cucurbit plants.  This article ‘Protect Early Planted Warm-Season Vegetables from Low Temperature’[Read More…]

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Upcoming Events

May 9, 2019 - From Issue:
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Southwest Purdue Agricultural Center Field Day Date: June 27, 2019. Registration begins at 8:30 am. Location: Southwest Purdue Agricultural Center, 4669 N. Purdue Road in Vincennes, IN 47591 Topics related to vegetable production include: Organic Tomato Production: Dan Egel will discuss the Tomato Organic Management and Improvement Project — including foliar disease management of tomatoes. High Tunnel Grafted Cucumber & Specialty Melon Production: Wenjing Guan and Petrus Langenhoven will discuss cucumber and melon production in high tunnels. Applying IPM Principles across Cropping Systems to Increase Insect Pollination and Profitability: Laura Ingwell will discuss best management practices for watermelon production by quantifying pest pressures, pollinator health, and crop yields. Annual Strawberry Production: Wenjing Guan will discuss annual plastic culture for strawberry production in southern Indiana. Other topics include: Termites to the Rescue: In this presentation, Rick Meilan will discuss the use of enzymes derived from termites to control invasive woody species. Removing[Read More…]

Abnormal Transplant Symptoms might be Caused by Poor Media

May 9, 2019 - From Issue:
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Figure 2. Wilt of watermelon seedlings due to grown in a high EC medium.

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 tomato and cucurbit transplant production. In this article, we have highlighted a few transplant symptoms that are associated with growing media with excessively high or low electrical conductivity (EC) or pH. It is always a good idea to test EC, pH, and other important nutrient content of a medium when you are making your own or using an unfamiliar media. Most soil laboratories provide a saturated media extract test that provides information on these important parameters. More information about this test and suggested range of EC and pH can be found in this article http://www.soiltest.uconn.edu/factsheets/InterpSMEGreenMedia.pdf[Read More…]

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Upcoming Events

April 25, 2019 - From Issue:

Southwest Purdue Agricultural Center Field Day Date: June 27, 2019. Registration begins at 8:30 am. Location: Southwest Purdue Agricultural Center, 4669 N. Purdue Road in Vincennes, IN 47591 Topics related to vegetable production include: Organic Tomato Production: Dan Egel will discuss the Tomato Organic Management and Improvement Project — including foliar disease management of tomatoes. High Tunnel Grafted Cucumber & Specialty Melon Production: Wenjing Guan and Petrus Langenhoven will discuss cucumber and melon production in high tunnels. Applying IPM Principles across Cropping Systems to Increase Insect Pollination and Profitability: Laura Ingwell will discuss best management practices for watermelon production by quantifying pest pressures, pollinator health, and crop yields. Annual Strawberry Production: Wenjing Guan will discuss annual plastic culture for strawberry production in southern Indiana. Other topics include: Termites to the Rescue: In this presentation, Rick Meilan will discuss the use of enzymes derived from termites to control invasive woody species. Removing[Read More…]

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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Upcoming Events

April 11, 2019 - From Issue:

Southwest Purdue Agricultural Center Field Day Date: June 27, 2019 Location: Southwest Purdue Agricultural Center, Vincennes, IN 47591 Tentative schedule of this event will include: Removing invasives and cultivating natives; Growing hemp in Indiana; Bee health; Organic tomato production; Drones to help scout for crop problems; High tunnel cucumber and specialty melon production; Low tunnels in strawberry production; How termites can benefit and control of invasive plants. The event is free. Registration details will be announced soon.   Small Farm Education Field Day at Purdue Student Farm  Date: August 1, 2019 Location: Purdue Student Farm, West Lafayette, IN 47907 The Purdue Student Farm is proud to announce its second annual Small Farm Education Field Day.  The event is packed with educational sessions during the morning, followed by a tour and hands-on experiences on the farm. Topics of discussion throughout the day include Cover Crop Choices, Scheduling of Crops in High[Read More…]