Recent price increases and supply chain shortages for fertilizers, chemicals, and energy have impacted farm profitability and viability. As a result, many Indiana farmers are interested in alternative and more sustainable approaches to maintaining crop productivity and building soil health, such as applying composts to their soils. Applying compost to the soil is common in…Read more about Are You Thinking of Applying Compost to Your Soils?[Read More]
Petrus Langenhoven
Horticulture and Hydroponic Crop Specialist
Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture
Petrus Langenhoven's website
Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture
Petrus Langenhoven's website
Welcome to the Vegetable Crops Hotline (VCH), Purdue Extension’s exclusive newsletter for people in the business of growing vegetables. Our outstanding contributing authors have outdone themselves once again. Spring is almost upon us; before we know it, we will be seeding and planting vegetables outdoors. This issue is packed with great information. Information that will…Read more about From the Editor’s Desk[Read More]
Welcome to the Vegetable Crops Hotline (VCH), Purdue Extension’s exclusive newsletter for people in the business of growing vegetables. As things might change from year to year, so did the newsletter editorship. In December 2023, Wenjing Guan handed the role over to Petrus Langenhoven. “Wenjing, I think I am safe to say that on behalf…Read more about From the Editor’s Desk[Read More]
“My guess is that almost all are still using a dashboard notebook of some sort in combination, of course, with the farm management information system,” says Dennis Buckmaster, Professor of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at Purdue as well as a Dean’s Fellow for Digital Agriculture, “but some of those records that were handwritten or in…Read more about Digital Farm Records – Easy Conversion from Notebook[Read More]
Are you still thinking about varieties for the upcoming season? Purdue has been keeping a record of vegetable variety trials in the Midwest since 1999. The Midwest Vegetable Trial Report series includes reports of applied research relevant to vegetable and melon production in the Midwest. Here are some abstracts of the most recent reports. Visit…Read more about Selecting Vegetable Varieties for your Farm[Read More]
NCR-SARE Funded Awards NCR-SARE Announces 2022 Research and Education Awards – February 1, 2023 NCR-SARE is pleased to announce the projects selected for funding for the 2022 Research and Education competitive grant program. Seventeen (17) projects were awarded a total of more than $3.8 million through this NCR-SARE grant program for researchers and educators involved…Read more about Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) News[Read More]
The Food Systems (FS) Coordinator leads a state extension program with the main focus on realizing value-added opportunities for local food systems. These systems include clusters of producers, processors, distributors, sellers, consumers, and supporting organizations that have proven to enhance the rural and urban economy, the environment, food access and nutrition, and strengthen producers and…Read more about Career Opportunity at Purdue Extension – Food Systems Coordinator[Read More]
The Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture successfully presented the 2022 Indiana Horticulture Conference Webinar Series between February 1 and March 1, 2022. We delivered 18 educational hours to 785 attendees from 19 States and Puerto Rico. We also had several international attendees. The co-chairs Petrus Langenhoven, Stephen Meyers, Lori Jolly-Brown, and Nathan Deppe would…Read more about IHC 2022 Educational Session Recordings Now Available![Read More]
The average American eats almost 9 pounds of cantaloupe and 2 pounds of honeydew each year (Agricultural Marketing Resource Center, 2018). An increased melon consumption is mainly explained by consumer awareness of melon health benefits, year-round availability, creative marketing strategies, and improved cultivars. To address these economic opportunities, retailers, growers, and other industry stakeholders should…Read more about The Three Types of Melon Consumers[Read More]
There is still time to select sweet pepper varieties for this summer. During the 2020 growing season, I evaluated a new batch of five sweet bell pepper varieties. I also evaluated five sweet tapered pepper varieties for a second season. All varieties (Table 1, Figures 1 & 2) were grown in a high tunnel at…Read more about Have You Selected Your Sweet Pepper Varieties Yet?[Read More]