Renew now! Vegetable Crops Hotline (VCH), is Purdue Extension’s newsletter for people in the business of growing vegetables. We have fifteen issues throughout the 2018 growing season. The first two issues of the year are being sent to all who subscribed to VCH via US-mail in 2017 as well as new subscribers for 2018. To continue receiving future copies[Read More…]
Cucumbers are produced with very different production systems. The ideal cucumber variety for process pickling production is not the variety used for greenhouse production. Choosing the suitable variety for a specific production system then becomes important. Where do you find recommended cucumber varieties for high tunnel production in seed catalogs? Some of the seed catalogs have a category called Greenhouse[Read More…]
This is the time of year when growers begin planting seed—whether you are child planting a few seeds in Dixie cup for a school project, home tomato growers, or professional horticulturists. Unfortunately, one problem you may share in common is damping-off. Damping-off describes the death of seeds or seedlings and includes all of the following[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…]
The Midwest Vegetable Production Guide for Commercial Growers 2018 described above is a good way to keep up with what fungicides are recommended and their proper use. Last year, I developed a fungicide schedule to help growers schedule when fungicides are applied. These fungicide schedules seemed to be popular, so I have updated the fungicide[Read More…]
The Midwest Vegetable Production Guide for Commercial Growers 2018 is available for sale as a hardcopy ($15) or free on-line. Actually, the Vegetable Guide has been available since last December. The guide may be purchased through the Education Store, at various extension meetings held around the state or from your Purdue University county educator. The[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…]
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…]
Food Safety Modernization Act Produce Safety Rule Training A series of Food Safety Modernization Act produce safety rule training and registration information can be found on the website https://ag.purdue.edu/extension/safeproduce/Pages/FSMA-Training.aspx. The curriculum is designed to meet the needs of growers. Modules 1 through 6 align with sections outlined in the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) Produce Safety Rule. Module[Read More…]
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