Does your farm sometimes have surplus produce? Produce that is perfectly good to eat, but isn’t going to make it to market? Society of St. Andrew can help you harvest and transport the excess to help feed those struggling to get enough to eat. Gleaning America’s Fields – Feeding America’s Hungry. We do it simply,…Read more about Gleaning America’s Fields – Feeding America’s Hungry[Read More]
FieldWatch is an easy-to-use, reliable, accurate and secure on-line mapping tool intended to enhance communications that promotes awareness and stewardship activities between producers of specialty crops, beekeepers, and pesticide applicators. Originally developed at Purdue University, FieldWatch is now a non-profit company with support from producers, applicators, agricultural chemical companies and other organizations. The program allows…Read more about Update your FieldWatch Information and Report Off-target Damage[Read More]
Thinking of sending samples of your vegetables to the Plant and Pest Diagnostic Lab for diagnosis or insect ID? Here are some tips to help the samples arrive in the best possible condition for testing. Fill out a sample submission form. Download at: https://ag.purdue.edu/btny/ppdl/Pages/physicalspecimens.aspx If sending more than one kind of plant or problem be…Read more about Tips for Submitting Samples to the Purdue Plant and Pest Diagnostic Lab (PPDL)[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 about Abnormal Transplant Symptoms Might be Caused by Poor Media[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 about Lettuce drop[Read More]
As we wait patiently for the ground to dry and our seedlings to grow, take a moment to consider your strategy for maintaining plant health. If you haven’t started already, it is time to make sure that your pest monitoring programs are in place for the season. For those of you growing in high tunnels,…Read more about Pest Monitoring[Read More]
In response to the many questions about this disease on cucurbits, a new extension bulletin has been produced. The bulletin may be accessed at the link below. Or contact me to get your copy. https://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/bp/bp-204-w.pdf
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 about Fungicide Schedules[Read More]
No reason exists to expect drought anytime soon in Indiana, with much of the state remaining rather wet after last weekend’s showers. One good new development exists. The precipitation pattern that has existed since nearly January seems to be becoming a little less predictable, which could mean more periods of drier weather between fronts on…Read more about Indiana Climate and Weather Report[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 about MW Vegetable Guide Updates[Read More]