Vegetable Growers News

Early warm weather worries growers

States across the Midwest and East Coast were experiencing warmer-than-normal temperatures earlier this year. In March alone, average temperatures were 15˚ F to 20˚ F higher than normal, according to The Weather Channel. History in the making Tom Moore, coordinating meteorologist of Global Forecast Services at The Weather Channel, said you'd have to go back to 1910 to find a record of a March similar to 2012. In 1910, however, the warmth covered the entire country. This season's spell only seems to cover areas east of the Rocky Mountains, Moore said. "This weather is really unprecedented," he said. "It's not only the percentage above normal we're seeing for each day, it's that we're breaking records every day." So, what's the cause of the unseasonable warmth? It's a mixture of things - and it gets complicated, Moore said. Primary is the jet stream. Normally still in…  » Read more

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MSU closing Muck Soils Research Farm

Like other land-grant institutions, Michigan State University (MSU) is experiencing a budget crunch. For that reason, officials are taking a hard look at the university's statewide network of 15 agricultural research stations, said Steve Pueppke, director of AgBioResearch, the MSU division that controls Extension as well as research centers. One of the stations, Muck Soils Research Farm in Laingsburg, is closing within the year, but not entirely due to tight budgets. A water issue there has made the station less than ideal for vegetable research, Pueppke said. The Muck Soils Research Farm is one of three organized organic soil research centers in the country. Research being conducted at the 441-acre site includes studies on weed, insect and disease control with pesticides and/or cultural management practices; cultivar evaluations; tillage; crop rotation; sub-irrigation; nutrient management; and potato late blight. Crops researched on the farm include carrots, celery,…  » Read more

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Returning vets to get agriculture training

The unemployment ratio of returning veterans is higher than the national average, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor. Currently it stands around 12 percent. Enter AgWarriors. Based in Tulare, Calif., the organization is committed to identifying, training and placing veterans with an interest in and aptitude for agriculture in jobs, said Stacey Beachy, AgWarriors co-founder. "We believe the agriculture industry community is well suited to provide jobs to many returning soldiers," Beachy said. "Many of our friends in agriculture have expressed a need for bright, motivated and hard-working individuals to join their teams. AgWarriors will be the conduit that connects employers with veterans in search of careers in agriculture." At the heart of the program, which started in late 2011, is the Veteran Skills to Jobs Act and the Wall Street War Fighters Foundation. The foundation grew from the idea that, given the opportunity,…  » Read more

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How many veggies can a woodchuck chuck?

Woodchucks, also known as groundhogs, are large members of the rodent family and voracious herbivores that can do a lot of damage to crops. Besides what they consume, their burrows can damage root systems. They mark their territory with scratching, chewing and urinating, said Stephen Vantassel, a wildlife control consultant with the University of Nebraska. In one study by the University of Connecticut, production of apples within 10 meters of a woodchuck den decreased by more than 30 percent, just from the woodchuck marking its territory. Removal Spring is the best time to remove damaging woodchuck populations, Vantassel said. Adult woodchucks are active, but young animals often stay in burrows during spring. The burrows are easier to find before annual vegetation conceals the entrances, and other wildlife is less likely to use the burrows as shelter then. So, what are the best lethal methods? Rene…  » Read more

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Haygrove, VGN to tour high tunnels in Britain

Haygrove Tunnels and Vegetable Growers News will be playing hosts to the Great American Haygrove High Tunnel Tour in Britain Sept. 2-7. The tour will showcase some of Britain's finest high-tunnel operations, ranging from raspberries and strawberries to asparagus to sweet cherries. This isn't the first time Haygrove has hosted a tour of high tunnels in Britain. The most recent tour was held in October 2011 and featured several of the same crops under high tunnels. Following is an excerpt from the VGN blog covering the tour - which features examples of some of the crops tour attendees will be seeing in September. The first official day of the tour took the group to Ledbury, the location of Haygrove's headquarters. Crops grown on the site include strawberries, cherries, raspberries and blackberries. All of Haygrove's production is under high tunnels. In addition, the company conducts numerous…  » Read more

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Haygrove winner plans to ‘retire’ to farming life

As the winner of a 25-by-100-foot Haygrove Gothic tunnel in the 2012 Great American Giveaway, Kermit Cutter of Newfield, N.Y., said he plans to use it to get more into farming. For the past four decades, Cutter has been a building contractor. He's also been raising beef cattle for 25 years, and growing vegetables for the last 10. He has slowly added crops over the years, and plans on farming as his retirement from building, he said. Cutter's wife, Alison Wiley, has been growing cut flowers for more than 25 years as Littleflowers Farms. She already has a 30-by-100-foot greenhouse, a 17- by 96-foot greenhouse and a 30- by 100-foot hoop house. They've been wanting to add another tunnel for a while. When they won the Haygrove, they thought that 100 feet would not be enough, Cutter said. They immediately decided to purchase an additional…  » Read more

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Small farms, local food getting new technologies

Jane Bush of Charlotte, Mich., is a small farmer with a diverse mix of products for a broad range of local customers. The latest venture for her Apple Schram Organic Orchard is sales of early tomatoes and extended-season greens to hospitals in Jackson, Ann Arbor and Lansing, Mich., as part of the new Four Seasons Cooperative. Like many smaller, diversified farmers, Bush has had to patch together processing, distribution, marketing and even record-keeping solutions. Most of the more sophisticated services out there, which might handle the complexity of multi-product and multi-market farmers, are designed for much bigger operations. "Everybody wants to promote smaller farmers, but there hasn't been a whole lot on the back end for those farmers," she said. Social media tools In a sign of changing times, however, the field of business products and services available to the local food set is now…  » Read more

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Pest management options for sweet corn growers

Management of lepidopteran insect pests of sweet corn in New York state is changing. Tools not practical or in existence a few years ago are now widely available, including new insecticide chemistries and cutting-edge Bt biotechnology. In addition, many of the assumptions growers have relied on in the past are changing. Insect migration patterns are changing and old methods such as pyrethroid treatments are becoming less effective. As a result, historical assumptions about insect management in sweet corn need to be reassessed and new management tools must be developed to keep pace with changes that are currently taking place. Lepidopteran pests in sweet corn have historically been represented by three different species: the corn earworm (CEW), European corn borer (ECB) and fall armyworm (FAW). Historically, each of these insects has behaved in a certain, predictable way. CEW migrated into the state from the southern United…  » Read more

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Turn marginal land into haven for beneficial insects

All growers probably have some land that doesn't quite meet their crop needs. Such marginal land can serve another great purpose, however, said Julianna Tuell, an entomologist with Michigan State University (MSU). Tuell told growers during a March meeting in Hart, Mich., that such land can be used for beneficial insects. Falling into two basic categories, Tuell said, beneficial insects are either natural enemies of pests or act as pollinators. Natural enemies can be predatory insects that eat other insects or collect them to feed their young, Tuell said. Some eat pest insects in both the larval and adult stages, such as lady beetles or assassin bugs. Others only eat larval bugs and, as adults, need nectar for food. These include lacewings, hover flies and paper wasps. Other natural enemies can be parasitic, Tuell said, living in or on the host insect as larvae. As…  » Read more

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Making traceability work is target of industry, FDA

It can be a long way from farm to table.And a lot of things can happen along the journey. With the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) calling for an effective protocol to track and trace foods in the entire supply chain, traceability is the word of the hour. Even as FDA has initiated pilots to examine the practices, processes and types of technology that might be available to help better trace foods in the event of a foodborne illness outbreak, the industry's Produce Traceability Initiative (PTI) is trying to stay the path to achieve supply chain-wide adoption of electronic traceability for every case of produce by Dec. 31. "The end game, I think, is that we've got the ability to, number one, track a case of produce wherever it went through the supply chain," said Ray Connelly, president of Salinas, Calif.-based TRUETRAC and a member…  » Read more

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Virginia farm focuses on fall entertainment

Fall is prime time for Belvedere Plantation. The Fulks family, which runs the Fredericksburg, Va., farm and agritourism enterprise, spends all winter, spring and summer preparing for the busy season - when about 50,000 people visit the farm between late September and early November, said Donnie Fulks. He runs the business with his wife, Donna, and sons Ryan and Ian. The plantation, which sits on 645 acres today, goes back to the 1760s. During the American Revolution, Col. William Dangerfield, who owned Belvedere at the time, supplied George Washington's army with provisions from his farm. The colonial militia trained there. In the 1860s, several Civil War battles were fought in and around Fredericksburg, according to Donnie. McKendree Fulks, Donnie's grandfather, purchased Belvedere in the 1960s. Planting strawberries, he transformed it into a u-pick operation in 1972. Donnie started managing the direct-marketing side of the farm…  » Read more

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