Vegetables
Alaska growers featured Thursday in season finale for TV series
The History Channel's eight-part exploration of U.S. agriculture will finish the season 10 p.m. Thursday, May 23 with a glimpse of growing vegetables in the far north. The series, called The American Farm, follows growers... more »
Anthracnose on strawberries increasingly problematic in Mid-Atlantic
Anthracnose is caused by fungi in the genus Colletotrichum, and has been affecting mostly plasticulture plantings, but also matted-row plantings of susceptible cultivars. Some strawberry growers in southeastern Pennsylvania have already been finding their green fruit to... more »
AppHarvest secures $82 million to build eastern Kentucky greenhouse
AppHarvest said May 21 it has closed an $82 million deal with Equilibrium Capital to build the company’s 60-acre greenhouse in Morehead, Kentucky. In addition, ValueAct Spring Fund has led the company’s Series A, with... more »
Misshapen strawberries caused by poor pollination
Most commonly, misshapen strawberries during spring result from poor pollination. Strawberries are aggregate fruits. They have multiple ovules per receptacle where the fruit is formed. The strawberry receptacle may have up to 500 ovules per... more »
Flea beetles feeding, tomato early blight seen in Pennsylvania
I visited a few tomato fields this week and found 2 to 4-week-old tomato plants with some early blight (Alternaria solani) and in some cases bad early blight lesions. This is very early in the... more »
New Jersey ag secretary visits Specca Farms strawberry operation
New Jersey Secretary of Agriculture Douglas H. Fisher on May 16 visited Specca Farms in Springfield Township in Burlington County to highlight the Jersey Fresh strawberry picking season. “Strawberries are one of the first fruits... more »
Charleston Gray watermelon’s genome sequenced
Summertime is quickly approaching, and Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and their university colleagues are reporting on genomics research on a traditional summer treat, watermelon. In a long-term study, researchers explored the genetics of "Charleston... more »
Tomato genome research may make bringing flavor back easier
Almost everyone agrees that store-bought tomatoes don't have much flavor. Now, scientists from the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) may have spotlighted the solution in a paper just published in Nature Genetics. Molecular... more »