Crop Management
Pennsylvania Leads Nation in Rescuing Farmland
It wasn't Jane Gordon Fletcher's fault she got rich. Over the years since her birth in 1901, the value of the family farm near Malvern, Penn., just kept rising as people pressure from Philadelphia, 24... more »
Law: Farmers Receive 100 Percent Tax Credit On Development Rights
This story is the fourth in a series about farmland preservation. A federal law changed recently, and in California a vineyard owner who worked hard for its passage stepped forward to be one of the... more »
Little Farmer Learns To Survive In Big World
In many ways, Matt Roloff is your average farmer. He's 44. He owns Roloff Farms, a u-pick peach and pumpkin farm near Portland, Ore. He has a wife, Amy, and four kids: Jeremy, Zach, Molly... more »
Extension Adapts to New Challenges
This is the first story in a series about the future of Extension. What does Michigan State University Extension (MSUE) mean to Michigan's fruit and vegetable industries? It depends upon who you ask. To Donald... more »
Michigan Running Slow in the Race to Preserve Farmland
In 1974, Michigan and Pennsylvania bolted from the starting gate together, as they began efforts to protect farmland from conversion to non-farm use. That year, each state passed legislation providing property tax breaks to farmers... more »
Lifes Simple Pleasures Get Harder to Derive
Writing about fruit and vegetables is, for me, made doubly satisfying because I try to practice some of what I preach. I have a large garden and a small collection of fruit trees, and I... more »
Penn State Taps Into School Pride With Blue and White Potato Chips
For years, William Lamont, vegetable crops professor at Penn State University (PSU), visualized a line of potato chips sporting the university's colors. Utz Quality Foods in Hanover, Pa., has wanted to partner with Penn State... more »
Cloned Food Products? We Just Call Them Potatoes
As the new year began, FDA proclaimed that products such as meat and milk from cloned animals are safe for human consumption. A person with a science-based education might wonder why anyone would think such... more »
Sweet Corn Charlie: Season Extension Is Strategy For Success
If you can have sweet corn by the Fourth of July in northern Indiana, you'll grab customers and, if the corn's good enough, you'll keep them for the entire season. That doesn't mean knee-high corn... more »
Researchers Expect Downy Mildew Pressure In 2007
Cucurbit growers – especially cucumber growers aiming for either fresh market or pickling – should plan now to implement a full fungicide spray schedule this year and assume that the downy mildew epidemic of the... more »