Latest News

Now is the time to start thinking about managing bacterial diseases during the 2012 season! To help, a special pre-convention workshop on hot water seed treatment is being offered January 30, 2012 from 1-5pm at the Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Convention in Hershey, PA…see more information below.

A High Tunnel Biocontrol Workshop is being offered on February 1, 2012 from 7-9 pm this year at the Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Convention in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

NRCS accepts applications for financial assistance on a continuous basis throughout the year. There will be three ranking periods for the Organic, On-Farm Energy and Seasonal High Tunnel initiatives, all ending on February 3, March 30 and June 1, 2012.

If you grow cucubits please take five minutes for this important survey. Researcher want to help growers produce more profitable and sustainable cucurbit crops.

The 2012 Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Convention is set for January 31 to February 2, 2012 at the Hershey Lodge and Convention Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania. About 1,900 fruit, vegetable, and berry growers and other industry persons from throughout the mid-Atlantic region and beyond are expected to attend.

The webinar course is designed to create a foundation of beekeeping knowledge in order to confidently help beginners manage honeybees.

High salt levels in soils can affect plant yield and cause salt injury including burnt leaf margins and stunted plants. In the field, saline soils are not common in Pennsylvania. But plastic high tunnels keep the rain from flushing nutrients and salts out of the root zone. Extension Educators tested soils in six high tunnels across the state this summer and found three with soil salinity high enough to affect crops.

Though many of us expected to find spotted wing drosophila (SWD) in Pennsylvania in 2011, the widespread occurrence and sheer numbers found during the fall in some locations were surprising.

We aim to use resources wisely, including soil nutrients. Soil testing is as an important tool for determining the amounts of phosphorus, potassium, magnesium and calcium in the soil. Using these levels, informed decisions can be made on adding additional amounts of these nutrients to the soil to reach production goals.

Spring will arrive in a few short months and thoughts of transplanting will be on everyone's mind and priority list. Assuming the seed and transplant order was made several months ago for both local and Southern tray plants, there are several important plant characteristics that will help you determine if the transplants you intend to plant will establish quickly and grow rapidly or fail in the field.

Since both my grandfather and grandmother on my father’s side came from Ireland in the early 1900’s, the potato has always been a staple at every meal. Today the potato is sometimes looked on with distain in our health conscious society and also as we strive to fight obesity in both adults and children. This is misguided since we know that the potato is a nutritionally rich tuberous vegetable that is a good source of starch and fiber.

Growers are reporting success with biological control of insect pests in peppers, and research data backs them up. Is this a good option for you? Which pests are controlled, and what are the risks?

Soil-borne diseases can be devastating to crops. Unseen they may persist in the soil for years. Harold Weaver, from Meadow Gate Vista Farm in Bowers, Pennsylvania, tried a new strategy for combating soil-borne disease this year: cover crops.

Recently at a Penn State Extension Potato Field Day I was lucky enough to sit next to Mark Lichtenwalner from Donald E. Lichtenwalner Farms in Macungie, Pennsylvania. Mark and his family have been growing potatoes for many years for wholesale and increasingly for retail markets. As the Penn State potato breeder shared the preliminary results of this year’s potato variety trial, we thought about which types of new potatoes might fit a changing market and regional climate.

A new report from the USDA Economic Research Service concludes that the marketing of local foods in the U.S, via both direct-to-consumer and intermediated channels, grossed $4.8 billion in 2008, about four times higher than estimates based solely on direct-to-consumer sales.

Members of the Great Lakes Vegetable Working Group have just released a video on how to identify and enhance natural enemies in vegetable crops. This video provides balanced coverage of insect natural enemies and includes fascinating footage of beneficial insects at work.

Pumpkin variety trials are held at several locations throughout Pennsylvania every year by Penn State Cooperative Extension educators. Although the data is still being analyzed, several observations and initial results have been compiled at the central Pa site.

There are many factors that must be considered when making a pest control plan. Some of those factors are the biology of the pest, how pest damage impacts the value of the crop, the time it takes to apply controls, the cost of the control, how marketing impacts the use of pest control measures, and probably most important, is the control effective.