Indiana Horticultural Society Field Day June 28, 2017 Tuttle Orchard Greenfield, IN More details to come but mark the date on your calendar and plan to attend Indiana Winery and Vineyard Association Summer Meeting and Vineyard Tour July 18-19, 2017 Brown County Inn, Nashville IN More details to come, but mark the date on your calendar[Read More…]
Grapes
In Lafayette, fruit crops are progressing normally. Strawberry harvest is winding down and quite of bit of leaf spot is showing up. We have our first ripe fruit on summer red raspberries. All brambles are showing signs of freeze damage from the mid-March event. Weak and collapsing fruiting laterals are common. Grapes are from late[Read More…]
Canopy management is a critical production practice for improved sunlight exposure. Pulling shoots off the top of the rows improves sunlight exposure to the leaves at the base of the shoots. Those nodes will be the ones saved as spurs next year during pruning and sunlight improves bud fruitfulness and cane hardiness. Shoot positioning is[Read More…]
The Office of the Indiana State Chemist has filed a Notice of Intent to Adopt a New Rule that will make most dicamba containing herbicides Restricted Use Products (RUP). This designation will allow the OISC to track sales of those herbicides. As many specialty crop growers know, dicamba is one of the growth regulator herbicides[Read More…]
Grapes in the southern half of the state will soon be reaching the critical pre-bloom stage, which is a key time to control important diseases such as black rot, downy mildew, and powdery mildew. The three or four sprays made from immediate pre-bloom to 4 weeks post bloom are critical for controlling fruit infections. Growers[Read More…]
Growers across the state experienced some damage from frost and freeze events on May 7, 8, and 9. Damage is scattered across the state and ranges from minor to severe. We did not have damage in the Lafayette area, but areas of northern and northeastern Indiana were hit. Surprisingly some damage occurred in south central[Read More…]
Grapes are at the 8-10 inch shoot stage in southern Indiana and 6 inches or less in northern Indiana. Brambles are blooming in the south and approaching first bloom in central and northern areas. Blueberries are at petal fall to full bloom across the state. There are a few reports of damage to grapes and[Read More…]
One of the most critical management practices for grapes is crop load management through shoot and cluster thinning. Many varieties grown in Indiana tend to produce a large number of “non-count” shoots from adventitious buds and basal buds at count nodes. This can lead to excess crop and shading in the canopy. In addition, some[Read More…]