Indiana Horticultural Society Field Day, July 27 2021
Hosted by:
Wea Creek Orchard
618 South 200 East
Lafayette, IN 47909
The morning schedule is focused on soil health and is organized by the Pence Agronomy Group. The afternoon session concentrates on fruit (and pumpkins).
Growers are welcome to attend all parts of the program of interest to them.
Participants will also have the opportunity to pay their Indiana Horticultural Society membership dues ($30) since we didn’t meet for the Hort Conference this year.
Wea Creek Orchard
Wea Creek Orchard was established by The Kirkham family in 2008 on land that has been in the family since 1855. During that time, 7 generations of their family have raised sheep, cattle, pigs and now apples, peaches and pumpkins on the land.
The first tree planting at the farm was 340 apple trees and 60 peach trees. Since that initial planting in 2008, they have added about 200 trees every other year. They currently have about 5 acres of apples, 1 acre of peaches and 12 acres of pumpkins (and about 40 sweet cherry trees). All the produce is sold at the farm, through U-pick and a market in an old bank barn on the property. One of the successful new additions have been sunflowers sold for $1/stalk at the farm.
Hosting events such as festivals and weddings has become an important part of the farm business. The Kirkhams have also been involved in farm to school initiatives.
More information available at: https://www.weacreekorchard.com
Indiana Hort Society Summer Meeting
Pence Group Soil Health Academy (morning)
8:00 – 8:30 am – Sign in, Coffee truck, mingle
8:30 am – Welcome & Beginning announcements
9:00 am – 9:45 am – 1st Station – Dale Strickler, GreenCover Agronomist – Soil Health w/ Cover Crops
10:00 am – 10:45 am – 2nd Station – Joe Rorick, Conservation Agronomist & Angie Miller – Rural Conservationist – Soil Assessment, Watershed and Government progams
11:00 am – 11:45 am – 3rd Station – Micheal McNeill, PhD – Soil Health as it pertains to Human Health
Noon – 1:00 pm – Lunch
12:30 – 1:00 pm Transitional Remarks/Soil Health Academy Farm Tour
Indiana Horticultural Society
1:00 – 1:30 pm Welcome – Thomas Roney, president, Indiana Horticultural Society
Welcome – Linda Prokopy, head of Dept. of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture
Preview of the Indiana Horticultural Conference – Petrus Langenhoven
Intro to the farm – Perry Kirkham
1:30 – 1:50 pm Managing for healthy soil and plant microbiomes – Lori Hoagland
2:00 – 2:20 pm Pumpkins and weed management. Liz Maynard and Stephen Meyers
2:30 – 2:50 pm Pollinators and pollination – Christian Krupke and Khalil Jahed
3:00 – 3:20 pm Break – ice-cream available
3:30 – 3:50 pm Best practices for social media – Ariana Torres
4:00 – 4:20 pm Young tree management – Tristand Tucker
4:30 – 4:50 pm Apple orchard systems – Peter Hirst
5:00 – Informal networking