For those of you still fortunately enough to have apples, disease management continues to a greater degree than those of us without a crop. Around now (the beginning of cover sprays), the most serious apple pathogens are generally less active, terminal buds have set, leaves have hardened off (and are now less susceptible) and weather[Read More…]
Janna L Beckerman
Professor of Plant Pathology
Department of Botany
Area(s) of Interest: Ornamental and Fruit Diseases
Janna L Beckerman's website
Department of Botany
Area(s) of Interest: Ornamental and Fruit Diseases
Janna L Beckerman's website
On April 30th, 2021, significant legislation was introduced with bipartisan support in the House, impacting the future of the U.S. organic sector. The bill, titled, Continuous Improvement and Accountability in Organic Standards provides a roadmap for organic through three main areas by: Clearing the backlog of recommendations, and requiring the USDA to issue an Organic Improvement[Read More…]
As we wait for the locusts (actually, seventeen-year cicadas), and deal with a plague of biblical proportion, many across the state also experienced flooding and frosts. Indiana weather is never dull! Flooding and/or frosts during periods of active growth can significantly damage flower and fruit, resulting in crop loss (Fig. 1). Unfortunately, many berry growers[Read More…]
Freeze: There really isn’t much that can be added to the wonderful and unfortunately timely article about Frost. Critical Temperatures and Frost Protection by Rob Crassweller at https://extension.psu.edu/frost-critical-temperatures-and-frost-protection With a frost to freeze expected to cover most of the state on April 21 and 22, there will certainly be crop damage and loss (Fig. 1).[Read More…]
Fruit growers, we would like to hear your story about the freeze event on Apr. 20 and 21. What crops are you growing? Did you take protective actions? Did it cause damage to the crops? Hearing your stories would help us better design our extension programs. If you allow, we would like to share your[Read More…]
After what can only be described as a very early spring, we are entering the unusual situation of worrying about fire blight in April. Summer-like weather, rainfall, thunderstorms and hail mean that growers should be very concerned about fire blight. It is important to note that the fire blight pathogen, Erwinia amylovora, is always present[Read More…]
One of our earliest harvested fruit crops in Indiana are strawberries. This is good and bad news, depending upon the occurrence of a late spring freeze. Strawberries are very susceptible to these freezes for a number of reasons: Air temperature at ground level is often colder than the reported low temperature, low spots may be[Read More…]
Did you know that almost half of the food we consume every day comes from crops the USDA categorizes as “minor” or “specialty” crops? Compared to the acreage of corn and soybean in the Midwest, fruit and vegetable crops are only a small percentage of crops grown. Not surprisingly, agrochemical companies focus their effort on[Read More…]
Modern clonal rootstocks are the foundation-and literal roots– to modern apple growing. These rootstocks ensure growers have orchards of relatively small trees that can be densely planted and result in earlier and greater bearing than what was historically possible. This is an obvious improvement over waiting multiple decades for an orchard to become profitable. However,[Read More…]
Even in the most successful and best run orchards, trees die. A small percent is considered the norm, and is unavoidable (accepting this is a different story). However, in some years, more trees have succumb than usual. Growers need to determine what caused tree death–or at least rule out some potential pests or pathogens that[Read More…]