Welcome to our second update of crop conditions this season. Since the start of the month, our peach trees and plums have bloomed. The hard frosts we had out here last week killed many of those flowers as shown in the plum photo. They still have more yet to open, so not all is lost!…Read more about Crop conditions[Read More]
Wet pattern to return Despite the wet start to the month, the entire state saw less than 50 percent of normal rainfall from April 10 to 16, and in some cases, less than 10 percent of normal rainfall (Figure 1). This was helpful, especially as some locations still deal with river flood warnings and ponded…Read more about Weather from the Indiana State Climate Office[Read More]
The earlier and warmer spring temperatures we have been seeing the last few years in Indiana are continuing this year. See Figure 1. What we see is that for each year in the past 15 years temperatures have warmed up earlier than the long term average. Luckily only one year over this period was extremely…Read more about Indiana spring temperatures[Read More]
The 2023-2024 Midwest Fruit Pest Management Guide is still up-to-date with the addition of an addendum which can be found on the last pages of the pdf available for download below. The addendum lists important updates to pesticide labels, pesticide trade names, and crop uses for small fruit and tree fruit. Download here: https://edustore.purdue.edu/id-465-w.html Download…Read more about 2025 Midwest Fruit Pest Management Guide Update[Read More]
Lygus is a genus of insects within the family Miridae (Order: Hemiptera, piercing-sucking true bugs) that often feed on common horticultural crops. These small insects have rather large eyes, heavily patterned, neutrally colored wings, and long spindly antennae. The diet of Lygus bugs, as they are colloquially called, is incredibly diverse ranging from cotton and…Read more about Lygus bugs[Read More]
New Sprayer Technologies & Best Practices: Vineyards & Orchards Tuesday, August 12th Quarry Hill Winery & Orchard Berlin Heights, OH GO.OSU.EDU/SPRAY2025 Indiana Horticulture Conference & Indiana Small Farms Conference March 3-5, 2026 Hendricks County Fairgrounds Danville, IN https://indianahortconference.org/ https://extension.purdue.edu/anr/_teams/dffs/small_farm_conference/index.html
Introduction Ensuring the microbial safety of fresh produce is a critical step in preventing foodborne illnesses and safeguarding public health. Fresh produce is often exposed to contaminants during various stages of production, including growing and harvesting, where it can come into contact with soil, irrigation water, compost and wildlife (Dogan et al., 2023; Rock et…Read more about Understanding the Impact of Organic Matter on Free Available Chlorine (FAC) Concentration in Postharvest Water[Read More]
We’re getting close to the time when growers need to make chemical thinning decisions – for many the most perplexing and risky decision they will make all year. This is usually a tricky call to make, even more so when we have had spring frosts. Luckily in most places the spring frosts have not been…Read more about Chemical thinning[Read More]
Once flowers open in the spring, we’re hoping for warmer weather so the bees will transfer pollen and for rapid pollen tube growth. As we all know, apples require cross pollination, so for example Golden Delicious pollen will not fertilize Golden Delicious flowers. We rely on bees and other insects to transfer pollen from one…Read more about Pollination – a refresher[Read More]
The summer field day of the Indiana Horticultural Society will be held July 9 at Chandler Orchard in Fillmore, IN just west of Indianapolis. More detail about the farm is on their website: https://www.chandlersorchard.com We’ll have more information on the field day later but for now put the date on your calendar and plan to…Read more about Indiana Hort Society Field Day[Read More]
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