crops

Spray tables - learn more about these useful tools for safely cleaning your vegetable crops

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA EXTENSION - www.extension.umn.edu Not all produce needs to be washed at the farm, but some benefit from a rinse if there is visible soil. Things like fresh berries, tomatoes, zucchini, many herbs and some crops like peppers do not generally need washing until the consumer...

Reducing tillage in vegetable crops

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA EXTENSION - www.extension.umn.edu Last spring and summer our team visited 100 small-scale vegetable farms in Minnesota to do soil health assessments, and one of the key drivers of healthy soil was tillage. Soils with less tillage had better aggregate stability, faster...

Best practices for planting fall cover crops

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA EXTENSION - www.extension.umn.edu Fall cover crop planting is right around the corner, and this blog post is full of resources to help you with species selection, seeding rate, and seeding methods. Choosing a cover crop The first step to choosing a cover crop for...

Let pesticide applicators know where your specialty crops are

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA EXTENSION - www.extension.umn.edu The DriftWatch program provides a simple way for crop producers to communicate information about their crop locations to pesticide applicators. Growers do this by posting their fields on the online FieldWatch Map. Pins in the map mark the...

Selecting herbicides for spring application in fruit crops

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA EXTENSION - www.extension.umn.edu Photo: Reading the Midwest Fruit Pest Management Guide to find the right herbicide for a new strawberry field. I received a good question in my email inbox this week. The grower asked (I am paraphrasing): What herbicides can I...

Quick Tips for Fertilizing Fruit Crops in the Fall

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA EXTENSION - www.extension.umn.edu Photo: A Regent apple tree in the fall. AK. For many, fall is a convenient opportunity to do soil testing and apply certain fertilizers. Be careful about what and when you are applying in order to avoid problems going into winter. Fall...

Managing wildfire smoke: impacts to crops and workers

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA EXTENSION - www.extension.umn.edu Over the past week, most of Minnesota has been blanketed by unhealthy concentrations of wildfire smoke from fires burning in Canada and northern Minnesota. Climatologists predict that wildfire smoke frequency and intensity will increase...

Preparing for the emergence of Japanese beetles in fruit crops

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA EXTENSION - www.extension.umn.edu Japanese beetles (JB) will begin emerging from the soil in Minnesota around the 3rd or 4th week of June. At this time, fruit growers should prepare their management strategies for JB and make any necessary purchases to control them. This...

Did you know?

Without pollinators, more than 100 crops grown in the United States would not be able to thrive. Plants, including various fruits, vegetables, nuts and more, rely on pollinators to ensure to transport pollen. Though many plants are self-pollinating and others are pollinated by the wind or water,...

2021 Considerations: Brassica Bonanza

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA EXTENSION - www.extension.umn.edu Our biweekly crop by crop growing season prep series continues. This week we are focusing on brassica crops. The more you know about these likely issues, the better prepared you will be to deal with them. Bolting Brassicas originated...