Anyone who has attended our winter meetings the last several years is aware that I’m not a big fan of the onion Candy. The variety has several positive qualities including large size and a good flavor, and is excellent for the fresh market. But as with many of the sweet Spanish type onions it is … Read more
There are two important goals for optimum strawberry production, the first is setting a high fruit load potential, and the second is harvesting the maximum amount of the potential fruit set … maintaining both fruit size and flavor. June bearing strawberries set next year’s fruiting potential in the late summer and early fall. In addition, … Read more
As this summer season begins to draw to a close, it’s not too early to begin plans for the 2017 growing season. We’ve prepared a possible list of management practices for you to think about, but before we get into the list, we would like to relate this little story first. We first read … Read more
Hay Quality can be easily improved with foliar nutrients following each cutting At ISP, the first step in assembling a crop recommendation is to study the crop and how it grows. From standing alfalfa, we’ve identified several key aspects of plant physiology that will have a significant impact on both tonnage and quality. First, is … Read more
After preplant soil testing, proper application of granular nutrients and variety selection, timely plant tissue analysis is a tool with the potential to help you maximize yields of tomatoes, peppers, and other high value produce crops. Unlocking high plant yields and fruit quality requires up to date information on major and minor plant nutrient levels … Read more
ISP has enjoyed the opportunity to work with many Amish communities across the past several decades, and the Amish remain one of our most important growth areas. Many have embraced the opportunity of vegetable production, and have become very good at growing high quality tomatoes, peppers and other important vegetable crops. Yields are often impressive … Read more
Summer has arrived, and fortunately the longer day length gives us almost enough time to get our daily tasks completed. Unfortunately, the important word in the first sentence is “almost”. Caring for our crops is a never-ending task … watering, ensuring nutrient is available at optimum levels, checking and preparing for potential disease and pest … Read more
Every winter we plan our research projects for the coming season, and this year was no different. In some respects this is one of the most enjoyable activities, as we’re enthusiastic about what we might be able to learn, and as Steve likes to say, “so far everything is perfect!” To date we have no … Read more
Gary Shafer, Research Director MetaboliK SB showed a very strong response in the 2016 outside peppers and tomatoes trials at Howe, Indiana. (Data published in the Winter issue of this newsletter.) Seeing this, we decided to do further experimentation this spring, and are performing a couple of research projects with MetaboliK SB, studying emergence and … Read more
Steve Bogash, Vegetable Crop Advisor Are you growing more intensively, but soil-borne diseases seem to keep getting ahead of you? If the answer to this question is “yes”, please read on. Diseases, insects, nematodes and other pests have many methods of finding their way into your soils. Sometimes the plants or media on transplants is … Read more