Serious Grower

I will be including brief field reports in the feed through the growing season, featuring real-time reports from extension specialists in New England, New York, and the mid-Atlantic states.
Pay close attention to where some of these reports are coming from because we’ll be covering a wide region and please reach out if you need help connecting with your local extension specialist wherever you are. We’ll get you hooked up with the right expert in your area!
 
The 2026 Cornell IPM Organic Production and IPM Guide for Vegetables is out and available online now!
 
More information about southern blight in tomatoes
https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/southern-blight-of-vegetable-crops
 
More information about managing leek moth in storage onions
https://www.uvm.edu/d10-files/documents/2025-02/2020-Leek-Moth-Research-Brief-FINAL.pdf 
https://youtu.be/OVaMkw6UmIU?si=qQ4_PL2NXJ4iD1DQ
 
More information about deploying biofumigation using mustard cover crops
Biofumigation
https://projects.sare.org/project-reports/fne15-817/
https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/f82d6e90-0e81-4652-9dfc-f7a16cb624b5/content
 
 
 
 

Chuck is a commercial farmer in New Hampshire and an expert in Integrated Pest Management (IPM) for fruit and vegetable crops. 
This episode touches on how the scientific community is seeking alternatives tools & tactics to replace neonicotinoid pesticides in vegetable pest management and how science and policy influence the nitty gritty business of growing food. 
From New Hampshire's House Spring 2026 legislative session HB-1086-FN and HB-1431-FN
Full Interview with Dr. Brian Nault (Cornell University)
 
Music: With the Homies - Sarah, The Illstrumentalist; Silvia, Acid Streets of Brazzaville - El Flaco Collective; Feelings - Ryan James Carr; Morning Reggae - Sir Gigalot

I will be including brief field reports in the feed through the growing season, featuring real-time reports from extension specialists in New England, New York, and the mid-Atlantic states.
Pay close attention to where some of these reports are coming from because we’ll be covering a wide region and please reach out if you need help connecting with your local extension specialist wherever you are. We’ll get you hooked up with the right expert in your area!
More information about foliar diseases of cucurbits:
https://www.vegetables.cornell.edu/pest-management/disease-factsheets/cucurbit-powdery-mildew/
https://www.vegetables.cornell.edu/crops/cucurbits/downy-mildew/
https://cdm.ipmpipe.org/ 
 
More information about sap beetle in sweet corn
https://extension.psu.edu/sap-beetle-management-in-sweet-corn 
 
 
 
 
 

I will be including brief field reports in the feed through the growing season, featuring real-time reports from extension specialists in New England, New York, and the mid-Atlantic states.
Pay close attention to where some of these reports are coming from because we’ll be covering a wide region and please reach out if you need help connecting with your local extension specialist wherever you are. We’ll get you hooked up with the right expert in your area!
 
For more information about fall armyworm
https://extension.psu.edu/fall-armyworm-as-a-pest-of-field-corn
 
For more information about corn rusts
https://www.vegetables.cornell.edu/pest-management/disease-factsheets/common-rust-of-sweet-corn/
 
For more information about yellow vine decline
https://plantpathology.mgcafe.uky.edu/yellow-vine-decline-cucurbits-ppfs-vg-12
 
 

Kasi is a non-commercial farmer in Montana's Bitterroot Valley. In this wide ranging discussion, we touch on microbes, nitrogen amendments for growing flowers, invasive species, comfrey tea, "chop and drop" mulching, using compost tea as a liquid fertilizer and as a pesticide... and why Anna needs to get off r/permaculture.
More information about how to interpret your soil tests from Vermont and Montana's extension services and The Compost Tea Brewing Manual. 
 
Music: With the Homies - Sarah the Illstrumentalist; Zigaboos Walk, Paper Cloth - El Flaco Collective; Happy Accident - Daniel Fridell

I will be including brief field reports in the feed through the growing season, featuring real-time reports from extension specialists in New England, New York, and the mid-Atlantic states.
Pay close attention to where some of these reports are coming from because we’ll be covering a wide region and please reach out if you need help connecting with your local extension specialist wherever you are. We’ll get you hooked up with the right expert in your area!
 
More information on managing cercospora leafspot in table beets, including a list of varieties with resistance to key beet diseases, a tool that helps predict infections, and two resources on a fungicide resistance program and efficacy of fungicides approved for use in organic systems that informed some of this episodes conclusions.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

I will be including brief field reports in the feed through the growing season, featuring real-time reports from extension specialists in New England, New York, and the mid-Atlantic states.
Pay close attention to where some of these reports are coming from because we’ll be covering a wide region and please reach out if you need help connecting with your local extension specialist wherever you are. We’ll get you hooked up with the right expert in your area!
More on Western bean cutworm
https://cals.cornell.edu/integrated-pest-management/outreach-education/fact-sheets/western-bean-cutworm-vegetable-fact-sheet
 
More on identifying early blight on tomato
https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/early-blight-of-tomato
 
Bulb mite in garlic
https://www.umass.edu/agriculture-food-environment/sites/ag.umass.edu/files/fact-sheets/pdf/bulb_mites_garlic.pdf
 
UMaine’s Garlic Disease Testing Services
https://extension.umaine.edu/ipm/how-to-send-a-plant-sample/

Jason wants to turn his lawn into an edible landscape and an amazing place for his family in Oregon. We’ll drop in throughout the year to hear how things are progressing.
This conversation includes fitting tree fruit into small spaces, how to trap earwigs and why they are both good and bad, and why mail order pollinators could be causing more problems than its solving. 
 
Listen to the full interview with Tracy Zarrillo about her work with wild bees in CT.  

I will be including brief field reports in the feed through the growing season, featuring real-time reports from extension specialists in New England, New York, and the mid-Atlantic states.
Pay close attention to where some of these reports are coming from because we’ll be covering a wide region and please reach out if you need help connecting with your local extension specialist wherever you are. We’ll get you hooked up with the right expert in your area!
 
More information about purple carrot seed moth, Depressaria depressana. 
https://insectlab.russell.wisc.edu/2018/07/23/purple-carrot-seed-moth/ 

Do you want to know more about where your tomatoes come from and the experts who are supporting our vegetable farmers to grow us the freshest, tastiest tomatoes possible, using the most economically & environmentally sustainable practices?
This discussion includes discussions of how growing tomato crops under cover can solve one problem (fungal diseases) but might create new problems in need of solutions. 
More on pest management in high tunnels, distinguishing cosmetic injury caused by thrips versus abiotic conditions, and an emerging pest of tomatoes in the east, tomato pin worm. 
Special thanks to Patricia Prade at PennState Extension, Samantha Willden at Cornell AgriTech and Kathy Kamminga at Kentucky State University. 
Learn more about how federal and state funding provide expert support to our farmers to make pest management as environmentally and economically sustainable as possible by using Integrated Pest Management (IPM) tools & tactics.
Music: With the Homies - Sarah the Illstrumentalist; Summertime Madness, Just a Friend - Matt Large; Overture - Dozeoff; Libertalia - Arc DeSoleil; Beginning to Dream, Talk 2 Me - Ryan James Carr