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!
Webinar from the Vermont Vegetable & Berry Grower's Associate on what's new with Colorado potato beetle control
https://youtu.be/wcHqrf8M4Z8?si=-D_892Psawd60l-i 
 
Check out breaking news on corn earworm research!
https://www.cewipm.org/ 
 
More about precocious yellows in squash
https://extension.unh.edu/blog/2020/06/whats-making-my-squash-or-pumpkin-leaves-bright-yellow 
 
 

Kasi is a non-commercial farmer in Montana's Bitterroot Valley. We celebrate Birdhouse Day, discuss the ins and outs of cover cropping for a squash crop and for weed management, and the difference between "doing science" and "doing a science." Anna has an existential crisis over some very charismatic tomato plants. 
Tarping in the Northeast: A Guide for Small Farms 
 
Music: With the Homies, Sarah the Illstrumentalist; Patina, Ryan James Carr; I Don't Wanna Be You, Park Lane; Trouble Deep, River Sam; Creepin' Up, Got Happy; Funky Market, Ritchie Everett
 

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!
 
Check out breaking news on corn earworm research!
https://www.cewipm.org/ 
 
More on tomato grey leaf spot from Caleb Goossen
https://www.mofga.org/resources/pest-disease/stemphylium-gray-leaf-spot/ 
 

Fellow entomologist, Elisabeth Hodgdon, joins us for a deep dive into onion thrips management as she has been troubleshooting an unusual situation that is becoming more common among small-scale farming in across the northeast. We are joined by Ethan Grunberg to compare and contrast pest complexes in small- and large-scale onion production. 
The full interview with Elisabeth & Ethan, Cornell Cooperative Extension
More on variety selection for overwintering onion crops
More on successful application of entomopathogenic nematodes
 
Music: With the Homies - Sarah, The Illstrumentalist; Tell 'Em No - Flux Vortex; Dress Up - Walking Hearts; Arzoo - Kanika; Fantasize - I'MIN; Feel Alive - Glass House

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!
 
Check out breaking news on corn earworm research!
https://www.cewipm.org/ 
 
More information about onion & garlic diseases
https://www.apsnet.org/edcenter/pdlessons/Pages/Stemphylium-leaf-blight-Onion.aspx    
https://rvpadmin.cce.cornell.edu/uploads/doc_480.pdf
https://www.umass.edu/agriculture-food-environment/vegetable/fact-sheets/alliums-botrytis-neck-rot
 
Biocontrol suppliers for beneficial nematodes
https://ipmlabs.com/ 
https://www.griffins.com/category/HGPROD.PROTECT.INSECTS 
https://www.biolineagrosciencesna.com/ 
https://www.persistentbiocontrol.com/about 
 
How to grow your own beneficial nematodes 
https://nnyagdev.org/index.php/persistent-biocontrol-nematodes-instructional-manuals-and-videos/ 
 

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, including an update on their luffa project, more construction plans and a discussion of new and repurposed building materials.
Check out this example of the Sunset Climate Zones put to use, this pictographic on Trigger (Willie Nelson's guitar), as well as extension resources on using pressure treated wood in raised bed construction, using heat tape/cables in tunnel production, and plasticulture for extended season sweetcorn.
 
Music: With the Homies - Sarah, The Illstrumentalist; Joyride - Roy Edwin Williams; Sneaky Breezy, Dinner at Chez Paul - Martin Landstrom; Birds of Paradise - Ennio Mano

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 swede midge
https://blogs.cornell.edu/swedemidge/ 
 
More information on brassica downy mildew
https://blogs.cornell.edu/livegpath/gallery/crucifers-cole-crops/downy-mildew-on-cabbage/
 
More information on scouting onions for thrips
https://youtu.be/VdoXseBqo5o?si=2kC0tr7IqW6GQfll 
https://rvpadmin.cce.cornell.edu/uploads/doc_1168.pdf 
 
More information about purple blotch and other diseases of alliums
https://www.mofga.org/resources/fact-sheets/foliar-diseases-of-alliums/ 
 
More information about RNAi for Colorado potato beetle
https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2025/10/sprayable-rna-pesticide-works-best-when-potato-beetles-are-small
 
More information about URI's Laser Scarecrow Project
https://sites.google.com/view/urilaserscarecrow/home 
 
 
 

Caleb Goossen (MOFGA) provides some practical guidance on understanding the good and bad byproducts of microbial activity, while we traverse current and historical approaches for capturing heat for indoor lettuce production. 
Listen to the full interview with Dr. Md Sazan Rahman about UNH's Manure Heating Project. 
 
Music: With the Homies, Sarah the Illstrumentalist; Mt. Fiji, Ryan James Carr; Una Noche en Lagos, El Flaco Collective

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 scouting onions for thrips
https://youtu.be/VdoXseBqo5o?si=2kC0tr7IqW6GQfll 
https://rvpadmin.cce.cornell.edu/uploads/doc_1168.pdf 
 
More information about garden springtails
https://www.mofga.org/resources/fact-sheets/garden-springtails/ 
 
More information on epinasty
https://u.osu.edu/greenhouse/tag/epinasty/
https://vegcropshotline.org/article/ethylene-damage-on-tomato-2/
 
More information on herbicide injury and persistent herbicides
https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/synthetic-auxins 
https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/herbicide-carryover 
 

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?
Watch this video of large-scale processing tomato harvest. So neat!
This discussion includes many pre-season topics including the economics of reflective mulch for management of pests & disease (including thrips that vector tomato spotted wilt virus) as well as an emerging pest impacting high tunnel tomato production, potato aphid, Macrosiphum euphorbiae. 
For the stone cold nerds, here's how to identify this aphid.
Special thanks to Amanda Quadrel & Maria Cramer at Rutgers Cooperative Extension and Samantha Willden at Cornell AgriTech.
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, Its a Good Day - Sarah the Illstrumentalist; Karmalot - Janset; Machete Dream - Speedy the Spider