Loving our new leafy greens harvester…sure beats cutting greens by hand. We seeded this lettuce directly *on top* of our biobased mulch fabrics developed with 3M. Mulch allows crop root growth through it while keeping weeds beneath it!

Congrats #horticulture doctoral student Caleb Wehrbein—awarded the Cooper Sharpless Fellowship! Now he's working with Sam Wortman, looking at the viability of using biodegradable fabrics for high-density production of specialty crops. #UNL #UNLAgroHort go.unl.edu/2bh3

I’m excited to share some cover crop tools I’ve been working on with the Grossman lab. Cover crops are so important for vegetable farms and gardens, but most resources are for field crop growers. 1: cover crop selection for vegetable growers webpage: extension.umn.edu/cover-crops-an…

Looking forward to offering this mini session course again, this time with more discussion, guest speakers and a field trip. If you have questions please reach out to me! No prereqs and open to grad/undergrad students.

Fellow local food evangelists: Have a read. I can say I reshaped my biz message a few years ago based on some of this stuff. I don't know if I'll give up the "where" because I will die on the hill of proximity and quality being very closely related when dealing with vegetables

A new method for detecting micro-fragments of biodegradable mulch films containing poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT) in soil - Study by Wortman et al. doi.org/10.1002/jeq2.2… Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources Nebraska Agronomy and Horticulture Sam Wortman

Great thread here about spatial distribution of lead in soils and implications for urban agriculture. Well done Andrew Margenot

Small-scale growers can adapt to climate change and use soil-building practices with cover crop-based no-till. Reusable tarps make this practice feasible for #organic producers. In HortScience doi.org/10.21273/HORTS…

We're honored to be selected as one of the seven cities in the Biochar Project! 🎉 More information ⬇ lincoln.ne.gov/biochar

Everyone that lives in Nebraska, or has family members that live here, needs to read this study regarding pediatric cancers! agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/20…

GARDENERS & URBAN FARMERS: Sam Wortman wants you to participate in a science project to collect plant & soil data in your garden! Learn abt benefits of soil health mgnt practices & provide data to evaluate changes in urban soil health. ›› APPLY: go.unl.edu/05hj #UNL

😂 Arbor Day Foundation

Robotic lettuce planting on ⁦University of Nebraska-Lincoln⁩ East Campus today with ⁦santosh pitla⁩ team. Exploring ways to automate tasks on local fruit and vegetable farms ⁦Nebraska Agronomy and Horticulture⁩ ⁦Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources⁩

Amazing day at the University of Costa Rica making new friends (Manuel and Claudio in their Herbie Husker hats 😀), learning about new crops (papaya), and discussing our shared biodegradable mulch research project. Grateful to K@KK Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources Nebraska Agronomy and Horticulture for the opportunity!

Fun (and very hot) week at University of Costa Rica Santa Cruz! Finished setting up a parallel trial with Nebraska Agronomy and Horticulture to compare biodegradable weed barrier performance for leafy greens 🥬

Grafted tomato production is popular in high tunnels, but Sam Wortman research Nebraska Agronomy and Horticulture suggests grafting is not consistently beneficial in open field production systems. #HortScience doi.org/10.21273/HORTS…

Field pennycress…a winter annual “weed”…looking suspiciously like a free cover crop here 😁 shorturl.at/gxHM0

A new biobased compostable mulch system was designed for high population crops like carrot where seeds are planted on and grow through the mulch. Preliminary research by Sam Wortman suggests it reduces weeds by over 90%. #HortTechnology doi.org/10.21273/HORTT…

Rain didn't stop Nebraska Agronomy and Horticulture faculty Sam Wortman to share information about the use of living and plastic mulch in strawberry production & variety trials. Well done! Dr. Martha Mamo University of Nebraska-Lincoln Nebraska Extension Nebraska Research

Palmer amaranth can be a problem weed in strawberry 🍓 production fields. Research Nebraska Agronomy and Horticulture faculty Sam Wortman indicates biodegradable mulch films can be used for weed suppression. Nebraska Extension Dr. Martha Mamo