Harvesting onions for a project with UMN Horticulture

This summer, CFANS alumni caught up with friends old and new during socials at three Research and Outreach Centers across the state. They also toured the facilities and heard from Center representatives about research conducted at each station. bit.ly/3s2yMiX

Photo 1: poor emergence of #covercrop due to lack of rain. Photo 2: 5 feet away, where irrigation hit, dense cover crop and very little purslane.

If you’re looking to improve your work environment, I’d recommend a strip of borage, phacelia, and sunflowers in the unused space between plots.

One of today’s activities: lifting potatoes before it rains again!

Some small-seeded crops were tricky to establish this year, but we’ve grown some monster beets and the carrot project is coming along nicely.

Let the pumpkin harvest begin!

Early look at our 2022 pumpkin data. 13 Tons from 2,166 fruits, individually weighed. It was a good year for pumpkins!

Hanging out with @SROCcrops and Jeff Vetsch at the SouthCentral College "Partnering with Agribusiness Day" to tell students about jobs and internships at the SROC.

Just getting around to some seasonal summaries. Our dryland peas, sweet corn, watermelon, and pumpkins appreciated that soaking through mid-May. And interseeded cover crops really needed that blip in late June for germination.

doi.org/10.1146/annure… I found a manuscript from 1982 on a desk I was cleaning. "Meditations on fifty years as an apolitical plant pathologist" (K. Baker, Ann. Rev. Phytopath.). It includes prescience, parallels, and gems like this:

MN is a leader in growing #sweetcorn. Looking forward to learning where the 2023 crop came in! National Agricultural Statistics Service

We're hiring! Do you like to grow things and want work in a great place with great people? Come help us with our vegetable research as a full-time Plot Technician!

The results of our Minnesota Department of Agriculture Sustainable Agriculture Demonstration Grant (Agricultural Growth, Research and Innovation (AGRI) Program) are published. Grafted tomatoes removed 16–40% more soil P, starter P didn't matter. doi.org/10.21273/HORTS…

We planted about 4,000 onions today to learn about varietal differences in size, yield, pungency, and response to sulfur fertilizer.

Plant summer squash this weekend so that you'll have an overabunance in time for National Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor’s Porch Day on August 8.

Field research is hard, sometimes stuff just happens. Like when crows dig up 80% of your 0.6-acre pumpkin project. Or it rains 14 inches in the 8 weeks after planting a pea variety trial (hello root rot!). Or when the Aquamat malfunctions, killing some cabbage transplants.

30 states reported sweet corn production, and 10,757 growers were smaller than 5 Acres (PA had the most growers >5A). 3,799 pumpkin growers from 12 reporting states had less than 1 Acre. The large-scale processing industry in MN (sweet corn) and IL (pumpkin) stand out.