“Blackberries are the perfect complement to our year-round berry program,” said Gary Wishnatzki, Owner of Wish Farms. The Mexican blackberry season will span from the beginning of October to the end of May and will segue perfectly into the domestic season when blackberries from Georgia, North Carolina, and California will be available mid-May through September. In ...
In Saskatchewan, provincial guidelines recommend spraying fungicides on durum wheat at the flag leaf stage for leaf spots and the flowering stage for Fusarium head blight (FHB), if warranted. But others are also recommending fungicide applications at earlier growth stages on a preventative basis. Yet little evidence existed, until recently, on whether this was a viable p...
There’s another root rot pathogen in the neighbourhood. It’s called Aphanomyces euteiches. It loves peas, lentils and waterlogged soils. And it’s tough to deal with because its resting spores can survive in the soil for many years. Although Aphanomyces has been present in Manitoba since the late 1970s, researchers only recently identified it in Saskatchewan and Alberta. ...
The UFO arranges and orients the classic “fruiting unit” of sweet cherry trees (described in the August column; see diagram) as multiple vertical leaders in a single plane to create a very narrow, trellised fruiting wall. The UFO architecture can be established as a single or double “cordon,” like grapevines. This can be achieved by planting the nursery tree at a 45-d...
In 2014, a new to Canada plant disease, Verticillium longisporum, was first detected in an isolated canola field in Manitoba. Since then, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), in partnership with industry and provincial partners, conducted random field surveys to determine the pathogen’s general distribution in canola-growing regions of Canada. CFIA released the su...
One highly effective control measure for weed suppression is the use of cover crops. By competing with weeds for nutrients, inhibiting the growth of weeds through allelopathic compounds, and blocking out light that stimulates weed growth, cover crops are the backbone of weed management for organic growers. Julia Gaskin, Sustainable Agriculture Coordinator at the Unive...
"The apple is the most important production that we have here," she said, adding that her orchard welcomes up to 10,000 apple pickers in the fall. But now, Quebec's ministry of environment is urging producers to be vigilant of a fire blight epidemic that's hitting some of the province's orchards
Herbicides typically target annual weed species at the seedling stage. Harvest weed seed control (HWSC), an Australian paradigm of weed control, shifts the focus of weed control from the seedling stage to the adult stage, after the seeds have been formed and before they go back into the seedbank. There are several requirements for weed species to be compatible with H...
I am struck by how fast wild oat resistance occurred. Hugh Beckie’s three surveys in 2001 to 2007 to 2011 showed Group 1 resistance went from 11 per cent of our fields to 39 per cent to well over 50 per cent of our fields in Alberta. That’s very rapid and is indeed cause for concern. Dale Fedoruk, an agronomist in central Alberta, illustrated the problems with herbicide...
She has started multiple companies and launched various initiatives to educate, motivate, and empower regional entrepreneurs. She is bringing the best of disruption culture, from hackathons, to pitch events, to angel investing, to create and equip future generations of innovators as well as showcase innovations from existing regional businesses. Somerville’s work in W...
“The bitter rot fungus can be quite stealthy. You may see beautiful, blemish-free fruit going into cold storage, only to open up the storages a few months later with a big surprise in your bins: a lot of fruit with rot,” she writes. “Bitter rot spores can land on the fruit and lie in wait until they receive the right cues to cause infection.” Peter says the spores tha...
Teal pumpkins in front of a house indicates non-food treats are being handed out, from toys to glow sticks. According to FoodAllergies.org, it’s easy for families to take part: Provide non-food treats for trick-or-treaters. Place a teal pumpkin in front of your home to indicate to passersby that you have non-food treats available. Display a free printable sign or...
"With tighter rotations and increasing high moisture conditions during the critical period of canola flowering, growers are seeing an elevation in sclerotinia pressure throughout Western Canada over the past few years," said Glen Forster, Fungicide Technical Marketing Specialist in Western Canada for BASF. According to Forster, when it comes to controlling the losses ca...
As everyone who farms swine in North America knows, porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDv) is a very serious issue. More than eight million pigs have died of it since early 2013, and several Canadian swine farms were identified as PEDv-positive with recurrent infections. Eradication of PEDv from farms where it’s present is a tough goal to achieve, and one of the most im...
After a recent trip to fields in California and Ohio to visit with representatives from Syngenta, Sakata Seed America, and Rupp Seeds, American Vegetable Grower® magazine learned about several new varieties that offer long shelflife, great taste, and the ability to withstand disease pressure. Check ’em out! SYNGENTA, WOODLAND, CA ‘Astound’ and ‘Accolade’ gold-crow...
Urban Crops is a solution provider in the closed environment, vertical farming industry and is expanding its business globally through its own offices as well as a network of sales agents. Pieter De Smedt is leading the U.S. operations for Urban Crops. The company creates tailored growth infrastructures, which are turnkey, automated, robotized, and able to be integrat...
In the future, astronauts embarking on long space missions will need to produce food to supplement their diets. Using the Veggie plant growth facility aboard the station, Veg-03 builds on the successes of previous studies, including Veg-01. In 2015, Veg-01 resulted in the first on-orbit harvest and sampling of fresh produce. The Veg-03 crop will be the Veggie team’s f...
Each limited edition Snack Cup will have sweepstakes information for people to enter for the chance to win two tickets to the National Football League’s championship game Feb. 5, along with a $1,000 Visa gift card. “This is the time of year when people are naturally buying more celery to enjoy while tailgating, so we wanted to offer something special to football fans ...
The company is in partnership with three other entities: the North Carolina-based TriEst, which specializes in soil fumigation; the Israeli-based nursery Hishtill, which has extensive experience in grafted plant production; and finally Centro SEIA, based in Italy, which has spent more than 20 years grafting solanaceous crops. The facility is nestled in the mountains o...
While going to table stock was a good move and is still a major part of Blue Sky Farms production, times keep changing. In the past few years, Johns and a few partnering growers have ventured into new waters to maintain their competitive edge. The venture includes dealing direct with consumers through community supported agriculture (CSAs), local restaurants, and retaile...
This crimson characteristic is what gives these tomatoes their rich, deep-red color. In addition, it raises levels of lycopene, which is known to have health benefits and increases the flavor and shelf life of tomatoes. “Our customers love the Crimson Queen, which is our largest-volume fresh market product,” said Darren Micelle, Chief Operating Officer for Lipman. “Be...
NatureFresh’s TomBox will be featured at the upcoming PMA Fresh Summit Tradeshow & Convention in Orlando, FL, Oct. 15-16 in the Innovation @ Work section of the show. “We are very pleased to be named a finalist for this very important packaging sustainability award,” said Chris Veillon, Director of Marketing. The TomBox, a grab and go container made from 100% recyc...
It had a limited market roll out in 2016, with presence in the Midwest. Going forward, retailers who join the Sweet Emotion program receive exclusivity in their respective markets. All participating retailers also gain access to marketing support, including point-of-sale materials and social marketing content. After several years of working with seed breeders and g...
Following an 11-year period with no direct hurricane strikes, Florida not only saw the streak broken with the landfall of Category 1 rainmaker Hermine in early September, but is now recovering from significant impacts left behind by Hurricane Matthew, a major storm that also caused havoc in Haiti, Cuba, and the Bahamas. Though the eye of the storm did not make landfal...
The NWMHRC staff had the opportunity to test three orchard platforms last spring to determine which one was the best fit for its station. The staff members chose an Italian model made by the company N.Blosi. The Blosi Platform is designed to move both horizontally, like a vehicle, as well as vertically to reach the tops of taller trees. They are engineered with techno...
Now that BMSB has been detected in 43 states and is adapting to new climates, more needs to be done to manage the pest from a national perspective, says NC State Extension Entomologist Jim Walgenbach, principle investigator in the project. The grant is sponsored by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Specialty Crops Research Initiative Program, ...
We all have heard of the phrase. The same principle can be true in diagnosing cultural, disease or pest problems in berry production. Berry growers can encounter many problems in their daily routine. Some problems are relatively straightforward while others may be much more difficult. These “strange” problems may take what growers know and whom they know. Here are a few ...
Coolong said growers must be up-to-date on spray programs, though combating whitefly populations of this magnitude will still be difficult. In some cases it might be impossible to stop whiteflies before they spread viruses. Whiteflies feed on plants by sucking juice out of the leaves. They can transmit viruses that are devastating to vegetable crops. Babu Srinivasan, ...
H-FARM, an Italy-based innovation hub, and IT giant Cisco are taking advantage of this trend by launching a new food tech accelerator. H-FARM joins a growing number of accelerators cropping up to serve the food and agtech sectors but is one of very few based outside of the US and in Europe. “The general objective of H-FARM is to offer companies a new collaborative...
Attracting significant attention lately is the Zika virus, previously a lesser known virus but one that causes dreadful birth defects as well as serious neurological disease in some adults. While we certainly do not equate the seriousness of Zika with agricultural problems, the Zika virus can serve as a reminder about aspects of the many plant-infecting viruses, from alf...
Pest Specs The black cutworm occurs widely across the globe feeding on vegetables and grains. Nearly all vegetables are attacked, as are a variety of agronomic crops. Identification Larvae persist throughout the winter in Florida. Adults can disperse over long distances moving north in the spring and south in the autumn. Studies have demonstrated long distance movem...
Newbean Capital, the investment advisory firm focused on indoor ag and organizer of Indoor Ag-Con, clearly sees the struggle faced by startups after launching a financing arm called Contain Inc. “We decided to launch Contain, Inc. because we saw that many of the kinds of financing that were readily available to outdoor farmers—such as leasing equipment—weren’t current...
Landing in Mexico nearly eight years ago, cofounder and managing partner Everett Stephens had no idea where his journey to build a bioenergy project would take him. Keen to produce a sustainable source of food and fuel while bringing economic prosperity to parts of Mexico, he soon realized that a step-change was needed to bring Mexico’s agriculture industry into the 21st...
Willow Hill Ventures will invest in growth stage agtech companies beyond Series B stage taking advantage of IFC’s portfolio of farmland across the US to test agriculture technologies on. “IFC has a large number of directly-owned farms, and a tenant-partner network for us to trial agtech companies with as part of the evaluation process, but also to drive adoption onto ...
The Data Store offers farmers a way to sell their agronomic and machine data to vetted third parties on their own terms, according to the startup. Farmobile’s data standard, the Electronic Field Record (EFR), unifies and stores field data sets in a portable format, regardless of manufacturer or format. A completed EFR includes: planting date, crop, variety, and populatio...
In the US, the food industry is experiencing unprecedented change, and there’s no denying that small and emerging brands are poised to disrupt and capture market share from the larger players. A recent Nielsen study revealed that the leading 25 food and beverage companies accounted for 45% of total sales in the US in 2015, but drove just 3% of total category growth from ...
