Vegetable growers in Ohio and the region will have multiple opportunities in coming months to participate in educational programs designed to address their concerns. These programs include the Winter Wednesday Lunch Series:Vegetable Production Webinars, Great Lakes Fruit, Vegetable and Farm Market Expo, OPGMA Congress, Indiana Horticultural Congress, Empire State Fruit and Vegetable Expo, Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Convention and the OEFFA Annual Conference. Check here and other websites and sources for additional program announcements.
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Featured Research
Rainfall can be excessive during crop production in some areas. However, in an increasing number of others, irrigation water is very precious. There, using irrigation tools and methods that conserve water while maintaining yield and quality is critical. However, even in areas where irrigation water is plentiful, the same efficient irrigation approaches can save farmers money and have other benefits.
Working in Texas, the team of Enciso and coworkers demonstrate that onion yield and quality can be maintained at soil moisture levels lower than some may expect. Six irrigation treatments based on when drip irrigation was triggered and how much water was applied were tested. The team drew these and other conclusions. First, scheduling irrigation according to soil moisture sensors or calculations of crop evapotranspirative demand is reliable. And, second, replacing less than 100% of the crop’s calculated water demand may not alter marketable yield, pungency, or Brix compared to replacing all of the crop’s water demand.
Lab Happenings
Natural rubber is a strategic resource, given its use in hundreds of medical, military, transportation and other products and narrow supply base. Synthetic rubber lacks key properties. And, supplies from plantations of the current source of natural rubber, Hevea brasiliensis, are increasingly unsteady. Since 2005, the VPSL has been pleased to partner in efforts to develop Taraxacum kok-saghyz (TKS) as a domestic source of natural rubber, as outlined at http://www.oardc.osu.edu/penra/index.html.
TKS can be grown from seed and root cuttings. And, it is winter-tolerant when grown outdoors or in semi-protected settings. Moreover, to facilitate development efforts, the TKS plant inventory must always be as large as possible. With these facts in mind, the VPSL recently established plantings using many seed, seedlings and cuttings in high and medium-high tunnels at the OARDC in processes depicted here. These new plantings complement others in field and greenhouse settings at OARDC and elsewhere.
