Irrigation involves many considerations, but soil scientist Dr. Andrew Bierer, Appalachian Fruit Research Center, Kearneysville, WV, believes soil is number one. “Soil is made of three different size class particles,” said Bierer, who spoke recently at the Mid-Atlantic Fruit & Vegetable Convention. ...

Thanks to social media, plants that never received much attention before are gaining more time in the spotlight. Like Dipladenia. An annual, Dipladenia (aka rocktrumpet) is sometimes used interchangeably with Mandevilla but they are different. As Brian Krug and Jamie Gibson, technical leads with Syn...

Irrigation got its moment in the sun at the most recent Cultivate, though not in the way you might expect. Forget the glossy tech booths and glitzy gadgetry – the real action was in a seminar room where Gerry Spinelli, production horticulture advisor for nurseries, floriculture and controlled enviro...

Pots, trays, media and seeds are ready to go. And so are the pests and diseases ready to muck everything up. Emma Lookabaugh, a technical service rep for BASF, spoke about four basic things to focus on when getting the jump on nursery diseases at the most recent Cultivate event. While some may seem ...

Vegetable vitality begins beneath the surface. In organic systems the success story often starts with something small yet significant: the transplant. In a focused and forward-thinking presentation, Ajay Nair, Ph.D., and Smriti Chaudhary, research assistant, from Iowa State, explored how dry media r...

Organic certification is a third-party verification system, allowing the certifier and its inspectors to verify what is happening on an organic farm. “What does the inspector want to see? They want to see records that demonstrate that you’re meeting the organic standard,” said Nicole Dehne, the cert...

The 2025 Irrigation Show & Education Week brought together growers, consultants and tech tinkerers hungry for tools that can stretch every drop. In the middle of the bustle, Dr. Stacia L. Davis Conger, state irrigation specialist and associate professor of irrigation engineering at LSU’s AgCenter, d...

In a presentation hosted by BalChem, Andrew Rose of the nonprofit organization Bioeconomy Information Sharing & Analysis Center (BIO-ISAC), discussed a critical and timely question: Could your operation survive a cyberattack? Rose refers to himself as an “accidental expert” in cybersecurity. He was ...

In time for National Ag Day on March 24, the nonprofit Rural Minds announces the launch of the new Farmer Mental Health Resilience Program in support of mental wellness for farmers and farm families. This critical new initiative aims to support the ag community by providing farmers and the individua...

Water is waning and landscapes are feeling the squeeze. Lawns and landscapes are increasingly left to languish under water use limits. In response to this pressing problem, Levi Dreiling and Jacob C. Domenghini of Kansas State University’s Department of Horticulture & Natural Resources set out to se...

A recent shift toward more restrictive weed control measures along with new, mandatory pesticide application rules has been mandated by the EPA. Wesley Everman, Ph.D., Iowa State Extension weed specialist, began an explanation of the rule changes with a brief history of what brought the EPA to devel...

At the Cultivate Conference in Columbus, one presentation invited landscape professionals to loosen their grip and embrace a little chaos – with purpose. In a session titled “Natural Disaster: The Good, the Bad & the Ugly of Managing Naturalistic Landscapes,” David McKinney, curator at the Iowa Arbo...

Sean Birkel, Ph.D., Maine’s climatologist and Cooperative Extension team member, introduced the state’s new 26-station weather monitoring network to many farmers and foresters at the state’s Agricultural Trades Show in Augusta. “The mesonet will fill existing networks and observational gaps and prov...

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.” So said Albert Einstein – and it’s imperative for growers to remain curious. A nursery-focused disease panel at the most recent Cultivate event took place solely so those in attendance could query about the ...

Presenters at the High Tunnel Production Conference in West Lebanon, NH, emphasized that high tunnels have different requirements and management needs than does in-field farming, so growers must make accommodations. The specialists who shared their expertise included Bruce Hoskins, assistant scienti...