Thanks to Instagram, TikTok and Facebook, certain varieties of plants can become wildly popular. Find the right audience, and a particular rose, sunflower, fern or fiddle leaf fig can suddenly become the “it” plant, the must-have for trend-focused customers. The virality is real for these quick-grow...

For 27 seasons, Clear Brook Farm has grown and thrived in Shaftsbury, VT, becoming a local fixture and a model of organic farming. Andrew Knafel, owner and operator of Clear Brook and a native of Irvington, NY, learned the tricks of the trade while working for years at Walker Farm in Putney, VT. In ...

Suzanne Wainwright-Evans is a horticultural entomologist and owner of Buglady Consulting. She specializes in using biological controls as part of an IPM program. In a webinar sponsored by UConn Extension, UConn IPM and USDA, Wainwright-Evans discussed new biocontrol products and practices for greenh...

Over the years I’ve had the privilege of working with many different size vegetable operations in many different regions of the country. I was always amazed at the variety of equipment and tools found on these different operations. Growers are certainly very resourceful in modifying equipment to fit...

Merchants are expressing concern over disruptions in the supply chain and subsequently having enough product for their customers. While this situation presents a problem for both producers and consumers, it favors direct marketers who are adaptable to a rapidly changing sales environment. The time i...

By now, many growers know someone growing hemp or have considered looking into the crop themselves. CBD products have proliferated the market and researchers are continuing to find new uses for all parts of the plant. Research continues to be the key in helping to build hemp back up as a legitimate ...

When Suzanne Stokoe left the family farm for college, she had no plans to return. “I went to school for biology, worked at a research facility then became a veterinary technician,” said Suzanne. “About 21 years ago, the dirt in my blood came back. I returned to the farm and started the pumpkin patch...

“Brussels sprouts have become more popular in the last 10 years,” said University of New Hampshire (UNH) Extension Fruit and Vegetable Production Field Specialist Heather Bryant. Her recent presentation was the last in the UNH webinar series “North Country Lunch and Learn.” “When I was a kid, Brusse...

As far as unpredictable weather months go, October might be champion. Each year it brings a guessing game. Will it stay warm, or even hot? Will it rain nonstop? Will the frost come early? And if the cold does arrive sooner rather than later, do you know how to minimize damage to your fruit? That’s w...

If there was a perfect place to hold a Christmas tree summer meeting, it would be in a bucolic setting among rolling hills and neatly trimmed trees. That’s what attendees at the Pennsylvania Christmas Tree Growers Association (PCTGA) were treated to during the organization’s summer meeting hosted re...

There are a lot of options out there when it comes to substrates: soil, first and foremost, but also sphagnum peat moss, coir, perlite, vermiculite and bark. Luckily, growers in the U.S. have an enormous supply of bark coming from the Southeast – or, as one researcher calls it, “the wood basket of t...

Effectively managing the farm family’s finances can make the difference between a farm succeeding or folding. MidAtlantic Women in Agriculture recently presented “Managing Farm Family Finances” with presenters Maria Pippidis and Jesse Ketterman, both Extension educators. Pippidis is with the Univers...

You’re probably scratching your head trying to figure out where I’m going with this column since it’s only October, although your fields are full of pumpkins and the woods are dressing in their finest tapestry of autumn colors. When I was growing up, the time interval between Thanksgiving and Christ...

Without knowing what they’re called, it’s still very likely you’re familiar with radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags. They use electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects. In the livestock industry, they’re often found in the ear tags of cows. They’re o...

For many direct marketers, special events account for a large portion of their annual income. Fall festivals, harvest celebrations and corn mazes, to name just a few, concentrate buyers in one place at a specific time. The benefits of these events are large-scale sales. Two other benefits are increa...