Growers who devote growing space to poinsettias have a considerable investment in personnel and labor until the crop is finished. “A poinsettia can look great and have wonderful color,” said James Doukas, Selecta Ball Flora, “but unless it rings at the register, it isn’t useful to us as growers beca...

Malabar spinach, red okra, bottle gourd, bitter melon and stevia may not be standard farmers market fare, but Allison Akbay has developed a strong customer following for specialty vegetables. At the Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Convention, held virtually this year, Akbay shared what she has lear...

Corn mazes and pumpkin patches are hallmarks of autumn agritourism front, but there are those who want to go a step further and offer a spooky experience – a haunted attraction. The question is how do you host a haunt without falling into tired tropes and corny clichés? You can incorporate your loca...

Scouting for greenhouse pests is one of the most critical tasks for greenhouse operators. It can mean the difference between catching a problem in time or total crop loss. Dr. Luis Canas, associate professor of entomology at Ohio State University, said it’s useful for growers to review the greenhous...

Dr. Alex Chan, a mental and behavioral health specialist with University of Maryland Extension, recently gave a presentation titled “Tips for Successful Family Meetings” for the Mid-Atlantic Women in Agriculture Program. According to Chan, there are three common sources of conflict for business-owni...

The world is finally emerging from the exasperating asterisk that was 2020. Reflecting on what they had to do to get by, agricultural producers are taking a look back at what worked, what didn’t, what they’re glad to see go and what they’d like to keep for the future. “Cultivating Farm and Food Safe...

If you’ve seen the movie “The Mummy,” you know scarab beetles can cause a lot of damage. Japanese beetles fall into this category, and July is when they start to become active. The invasive pests were first found in the U.S. in New Jersey in 1916, and since then have spread to most states east of th...

At a grower meeting, Dr. George Wilson at NC State University addressed the subject of harvesting and post-harvest handling of vegetables. He said once you harvest a vegetable it’s at its highest point in quality; what you do after that can only slow its continued deterioration. Think about the myri...

When I first started out, a CSA customer would ask for a different color combination each week. Sometimes it was a challenge, but it also forced me to look at the interactions between flowers and helped hone my design skills. One week she asked for a bouquet of primary colors and my mind stopped. I ...

It’s the time of the year when growers focus on thinning fruit trees. While apple growers have prediction models and Decision Support Systems (DSS), such as the carbohydrate or apple pollen tube growth models to guide their best decision-making skills and tools for crop load management, peach grower...

Summertime is watermelon time, and in some very cool fruit news, an ancient melon which is believed to be the closest relative and potential ancestor of the modern watermelon has been discovered by scientists. A team led by Dr. Guillaume Chomicki from the University of Sheffield’s Department of Anim...

Kids introduced to gardening at a young age are more likely to become lifelong horticulture enthusiasts, and with more people gardening than ever, it’s a perfect time to get involved with youth gardening. So believe the organizers of KidsGardening , a nonprofit dedicated to that exact topic. A natio...

Bouquets are everywhere – in grocery stores, at florists, alongside the vegetables at the farm stand and even the gas station checkout counter. Those hoping to profitably grow and sell market bouquets need to have a plan to distinguish themselves. Crop planning involves knowing what to plant, when t...

If you sell things, you want to make money. You also want to offer your customers as many avenues as possible to spend their money. There are more options than just cash available today, and that’s a good thing, because fewer and fewer people carry it. Healthy Lifestyles and Nutrition Educator Hanna...

As Christmas trees, Fraser firs are prized for their rich color, pleasant odor and their ability to hold onto their needles. However, they’re also highly susceptible to devastating root rot diseases caused by water molds in the genus Phytophthora. There are about 170 species of Phytopthora, which ca...