At some time or another, most businesses find themselves developing various types of promotions to stimulate sales. Promotions are rarely “one-off” occurrences rather they are a part of an overall company promotional strategy. A promotional strategy is a plan for the optimal use of five promotional ...

“I’m still kind of learning, too,” said Ray Zimmerman, during an interview at his High Tunnel Farm near Fort Plain, NY. Zimmerman, who moved to New York from Pennsylvania nearly 4 years ago, says this is the third year he has been in production with high tunnels. He says he works closely with CCE EN...

“If you prune early and often it will take a lot less time and make harvesting more efficient later on,” says CCE ENY Commercial Horticulture Program Vegetable and High Tunnel Specialist Amy Ivy. Folks traveled for hours to attend the hands-on, high tunnel tomato pruning workshop instructed by Ivy a...

Millennials are often called “the transparency generation.” They like to look inside things and behind the scenes — that’s why 38 percent of them listen to podcasts, according to Edison Research. Transparency and education is very important to them. It’s also important to our industry, where we have...

If your business is sliding too close to a mid-season slump, super-charge your marketing strategy by asking your customers three important questions. What you learn from the exercise is sure to give sales a kick and launch your business into a more successful second half. It is all about the informa...

by Noah Rosenzweig and Chris Long, Michigan State University, Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences; Sandesh Dangi and Phill Wharton, University of Idaho Late blight was found in a potato plant in St Joseph County on July 7, 2017. Initial genotyping confirmed isolates as US-23 by GPI isom...

It is with great pleasure for us to introduce a new column, “Grower Guidelines” by Carl Cantaluppi. Carl has worked in Cooperative Extension for 36 years in the Northeast, Southeast and Midwest. He will bring timely topics about fruit and vegetable production based on his experience. Asparagus facts...

Interested in getting pollination assistance from wild ground-dwelling squash bees? Greg Donaldson regularly grows 80 acres of pumpkins. Donaldson Farms is a 500-acre vegetable and fruit farm in northern New Jersey. He has discovered that by following specific farming practices he has been able to e...

Graduating from the Stockbridge School of Agriculture — UMass Amherst, in 2007, Tyler Annichiarico returned to North Adams, MA to work the family business — Mount Williams Greenhouse, Inc. The greenhouse was familiar territory even before Tyler went to school. “My parents bought the greenhouse in ’7...

The Connecticut Christmas Tree Growers Association has enlisted the help of gifted Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station researchers Richard Cowles and Thomas Rathier to study some serious problems plaguing their Fraser, balsam and Canaan fir plantings. One field studied had poor interior shoo...

The Massachusetts Cultivated Blueberry Association held its annual spring seminar at Vandervalk Farm & Winery in Mendon, MA on June 17, 2017. Two dozen attendees from Massachusetts and Rhode Island gathered to learn about weed management in blueberry plantings from Hilary Sandler, UMASS Cranberry St...

SNA Conference scheduled for Jan. 8-9, 2018 in Baltimore, MD The Southern Nursery Association (SNA) has announced plans to collocate The SNA Conference with the Mid-Atlantic Nursery Trade Show (MANTS) in 2018. Under this new arrangement, both events will take place at the Baltimore Convention Center...

In recent years agritourism has grown by leaps and bounds. This is in part due to low agricultural commodity prices as well as importing foods from foreign countries. The low prices and rising operating costs are affecting small farm profits and forcing farm owners to supplement their incomes with o...

The Virginia Cooperative Extension’s website offers these examples of ways to enter the agritourism market: Overnight stays: Lodging and camping Bed and breakfast Camp sites Youth camp Farm vacation (farm stays, feeding animals, picking fruit/vegetables) Rental cabin for day trips/picnics Weddings, ...

Lindsay Wilcox, marketing advisor for the Farmers Market Federation of New York, says when it comes to improving the farmer/customer interface at farmers markets, the “hit and hope” approach doesn’t win. “There’s a concern that farmers markets aren’t what they used to be,” said Wilcox. “Vendors are ...