2023 Vegetable Trials

The 2023 Home Garden Trials are now active. The team is looking for people excited about growing vegetables in their home gardens and then letting us know what they think. Youth and adults are welcome to participate. Each trial contains 2 varieties that you will grow side by side to compare throughout the season. You can select multiple trials. For the trial, you will receive seeds for 2 varieties, row markers, a garden layout plan to prepare your rows or beds, and growing information specific to the crop species.
For more information, visit the website at https://u.osu.edu/brown.6000/vegetable-trials/
The guidelines, cost, and past results are available on this site as well as the new vegetables in the trials. The deadline to order is February 17.

Online Fruit Pruning School is March 9 and 14

Greetings,

The Ohio State University South Centers is hosting a two-part Online Fruit Pruning School on Thursday, March 9, and Tuesday, March 14, 2023. This is a FREE online event that will be conducted virtually via the Zoom communications platform.

Part 1 on March 9 will focus on pruning fruit trees including apples, peaches, and pears. Part 2 will be held on March 14, and will cover small fruits like blueberries, grapes, and raspberries. Both sessions will begin at 9:30 a.m.

Please register no later than Monday, March 6, 2023. Simply visit the link below and fill out the registration form. We also plan on offering recordings afterward, so you can access the event on-demand, as we know this fits some people’s schedules better.

Register here: http://go.osu.edu/pruningschool

For even more information, consult the attached flyer.

Looking forward to seeing you (virtually) again this year!

Online Fruit Pruning School

Come join us for a three-part, online workshop to learn proper pruning techniques to improve production and quality in your apple, grape, and raspberry plantings. You will be online with Ohio State University South Centers experts, who will give live presentations with short pre-recorded videos. They will also answer your questions.

2022 SCHEDULE
PART 1 – Tuesday, MARCH 1

9:30-10:45 a.m.     Apple Tree Training + Pruning

PARTS 2+3 – Tuesday, MARCH 8
9:30-10:45 a.m.     Grape Vine Training + Pruning
11 a.m.-12:15 p.m.   Raspberry Bush Pruning

We will also have drawings for some locally-produced goodies. Must be present to win.

Pruning Flyer 2022

Deadline: Monday, February 28, 2022
Cost: FREE
Location: ONLINE
Contact: Bradford Sherman, 614-247-9680, sherman.1473@osu.edu

Fall Fruit Update – Covering Brambles (Blackberries and Raspberries), Grapes, Hardy Figs, and Hardy Kiwis – Register Now

Join us for timely fruit research updates for your farm and garden, and to get your questions answered by experts from The Ohio State University. This FREE, online-only event will feature several video presentations recorded from the OSU South Centers research fields, as well as live question and answer segments. The event will take place from 10-11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, September 9, 2020, using the Zoom meeting platform.

When registering, you can submit questions you would like answered during the event. To register, visit https://go.osu.edu/fruitupdate. Be sure to include an email address that your monitor regularly, as this will be the method we use to send you the link to join the event.

This event is made possible via funding by a Specialty Crop Block Grant from USDA through the Ohio Department of Agriculture and by a Viticulture Extension grant from Ohio Grape Industries Committee.

Event Flyer

Bacterial Canker Showing Up in Tomatoes this Summer

Bacterial canker symptoms inside a tomato stem.

Bacterial canker is a systemic disease of tomatoes caused by the bacterium Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. michiganensis. It can occur in fresh market and processing tomatoes, in open fields, and in protected culture systems like greenhouses and high tunnels. Symptoms are stunting of whole plants, which never reach their full potential, plant death, foliar lesions, “firing” on leaf margins, and raised scabby lesions on fruit. Seeds are a major means of introducing the canker pathogen into a tomato crop, but the bacteria can survive in the field for several years, as well as on surfaces such as greenhouse walls or floors, tools, stakes, clips or ties, etc. Several cases of tomato canker have come into our diagnostic lab this summer; since the bacteria clog the plants’ water-conducting vessels, the stunting symptom may be more severe in the hot, dry weather we’ve experienced for much of this year’s growing season.

Bacterial canker on tomato leaves.

Peppers are also susceptible to bacterial canker, but the disease is not systemic in peppers so the stunting symptom does not occur. However, the firing of the leaf margins and leaf and fruit lesions do occur. Symptoms of bacterial canker on peppers are different than those on tomatoes (see figures). The bacteria that infect

Start with clean seed – For purchased seeds, buy certified, disease-free seed or sanitize seed with hot water (recommended), dilute bleach, or hydrochloric acid. It is especially important to sanitize saved seeds, such as for heirloom varieties. Here is a link to the OSU fact sheet for Hot Water and Chlorine Treatment of Vegetable Seeds to Eradicate Bacterial Plant Pathogens. In place of water baths for the hot water treatment, relatively inexpensive Sous Vide – type digital water heaters can be used to heat and maintain the water at the prescribed temperature. There are no bactericides or other products that control this disease once it is in the field or greenhouse. This disease is managed primarily through sanitation.

Bacterial canker lesions on pepper fruit.
  • Keep transplants clean and healthy – Scout tomato and pepper plants daily and destroy plants with canker symptoms once a plant disease diagnostic laboratory has confirmed the disease. Apply one or two preventative copper fungicide applications and one application of streptomycin (conventional systems) to the plants before transplanting them into the field.
  • Use clean equipment and tools – Clean and disinfect all tools and farm equipment prior to working with the transplants or plants. Good sanitation practices are critical to prevent contamination and cross-contamination of plants by the bacterial canker pathogen. Quaternary ammonium products and 10% chlorine bleach are suitable disinfectants.
  • Start with a clean field – The bacterial canker pathogen can survive in the field as long as there is infected crop debris present. Rotate with a non-host before re-planting the field with a tomato. Ideally, a 3-4 year out of crops in the same family as tomato (pepper, eggplant) should be implemented. Plant into a field free of weeds or volunteer tomato plants.

    Bacterial canker symptoms on pepper leaves.
  • Use best cultural practices – Use management strategies that maintain reduced-stress growing conditions. Provide plants with adequate but not excessive nitrogen, improve the organic matter content of the soil through the use of composted green or animal waste or cover crops, use well-drained soil and avoid overhead irrigation if possible.

The Annual Pumpkin Field Day Goes Virtual!

For over 20 years the pumpkin field day held at the Western Ag Research Station in South Charleston has hosted growers from around the state giving them a wide array of production and pest management research, demonstration, tips, and tricks. Instead of driving over to the research station, participate virtually from your home, business, or favorite coffee house/brewery!

Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, we won’t be able to hold a field day in person this year, but we are working hard to bring you the results of several demonstrations and research projects via a pre-recorded video stream that will air on the OSU IPM YouTube channel on August 27 at 6 PM.

3D field-scale model of pumpkin hybrid trial – dollhouse view.

Registration for the virtual event will be necessary so we can send out the viewing links between August 26-27 for the roughly hour-long field day. Please register at the link below by the deadline of August 25 at 8 PM. Continue reading