Ohio State University Extension Energy Outreach Program is hosting “Carbon Sequestration: for the Farmer and Landowner” on October 29, 2024, from 8:00 to 9:30 a.m. You may join the call by going to go.osu.edu/carbon2024 or clicking the link.
Carbon Sequestration Panel:
Peggy Hall: Attorney & Director, Agricultural & Resource Law Program
Michael Estadt: Assistant Professor & Extension Educator, Pickaway County
John Porter: Outreach & Partnership Liaison | Truterra, LLC
Cover shot of new pumpkin guide
A new 72-page guide, “A Modern Approach to Crop and Pest Management in Pumpkin – ANR 806”, was published in August 2024 to help both beginner and experienced growers produce a better crop. Thirteen specialists from Ohio State University, Michigan State University and Cornell University worked together to produce this guide which increases awareness of modern IPM practices such as mechanical weed control, cover crops, pollinator protection and negative impacts of certain pesticide mixtures. Basic topics like weed, insect and disease management are also covered, as well as the benefits of natural enemies and a pumpkin enterprise budget to measure overall profitability. In addition to colorful images and layman’s text to explain each topic, QR codes are sprinkled throughout the guide to provide deeper dives on most topics via factsheets, bulletins, websites and videos from specialists around the country. Although the guide was written for growers in the Midwest, most concepts will apply to growers in the Northeast and Southeast regions of the country.
Copies of the guide can be ordered and purchased at your local Extension county office or online at OSU Extension Publishing (https://extensionpubs.osu.edu/a-modern-approach-to-crop-and-pest-management-in-pumpkin/).
Pages of the new pumpkin guide
Whether growers are creating, discovering, or connecting with previously untapped markets, much is happening in Ohio annual specialty crop production that affects when crops are established and harvested and how they are managed in between.
For example, growers working with increasingly diverse markets must provide vegetables, flowers, herbs, and other crops meeting specific standards for size, color, weight, and other characteristics. Evolving standards continue to alter the mix of crops consumers/customers seek and/or their form – steadily rising interest in crops enjoyed around the world, micro or baby greens, small potatoes, and personal size melons are four common examples among many others.
Also, some markets are looking for Ohio or regionally grown products over more of the calendar year, challenging historical perspectives on seasonality.
Questions about seeding and transplanting dates naturally follow from these developments, especially since Ohio growers: (a) operate in locations with variable growing conditions and (b) use open field and/or semi-protected systems featuring low, mid, and/or high tunnels, creating additional complexity and opportunity.
Typical basic practice is to circle target harvest dates and confirm expected crop maturity, then count back to ideal seeding or transplanting dates, estimating based on likely near crop environments and other factors. As such, possible crop responses to light-temperature combinations expected to occur from seeding/transplanting onward are key. Selecting proper seeding/transplanting dates when only natural sunlight will be available relies on a few key principles.
For example, “growth” is defined as an increase in the amount of plant biomass whereas “maintenance” refers to the persistence of that biomass. Growth tends to require more light than short-medium term maintenance. This is one reason why established or harvest-ready crops can be maintained for weeks to months in various settings in fall-winter after growth has stopped due to much shortened days. Indeed, getting crops to market-ready status before growth stops due to inadequate light availability then maintaining them in saleable condition for weeks after is a core goal for many who produce and market fall-winter. Others look to get crops to a stage allowing them to overwinter successfully then complete growth and mature in early spring. Still others who also want to be first to the new year’s markets want to know how early seed or transplants can be set in late winter to utilize every available part of the expanding growth period. In all cases fall-to-spring, optimal temperatures help plants utilize whatever light is available but warm temperatures cannot fully replace or make up for low levels of light. In fact, high temperatures when light levels are unable to support growth are usually detrimental. This is one reason why some growers ventilate to cool their crop-filled high tunnels during clear but short days winter and early spring.
Crops differ widely in the amount of light (intensity x duration) required for them to grow. One rule-of-thumb is that most crops produced with sunlight only require at least ten hours of daylight to grow. Daylengths in Ohio are ten hours or longer between January 27 and November 14, on average. (You can see year-round daylengths at your location at https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/usa). Therefore, it is reasonable: (a) to target November 14 (on average) as the date by which most fall established crops should reach saleable condition and (b) to expect crops seeded or transplanted around January 27 (on average) to grow at rates tracking the increasing daylengths; i.e., very slowly at first and increasing as light levels increase. However, there are two important exceptions to these rules-of-thumb. First, some crops can grow when using sunlight alone when daylengths are less than ten hours but need to be identified carefully. Second, as mentioned earlier and shown in https://u.osu.edu/vegnetnews/2024/02/03/a-minimalist-approach-to-ensuring-fall-through-spring-vegetable-harvests/, https://u.osu.edu/vegnetnews/2024/02/17/high-tunnel-crop-and-market-period-diversity/, and grower experience, mid-late fall can be an excellent time to establish crops able to over-winter and mature early the following spring (e.g., garlic, carrot, some Brassicas), before or while new crops are being seeded/transplanted. Crops with this ability can further expand harvest and marketing periods.
Seeding/transplanting windows for many annual specialty crops expected to be harvested in 2024 or early in 2025 from naturally lit open field, or low, mid, and/or high tunnel plantings remain open but informed steps should be taken soon to utilize the time that remains.
Midwest Mechanical Weed Control Field Day Returns! 
Last year this event was held in Wooster, OH and it was a great success, with over 150 farmers in attendance. This year the event has rotated to West Lafayette, IN, home of Purdue University if you care to attend. A full day of weeding tool demonstrations, trade show, and cultivation education for both vegetables and row crops will be on display.
Champaign, IL. In partnership with Purdue University, this year’s Midwest Mechanical Weed Control Field Day will take place on Wednesday, September 11 at Purdue University’s Horticulture research station.
At the morning Expo you can see weeding tools and speak with company reps from manufacturers in the US, Europe, and Japan, and meet the farmers in attendance from all over the region. At the morning education sessions, learn from experienced farmers and university weed scientists from surrounding states. ‘Weed control on the tillage spectrum’ will make the connection between tillage and weed management – with demos and talks on tarping for vegetables and plowing down cover crops with residue management in mind.
A walk-behind tractor exhibition – ‘Walk-Behind Alley’ – features demonstrations of walk-behind tractors and hand tools. A wide variety of cultivators, hand tools, and the paperpot transplanting system will be shown. You can also visit the trade show exhibit booths to meet other supply companies, like equipment dealers for all manner of machinery, seed, tools, fertilizers, and soils.
At noon, the field day will break for lunch – an opportunity for farmers to meet and network, or continue looking at trade show equipment and speaking with exhibitors. In the afternoon farmers follow the tractors out to the demonstration field, where corn, beets, and brassicas have been planted especially for the demonstrations. Many 3-point, camera-guided, autonomous, and belly-mounted cultivators and cultivating tractors will be demonstrated in the field and explained by manufacturers. These demonstrations will show how the machines should be mounted and properly adjusted according to crop and soil conditions, and will help farmers visualize how the implements can work on their own farms.
Row-crop tools in demonstration include precision-controlled tine-weeders and several types of camera-guided cultivators with finger weeders and all manner of other tooling – see all types of knives, hilling discs, etc. Demonstrations will be held in 4’’ corn.
Vegetable weeding tools include cultivating tractors past and present, a variety of belly-mounted and rear-mounted steerable tools, and cultivators from Japan!
Registration for this full-day of learning and networking on mechanical weed control is just $75. Registration includes lunch and all the machinery demos you can handle. It is recommended that everyone register early as each year space runs out.
This event is perfect for farmers and ag advisors who want to: see a particular weeding tool before buying it, learn how to adjust cultivators, see what is new in cultivation, or learn from other farmers.
Here is the general information for the event:
When: Wednesday, September 11, 2024
Where: Purdue University – MEIGS Horticultural Research Farm 9101 S 100 E Lafayette, IN 47909
How Much: $75 (includes lunch)
Register online at: https://thelandconnection.regfox.com/2024-midwest-mechanical-weed-control-field-day
*Walk-in registration will be available, but lunch and conference amenities are not guaranteed.
Field Day webpage: https://www.thelandconnection.org/event/2024-mmwcfd/
For more info on the event or to register by phone, contact Crystal at crystal@thelandconnection.org or (217) 840-2128.
Inquiries for interviews on radio, print, and beyond are welcomed – Please reach out to Sam Oschwald Tilton, glacialdrift@protonmail.com, or 414-213-5337
Interested in exhibiting your products and connecting with farmers at the field day? Please contact us
This article was written by Dr. Francesca Rotondo.
Gummy Stem Blight, caused by Didymella bryoniae, is a significant disease affecting cucurbit crops like squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, and watermelons. It can impact plants at any growth stage. The disease is also a concern for greenhouse-grown cucumbers, affecting all above-ground parts of the plant.
The pathogen can be seed-borne or survive on organic debris from previous crops. The fungus spreads through two types of spores—ascospores, which are windblown, and pycnidiospores, spread by splashing water. Infection is highly dependent on moisture and temperature, with optimal conditions being 61 to 75°F. With warmer temperatures and changing climate conditions, the incidence and severity of gummy stem blight may increase due to more favorable conditions for the fungus.
The symptoms on the leaves include dark yellow or reddish-brown lesions appear, often starting at the leaf margins and progressing inward, leading to leaf death. On fruits the symptoms vary by crop, with winter squash often showing black rot. This rot can affect the rind, flesh, and seed cavity, with a noticeable growth of white and black fungus. Lesions on fruit are water-soaked and may lead to decay, especially at the site of attachment.
The disease management relies on chemical control (pages 128-129 of the MidWest Vegetable Production Guide) and cultural practices:
This article was written by Dr. Francesca Rotondo.
Bacterial canker (BC), caused by Clavibacter michiganensis, affects both tomato and pepper plants. The disease is seedborne and can be introduced through infected seed or transplants. It spreads through mechanical transmission during pruning and other field or greenhouse operations. The bacterium thrives with high humidity and warm temperatures, and heavy rainfall further contribute to its spread and secondary infections.
In tomatoes, bacterial canker is more severe because the bacterium invades the vascular system. Early symptoms include stunting and wilting, followed by open cankers on the stem. When stems are split open, a thin, reddish-brown discoloration is visible in the vascular tissue, especially at the base and nodes. Secondary symptoms include browning of leaf edges (“firing”), upward curling of leaflets, and small, tan fruit lesions with a white halo, known as “bird’s-eye” spots. (Figure1)
In peppers, the infection is not systemic. It primarily causes foliar symptoms and affects fruit, leading to yield reductions (Figure 2). Canker-infected pepper fields can also serve as sources of inoculum for nearby tomato fields.
Figure 1. Characteristic symptoms caused by bacterial canker in tomato: wilting (A), vascular discoloration (B) and bird-eye lesion on fruit (C
Figure2. Typical symptoms caused by bacterial canker on pepper leaves (A) and fruits (B)
Managing bacterial canker is challenging once it is present. Prevention and sanitation are crucial for an effective management:
• Start with certified and disease-free seeds and transplants
o sanitize seed using hot-water treatment (ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/hyg-5818).
• Disinfect all tools and equipment to prevent contamination
• Regularly scout for symptoms, and destroy infected plants
• Rotate crops, avoiding tomatoes in infected fields for 3-4 years
• Ensure fields are free of weeds or volunteer tomato plant
• Reduce stresses with balanced nitrogen, improved soil organic matter, and well-drained soil
• Copper fungicides and streptomycin should be applied before transplanting to the field, and copper fungicides can help slow the disease’s progression during the growing season
In 2019 and 2021, the Vegetable Pathology Laboratory (Dr. Sally Miller and Dr. Francesca Rotondo) conducted trials to assess the natural resistance of different pepper varieties (bell pepper, banana, and jalapeño). In 2019, the percentage of marketable fruits was significantly higher in jalapeño and banana varieties compared to bell pepper (80% vs. 60%) (Table1a). In 2021, chili varieties had the highest percentage of marketable fruits (95%), followed by jalapeño (88%), banana (82%), and bell pepper (75%) (Table 1b).
Table 1: results from the field variety trials conducted in 2019(a) and 2021 (b)
In 2021, the Vegetable Pathology Laboratory also evaluated the efficacy of biorational products against bacterial canker in pepper seedlings in two independent greenhouse trials. Theia, Regalia (giant knotweed extract), and Howler reduced BC severity by 78%, 73%, and 68%, respectively, in the first trial. Similar results were observed in the second trial, with Regalia, Howler, Theia, Vacciplant (laminarin), and Stargus (Bacillus amyloliquefaciens F727) reducing disease severity by up to 80% This research was funded by the Ohio Vegetable & Small Fruit Research & Development Program (OVSFRDP).