Fruit and Vegetable News

Author: Adria Fernandez, Researcher, Grossman Lab As you make your field plans for this year, consider complementing your later-planted vegetable crops with an early spring cover crop. In fields where you plan to grow a vegetable with a summer planting schedule, like transplanted broccoli or cauliflower for fall harvest, or even a late succession of beans or sweet corn, you may have time to grow a cover crop to build and protect your soil until the vegetable is ready to go into the field.  Cover crops can serve several purposes in a short spring growing window: They can suppress weeds and keep the soil covered in the field while you’re waiting for transplanting time They can take advantage of the soil moisture and sunlight available in April and May to build organic matter that will become part of your soil reserves when the cover crop is incorporated. If the cover is a legume (like a pea or clover), it can also contribute to long-term nitrogen fertility by fixing atmospheric nitro...

High heat and humidity can make it dangerous for growers to work outdoors, while wildfire smoke and other air pollutants can make it dangerous for growers to breathe the air while working outdoors. We've been working with the U of M Doctor of Nursing Practice Program to develop guidance for fruit and vegetable farmers about safely working in high heat and poor air quality, and we're excited to share a new resource with you all. Over the last two summers we received a lot of questions from growers about staying safe during heat waves and periods of poor air quality. It was difficult to find resources beyond just tools for recognizing heat stress, so we brought in health and safety experts to help us develop some guidance that could be specific and actionable, allowing growers to create policies to keep themselves, employees, and volunteers safe.  Check out the new webpage here.  If you would like a printable PDF with this information, you can reach out to Natalie Hoidal at ho...

This spring and summer our team visited 100 small-scale vegetable farms in Minnesota to do soil health assessments, and one of the key drivers of healthy soil was tillage. Soils with less tillage had better aggregate stability, faster water infiltration, and less compaction. While tillage is harmful in the long-term, it provides short-term benefits that can make growing vegetables easier. This article covers some of the main reasons that farmers till their soil and provides other ways to get the same benefits. Tillage is the practice of disturbing soil by digging, stirring, or turning. It is commonly used in vegetable farming to loosen compact soils, add residues to the soil, prepare fields for planting, incorporate fertilizers, and manage weeds. Reducing tillage provides long-term benefits to soil health. Soils that have less tillage tend to: Have more stability Resist compaction Hold more water Have less erosion Have enhanced biological activity Reason 1 for tilling: Loosening com...