Fruit and Vegetable News

Marissa Schuh, IPM Extension Educator  If you have a commercial (applying pesticides for hire), noncommercial (using RUPs on property owned or controlled by your employer), or private pesticide applicator license  (apply RUPs to land or sites you own, rent, or manage for the production of an ag commodity), UMN Extension is offering an online recertification training on February 19th focused on fruit and vegetable pest updates and pesticide information. Photo by Pixabay When: February 19; 7:45-11:45 (private applicators) or 7:45-3:35 (Commercial/Noncommercial applicators) Where: Zoom (will need working microphone, camera, and sound on a laptop, desktop, or tablet) Workshop fee:  $100 for private, $145 for CNC  What:  Agenda here Registration deadline: February 12th CNC registration Private applicator registration For information on this and other recertification courses, as well as registration information, see the Pesticide Safety and Environmental Educatio...

Annalisa Hultberg, Extension Educator, food safety   We are happy to share a number of on-farm food safety training opportunities open to all fruit and vegetable farmers from UMN Extension this winter. These trainings are intended for fruit and vegetable farmers of all sizes who are interested in learning how to improve food safety and product quality. If you are selling or interested in selling to buyers such as farm to school programs, food shelves or food hubs these courses are strongly encouraged, but food safety is good business for all farms. Topics: Best practices to improve safety in growing, harvesting, washing and handling of fresh fruits and vegetables Compost/manure use, water testing, safely washing vegetables, coolers, packing area designs and ideas, wildlife and pets, low-cost handwashing stands, and more Creating written procedures to improve safety and efficiency on your farm and meet requirements for a GAP audit and the FSMA Produce Safety Rule Online Half-Da...

Authors: Madeline Wimmer, Soon Li Teh, John Thull When working with spur-pruned grapevines in cold climates, the spurs—the regions where fruit-bearing shoots emerge—are originally created by shortening canes originating from a young cordon (i.e., the arm(s) of a grapevine). Overtime, these original spurs support newer spurs that stack on top of the older spur region year after year, and this can lead to what is known as spur creep, when a spur becomes long, old, and less productive. Why is spur creep a problem? As spurs continue to age, they can accumulate damage from cold temperatures, similar to cordons, and become less productive over time. Additionally, the longer they grow, the less room there is for the current season’s canopy, which is especially true for Vertical Shoot Positioned (VSP) grapevines that have less canopy area, overall. Spur creep can leave portions of the cordon blank, as they become unproductive, and can be worsened if growers heavily thin away all the non-cou...

The Farm to School Roadshow is on the move again for 2025!  The Roadshow is an opportunity to make new connections and learn how to build successful Farm to School relationships.  These in-person events will bring together Minnesota school nutrition professionals, early care providers, producers and farmers for networking and training opportunities.    Photo: Cory Ryan, UMN Extension For 2025, the Roadshow is a full day event with  options to attend for the full day or half day.     Growing for Schools - Vegetable Production and Planning (9:00a.m. - 12:00 p.m.)    Vegetable Farmer Focused     The morning session will take an in-depth look at vegetable crop planning and management for production to the wholesale market, specifically schools. We will deep dive into topics such as crop planning for wholesale markets, pest management, and safe harvest and storage with UMN Extension Educators. Growers will leave the morning with cus...

Are you new to growing in high tunnels? Join us for a nine week course to learn about the fundamentals of high tunnel vegetable production. The goal of this course is to help develop a plan for managing your high tunnel that includes: choosing crops to grow, designing an irrigation system, managing soil fertility and soil health, managing weeds, insects, and diseases, planning for pruning and trellising, special considerations for harvest and postharvest handling, and keeping up with basic maintenance. By the end of our nine weeks together, you should have an actionable high tunnel plan that you can use to guide you through the season. Who is this course for? The ideal participant in this class is someone who is actively farming, and either planning to build a high tunnel this year, or in their first couple of years of high tunnel growing. If you are considering a high tunnel, but still a couple of years away from building one, the course may be more detailed than what you are looking ...

Funding is available through the Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships for selected Northeast and West Central Minnesota counties and Tribal entities to support climate mitigation and adaptation, and regenerative on-farm initiatives and projects. Small grants will be awarded through a competitive process for projects identified and led by small farms that enhance their climate resiliency. Priorities for projects include, but are not limited to:  Implementing climate-friendly production practices such as perennials, composting, organic no-till, agroforestry, and wildlife corridors. Replacing fossil fuel use through animal and electric power or clean energy. Sequestering carbon by incorporating healthy soil practices such as crop rotation, biochar, legume cover cropping, and building organic matter. Building financial, social and ecological resilience on the farm while providing healthy and life-giving food and products to the community. Priority will be given to shovel-ready...

Dormant pruning is the first step to influencing canopy structure and fruit quality. Learning how to prune takes practice and consideration to factors like plant growth habit, plant age and health, and canopy density. Each individual fruit tree, vine, shrub, or even bine (think kiwi berries) varies slightly, creating a need for thoughtful decision making when determining what and how much to prune. Join the University of Minnesota Extension's fruit production educator, Madeline Wimmer, this February, for a short webinar series that goes into the mindset behind pruning cold climate wine grapes and central leader trained apple trees. Both talks in this series will go into plant establishment and what it takes to promote good canopy architecture and balanced growth. Additional considerations like pruning technique and how to prune when diseases are present will also be discussed.   Webinar dates and time: Pruning cold climate grapes: February 14th, at 12:00pm CT Central leader and sta...

The University of MN/University of NH High Tunnel Cover Crops Trial is recruiting high tunnel growers to receive free cover crop seed and participate in cover crop planting in spring and summer 2025. Our project aims to enable organic high tunnel growers to reduce their dependence on purchased composts and manures by using nitrogen-fixing legume cover crops. Upcoming planting timeslot options are: Early spring cover crops (planted between February 1-April 15), grown before your transplanted or late-seeded warm-season vegetable crops (e.g. tomato or fall crops. Summer cover crops (planted between May 15-July 15) grown in midsummer between your cool-season or overwinter vegetable crops (e.g. spinach). Participating farmers will receive seed of "best bet" legume cover crops for your chosen timeslot, as well as a free soil test. To learn more about participating in the trial, please fill out our interest form. We will also be holding an informational webinar for farmers intere...

Annalisa Hultberg, Extension Educator, food safety Kick off 2025 with a series of training opportunities to learn practical strategies to improve both the food safety and product quality of your fruits and vegetables. If you attended a farm food safety training in the past but want to sharpen your skills and learn more about specific topics, or want a refresher, these  webinars  are for you.  These  webinars  are led by UMN Extension educators, industry experts and experienced farmers.  Cost:   Webinars  are free and open for all to attend.  Register:   https://z.umn.edu/ FoodSafetyDeepDives2025 .  Registration is required. After registering, you will receive the  webinar  link. All sessions will be recorded and the links sent to registered participants.  All sessions are 9:00am - 10:15am and held via Zoom. Choose to attend some or all. Audiences: Fruit and vegetable farmers interested in expanding their sales into wh...

Extension recently published a Farm to School pricing report analyzing sales to schools participating in grant programs for purchasing local foods in 2023. The report breaks down the most common crops that schools purchased, as well as average, minimum, and maximum prices for each crop. Our intention is for farmers to use this data to set prices for their products when selling to schools, and, likewise, assist school buyers to find a reasonable price to pay. Farmers can use the prices in a simple breakeven analysis or enterprise budget to make sure that their enterprise is profitable. Check out the report here.