Fruit and Vegetable News

Annalisa Hultberg, Extension Educator, food safety This time of year we get calls and emails from growers thinking about their markets and expanding opportunities this coming season. You may have heard about a GAP audit, and wonder what it is and how it could benefit your operation.  Here are 5 key things to think about if you are considering a GAP audit. What is a GAP audit?  A GAP audit is basically a verification that your farm is following science-based best practices for food safety in growing fresh produce. An auditor from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) or another certifying body comes to your farm with a checklist to verify that you use Good Agricultural Practices during the growing, harvesting, packing, storage, and transportation of your product. It is not a law or regulation; it is a voluntary audit that you pay for, and farmers generally get it to access a market that requires an audit.   Read more about what the audit is and who needs it: 1...

Marissa Schuh, IPM Extension Educator, mschuh@umn.edu and Annie Klodd. Originally published 2022, updated in 2025. As asparagus grows and gets picked, asparagus beetles  are showing up as well. There are two beetles we see in asparagus, common and spotted asparagus beetle. We generally hear the most about the yellow, black, and red common asparagus beetle. These guys are tricky to manage, read on for the answers to common questions we get about these pests from growers. Common asparagus beetles feed on spears and ferns. Photo: Whitney Cranshaw, Colorado State University, Bugwood.com Do I actually need to spray? The threshold for asparagus beetles are: 5-10% of plants are infested with adults or larvae. 2% of spears have eggs. . Asparagus beetle eggs are laid single-file in a line. Photo: Annie Klodd, UMN Extension. What do I spray? Using insecticides in spring asparagus is a challenge because of the constant picking. Any product that you use needs to have a short Pre-Harvest Inte...

Annalisa Hultberg, Extension Educator, food safety Ariel Pressman, Whole Farm Strategies and UMN Extension consultant Dedicated packing areas are an essential part of food safe produce handling on the farm. Let’s look at common reasons for building a pack area and key features that must be included in any design. Why build a packing area? Packing areas provide an accessible space for washing, packing and grading produce  Packing areas serve as a central space for storing harvest supplies like knives, rubber bands, produce bins and wax boxes.  Packing areas allow farmers to clean and pack vegetables in a food safe manner. This leads to better quality and longer lasting produce, which increases farm profitability.  With the right infrastructure and equipment, packing areas increase the efficiency of the washing and packing process. A carport is a portable and generally affordable option for packing produce Key washing and packing area features Several key features must be c...

  By Marissa Schuh, IPM extension educator. Originally published in 2023, updated in 2025. As I’ve made some early season visits to farmers around the state, one weed has come up again and again, putting a damper on early season optimism - Canada thistle. Canada thistle as rosettes early in the season. Photo: Howard F. Schwartz, Colorado State University, Bugwood.org. Vegetable farmers are used to dealing with all kinds of tricky weeds, but the brute biology of Canada thistle makes it one of the most frustrating weeds to deal with.  Canada thistle isn’t just perennial, but it has storage roots that help the plant regrow after mowing and spread into new areas. These roots are also able to produce new plants if broken up, for example by tillage.    How does Canada thistle get on the farm? Canada thistle is common in ditches and field borders. Each flower produces up to 45 seeds, which can be blown by the wind or even carried by water.  Canada thistle is a com...

Madeline Wimmer- Fruit Production Extension Educator Image 1: A box filled with over 1,000 day-neutral bareroot strawberry plants. This variety, Albion, is suitable for growing in the Upper Midwest. Day-neutral (DN) strawberry production shares some similarities with June-bearing strawberry production, but one of the main differences is that DN strawberries are grown as annuals, meaning they are replanted at the beginning of each growing season. Bare root strawberries are the most efficient option for most production situations, which require a few considerations for best planting practices.   If you're looking for general information on DN strawberries, note that UMN researchers and Extension educators have built a strong day-neutral strawberries web resource , which houses information related to management, specifics on sheltered growing and table top systems, as well as a cost-benefit analysis tool for production. Instagram reel Watch a  short video on our UMN fruit In...

  Article written by Madeline Wimmer, UMN Extension Fruit Production Educator. Images: King blossoms are the first apple blossoms to open and generally produce the highest quality fruit. Their early timing is key to bloom thinning strategies that rely on pollen tube growth models. Photos taken at ApplesRus in Olmsted County, Minnesota (Zone 5a).  Apples benefit from fruit thinning. The first step to managing an apple’s crop load each year starts with dormant pruning. While pruning helps to reduce the total number of fruiting spurs, apples still produce more blossom/fruits per fruit spur than is ideal. This is in part because densely clustered apples increase the chance for development of fruit rot later as moisture can become trapped between large apples. Apples with shorter stems can additionally put pressure on one another, leading to increased drops before harvest. Biennial bearing is another condition some apple trees are also prone to that can be relieved with thinning pr...