Fruit and Vegetable News

Join UMN Extension and partners to visit urban, suburban, and rural farms growing fruits and vegetables at various scales. Learn about soil health practices, unique growing challenges, and conservation support programs. Urban farming and gardening, September 22 9am-3:30pm: Discover the challenges of city growing—compaction, soil health, water management, and more. Learn from innovative growers using no- till, cover crops, composting, and mulching. Plus, explore support programs for urban agriculture. Stops include: St. Thomas research gardens, Urban Roots, Our Village Community Garden. Intensive small-scale market gardening, October 10, 9am-3:30pm : Explore profitable small-scale farming (1–5 acres) and soil care. Visit a cooperative incubator farm and a thriving suburban market garden. Learn about cover crops, reduced tillage, high tunnel soil health, and support for growers. Stops include: Big River Farms, Hands-on soil health assessment at the Lake Elmo Park Preserve, 10th Street Fa...

Natalie Hoidal & Marissa Schuh Uff da, more rain when most of the state doesn’t need it.  Soils are waterlogged, and fields on some farms flooded.  Despite the challenging summer that has alternated between heat advisories, air quality alerts, and torrential rain, a lot of crops are doing better than might be expected.  The next week looks like a reprieve from what has been typical this summer, with cooler temperatures, clear skies, and fewer chances of rain.  A note about berries While we typically don’t discuss fruit in this newsletter, berry crops can be a great addition to vegetable farms. We’ve been keeping tabs on berries in Minnesota, and noticing that you-pick berry operations are packed full of customers and selling out in record time. The co-ops are selling mostly local vegetables this time of year, but all of the berries are from California and Michigan. It seems like there is an opportunity for vegetable growers to add some fruit to their operations,...

Author: Natalie Hoidal, Reviewed by: Cindy Tong & Charlie Rohwer Melons are one of the trickiest plants to grow, because the guidelines around harvest are confusing and often contradictory. I often hear growers express frustration because their melons seem ripe but don’t have much flavor, or because they spoil faster than they should. This article presents an overview of ripening, as well as harvest and storage tips for melons, watermelons, squash, and pumpkins. Some ripening basics Fruit and vegetables are typically assigned to two categories that define their ripening behaviors: Climacteric: Climacteric fruits and vegetables continue to ripen off the vine. They experience a rapid increase in respiration during ripening. They also often produce a hormone called ethylene after harvest, which can speed up ripening and senescence. If eaten at an immature stage, these fruits and vegetables taste bland, and the texture is often not as soft as it is meant to be. If left at room tempera...

Join us for an open house style Grape and Wine Production Field Day hosted on Saturday, September 13th this year at the UMN Horticulture Research Center! What's being showcased this year: Sample ~50 different grape varieties Explore research displays from UMN researchers and graduate students Chat with Drew Horton , UMN winemaker, about wine production Ask grape-growing questions to John Thull and the HRC crew, Madeline Wimmer , UMN Fruit Production Educator and Soon Li Teh , UMN Grape Breeder and Research Director If you’re a backyard gardener, hobby grower, wine grape industry professional, or simply interested in learning more about grapes, please join us! Event details:  Date : Saturday, September 13th Time : 10:00am-12:00pm Location : The Horticultural Research Center, 600 Arboretum Blvd., Excelsior, MN 55331 Cost : Free.  No registration required. Field day events will take place around the main HRC building (2).  The Annual Grape Extension Field Day is host...

Article written by Madeline Wimmer, Extension Educator - Fruit Production Images: 1a) Rigid, plastic mesh netting with 3/4in mesh demonstrating how netting can be lifted and temporarily clipped above clusters to make harvesting easier; b) close up showing a yellow garden spider for size comparison; c) netting clips can fasten any type of net and can be clipped below grapevines. 2a) An alternative over-the-row knit mesh netting is more flexible, can be applied mechanically (2b), and can additionally be clipped underneath vines to keep it in place. Birds are often the most damaging wildlife vineyards face. Bird pressure can change depending on a vineyard’s location and how close it is to a forest edge, or a grainfield that attracts birds after it's harvested. Other variations that contribute to bird pressure include seasonal trends, the grape variety, and bird species (i.e., not all bird species feed on grapes). When bird damage is severe, it can be devastating to a particular vintag...

Natalie Hoidal After a week of cooler days and a lot of smoke, we’re seeing some more typical summer conditions. Crops are responding well to the heat; our heat loving crops like tomatoes and peppers are finally ripening in fields as planting for fall harvested crops slows down. This week’s update includes late season fertility adjustments, a few new (to us) plant mysteries, and some notes about diseases. Late season fertility adjustments This is the time of year when we really start to see which fields have too much nitrogen. If you’re seeing healthy plants with tons of leaves but no flowers or fruit, too much nitrogen is the likely culprit. Peppers have a distinct lifecycle shift from vegetative to reproductive growth (i.e. green leafy growth to flowers and fruit), and nitrogen tells the plant to keep producing green leaves. This is especially problematic for specialty hot peppers like habaneros, which need an especially long growing season. Unfortunately, there’s not much we can do...

Article written by Madeline Wimmer, Extension Educator - Fruit Production Apples Measuring fruit ripeness: Starch test Grapes Growth stage update: Veraison Bird netting and other deterrents Should Minnesota growers be concerned about smoke taint this year? Day-neutral strawberries Seasonal check in: Harvest is ramping up Management: Runner removal Fall-bearing raspberries Growth stage: Harvest is beginning Apples Measuring fruit ripeness: Starch test Images: Three apples that were assessed for ripeness by the UMN Horticultural Research Center apple team, first by taste testing, followed by a starch test, which stains starches blue. Iodine-starch testing for ripeness We're reaching that time of the growing season when early University of Minnesota apple varieties like First Kiss and Zestar! are approaching their harvest window. Many apples are showing color development, but other ripening indicators to look for include a change in flavor profile, starches converting into simple sug...