The Vegetarian Newsletter

A Horticultural Sciences Department Extension Publication on Vegetable Crops
Eat your Veggies!!!!!

Issue No. 533 May 2008

Featured Articles

 

Announcements & News

We are happy to announce that we have indexed all of our archived issues from 1950-1999. These archived issues are full of interesting bits of knowledge. Check out the topic your interest now.

The 2007-2008 Vegetable Production Handbook is available on EDIS!
Click here to visit it now.

The March 2008 FSHS Newsletter is available. Click here to view it.


The 2007 Proceedings of the Florida Tomato Institute are accessible on-line
Click here to view them now.

Proceedings from previous years (2002-2006) are available at http://gcrec.ifas.ufl.edu
/vegetables.htm

 

All Vegetarian Newsletter Issues Are Available On-line!!!

Back issues of the Vegetarian Newsletter (VN) have been scanned and are accessible from this site, thanks to support from the Horticultural Sciences Department and Dr. Steven Sargent's efforts. The VN is now in its 58th year and I'm sure readers will find the back issues both useful and interesting from an historical perspective. We hope to be able to categorize these previous articles by subject in the future. Click here to visit our archives!!!

The electronic version of the 2007-2008 Vegetable Production Handbook is available online!
Click here to visit it now.

New EDIS Horticulture Publications

Buckwheat: A Cool-Season Cover Crop for Florida Vegetable Systems is now available on EDIS at: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/HS386. This publication by Dr. Danielle D. Treadwell and Pei-wen Huang, gives an overview of the use of buckwheat as a cover crop and includes and industry overview, the growth habits and requirements and more.Click on the link in the description above to read this great publication!

Sunn hemp (Crotalaria juncea L.): A summer cover crop for Florida vegetable producers is now available on EDIS at: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/HS376. This publication by Dr. Danielle D. Treadwell and Mike Alligood, summarizes the recommended cultural practices to help vegetable growers grow a successful summer cover crop and to optimize the amount of nitrogen that is returned to a vegetable crop.Click on the link in the description above to read this great publication!

Florida Subtropical Peaches: General Concepts and Cultivars Recommended for Grower Trials is now available on EDIS at: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/HS342. This publication by J. Ferguson, P.andersen, J. Chaparro and J. Williamson, summarizes the general concepts and subtropical peach cultivars recommended for grower trials. Click on the link in the description above to read this great publication!

"Plant Part Selection and Preliminary Sufficiency Ranges for Sap Testing Interpretation of Greenhouse Herbs" is now available on EDIS at: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/HS372. This publication, written by Robert Hochmuth, Eric Simonne Lei Lani Davis and Wanda Laughlin, provides information on which plant parts to select when conducting sap testing on herbs. Click on the link in the description above to read this great publication!

"Rootstocks for Florida Peaches, Nectarines, and Plums" is now available on EDIS at: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/HS366. This publication, written by J. Ferguson and J. Chaparro, describes recommended rootstocks for Florida, rootstocks no longer recommended for Florida stone fruit, and procedures for harvesting, cleaning and stratifying 'Flordaguard' seed prior to cleaning. Click on the link in the description above to read this great publication!

" Florida Subtropical Peaches: Production Practices " is now available on EDIS at: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/HS348. This publication, written by J. Ferguson, J. Chaparro, J. G. Williamson, R. Rouse and R. Mizell, describes topics in Florida subtropical peach production such as nursery practices, site selection, orchard design, planting and much more. Click on the link in the description above to read this great publication!

"Critical Issues for the Tomato Industry: Preventing a Rapid Postharvest Breakdown of the Fruit" is now available on EDIS at: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/HS363. This bulletin represents a summary of the all work done and current guidelines for tomato growers and packer/shippers to minimize risk for rapid postharvest breakdown. Click on the link in the description above to read this great publication!

"Strategies for Subtropical Peach Production in Florida" was released by EDIS (http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/HS364). This publication, written by J. J. Ferguson, J. X. Chaparro, D.M. Omalley & L. Harrison, describes strategies for growing subtropical peaches in Florida and gives the number of chilling units different varieties require.Cick on the link in the description above to read this great publication!

"Training and Pruning Florida Peaches, Nectarines, and Plums" was released by EDIS (http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/HS365). This publication, written by J. Ferguson, is a valuable resource on how to prune and train peach, nectarine and plum trees. Click on the link in the description above to read this great publication!

"Guidelines for Enrolling in Florida's BMP Program for Vegetable Crops" was released by EDIS (http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/HS367). This publication, written by Aparna Gazula, Eric Simonne and Brian Boman, describes the process for enrolling in Florida BMP program for vegetable crops as well as where you can find additional resources and help with the implementation of your BMP program. Click on the link in the description above to read this great publication!

Other sources of Horticultural Information.
Direct link to the BMP Manual for Vegetables & Agronomic Crops in Florida

Click here for a printer friendly version of this article.

 

Your damned if you do, you're damned if you don't: Growers respond to food safety rules by removing conservation measures


From The Grower at http://www.growermagazine.com/, April 2008    

Growers in California and elsewhere face a dilemma—how do they balance conservation measures that help improve water quality and wildlife habitat with food safety measures that may call for eliminating some of those same practices.

University of California researchers found that 8 percent, or 181 row-crop growers surveyed in spring 2007, had crops rejected by buyers because they used practices to improve water quality and wildlife habitat on the farm.

One respondent, for example, says he lost $17,500 worth of crop because of deer tracks in his field. Another grower reports the buyer rejected his crop due to a potential frog habitat.

Likewise, 15 percent of the growers, managing about 30,000 acres, had removed or discontinued previously adopted conservation practices, including ponds and reservoirs, irrigation reuse systems, and non-crop vegetation buffers such as grassed waterways, riparian habitat, buffer strips and trees.

But the authors of the study—Melanie Beretti, program director of the Monterey County Resource Conservation District in Salinas, Calif., and Diana Stuart, UC Santa Cruz doctoral candidate in environmental studies—say research shows that discouraging or actively removing such conservation practices could actually increase the risk of crop contamination.

"Keeping produce as safe as possible is a critical goal," the authors say. "However, the means to achieve this goal should be carefully investigated to ensure that those measures actually reduce risks of crop contamination, do not increase other human health risks as a result of environmental degradation, and are cost-effective and practical to implement."

From The Grower at http://www.growermagazine.com/ , April 2008

 

Horticultural Sciences Department , 1117 Fifield Hall, PO Box 110690, Gainesville, FL 32611-0690 - Phone Number: 352-392-1928 - Fax Number: 352-392-5653