by Tamara Scully
It’s fall harvest time and your hands are literally full. Growers and orchard workers are climbing those ladders, wearing those buckets and carefully harvesting those apples. Other tree fruits and nuts, as well as grapes and berries, share many of the same harvesting concerns that apples do. (more…)
by Greg Hitchcock
Emily Holmes’ parents John and Elaine Olsen planted a 500-tree apple orchard in 1983; 35 years later their apple orchard has grown to 1,700 trees growing over 48 different varieties of apples. (more…)
by Courtney Llewellyn
The pop diva Whitney Houston sang “I believe the children are our future/Teach them well and let them lead the way.” This month, Country Folks Grower is introducing its readers to some of the youth that will be leading the way in the field of horticulture in the near future. (more…)
by Stephen Wagner
Penn State Trial Garden Advisory Board Chair Andy Brown told Country Folks Grower that “Still the number one item out there in terms of units is calibrachoa [also called million bells]. It has an extremely wide color line, an incredible variety of colors, anywhere from solids to bi-colors, and it doesn’t have the stickiness that the petunia has.” (more…)
by Sally Colby
Casey Vandervalk admitted that he didn’t know anything about growing Christmas trees when he and his wife Sue planted their first trees in 1984. (more…)
by Courtney Llewellyn
It’s time for a refresher from biology class: you remember that animals inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. (more…)
By Melissa Piper Nelson
In a growing season complicated by wild weather laced with torrential rain, hail and heavy winds, the watchword continues to be hyper-vigilance when scouting for horticultural disease symptoms, advised Dr. Carla Burkle, Penn State vegetable production specialist and horticulture team member. (more…)
by Elizabeth A. Tomlin
“Information is power!” stated Dr. Elizabeth (Betsy) Lamb, NYS Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Program, Cornell. (more…)
by Sally Colby
Jeff Owen, North Carolina State University Extension Christmas tree specialist, knows that growers battle damage from deer, and has done extensive research on what works to minimize deer damage. (more…)
by Carl Cantaluppi
Apple growers need to spray fungicides to control destructive apple diseases that are present on leaves and fruit. Paecilomyces niveus is a fungus found in soil that can survive in orchard soils and can infect fruit through wounds. (more…)
No matter what kind of tree fruit you are growing, many factors influence the end-quality. Managing the nutrient levels during differing stages of crop development is one important aspect that can strongly influence fruit size, firmness and quality whether you are growing pome or stone fruits. (more…)
Mid-summer marks a busy season for many direct-marketing businesses, so discussing taking on even more heat may sound illogical – especially if the heat refers to crisis management. (more…)
