All this wet weather is causing issues with many plants, especially the annuals. Root systems aren't able to function in anaerobic soils which cause a variety of issues, including poor growth and reduced nutrient uptake. Leaf diseases have never been higher. Nearly all leaf diseases require...

For over a century growers have been using steam to heat the soil to help eliminate many pests of soils. Many greenhouses utilized this method of sterilization in the early 1900's and before. Back then there weren't very many alternatives to eliminate pests other than steam heat. Today there are...

I'm not sure if the gnats that were bothering me this weekend were Buffalo Gnats or not, but now is the time of year when we can normally expect them. I started noticing them on Saturday and Sunday, but thankfully the winds were strong enough that they didn't bother me much. But this morning, when...

My son Wilson researched and wrote this up. Thought it was interesting. Mike     "If life gives you cabbage, make sauerkraut." - Dale Carnegie German for 'sour cabbage', the art of making sauerkraut was probably first practiced in the Far East thousands of years ago. The builders of...

Putting Small Acreage to Work will be held on Saturday, Feb. 14th at John Wood Community College, 1301 S. 48th in Quincy. If you're looking for ideas on how to utilize smaller acreages for income producing activities or for fun and leisure, then this program will provide you with a number of...

I'm sitting here writing and the high today is supposed to be 63 can you say I am more than excited? With spring quickly winging its way towards us my brain is already jump starting with ideas for this year's gardening season. Each year I like to try something new or different and experiment and in...

The rain of last week was certainly welcome. Amounts varied but all was welcome. Lawns had begun to go dormant and many other plants were just hanging in there coping with the stress. All the rain we had during the summer weakened root systems and these plants just can't handle much stress. You may...

With a new year comes new changes.  Mike Roegge, Small Farms & Local Foods Extension Educator, and myself (Kari Houle, Horticulture Extension Educator) would like to welcome you to our new blog Good Growing and hopefully you will continue to follow along with us as we provide you...

Before we know it we'll soon be seeing seed and garden catalogs in our mailboxes. If you're like me, you're also receiving emails with all the pretty pictures of new varieties of vegetables and flowers and of course you say you want them all. The choice to grow plants from seed is a fulfilling one...

It never seems to fail – once people know you're a horticulturist and you teach about plants, people always want to know what your favorite plants are. Often my reply is do I have to pick just one? There are so many amazing plants out there and depending on your garden or landscape some may work...

As I sit here and write this article I wonder where the summer went and where 2015 is disappearing too. It's now September and even though the temperatures in the first week have been in the 90s, September means cooler weather making it easier and more desirable to spend time in the garden. I know...

For those of you growing winter greens in a high tunnel, be wary of aphids infesting your leafy greens, especially spinach and lettuce. These carryover pests from the summer crops can build up populations fairly rapidly in the confines of a tunnel, in the absence of predators. Plus these past few...