Integrated Pest Management Strategies for Squash Pests Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is defined as an ecosystem-based approach for long-term management of pests. These approaches usually include a combination of strategies that include biological controls, rotation, sanitation practices, and growing pest or disease-resistant varieties. This way of managing garden pests considers the life cycle and biology …

Row by Row Episode 143: A Comprehensive Approach for Managing Squash Pests Read More »

Why use Drip Irrigation? There are several different reasons why we prefer to use drip irrigation instead of overhead watering in our vegetable gardens. One of the most important reasons for using drip irrigation is we are able to feed the water right where plants need it most — plant roots. Another reason for drip …

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English Peas vs. Field Peas What’s the major difference between English peas and field peas? Field peas are more commonly known to be called either southern peas or cowpeas. In the South, field peas are a popular cuisine that most individuals grow in their gardens. However, in the North, field peas are not really popular …

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Why Start a Community Garden? For Farmer Fredo, volunteering at his son’s school was the first step in seeing the need to help others learn how to simplify growing healthier food. By helping out at Fredo’s son’s school he saw the need that the Department of Nutrition was trying to implement a system for providing …

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Benefits of Using Indoor Grow Lights When it comes to growing indoors under grow lights there are many benefits that will make gardening easier for you. An important benefit is the quicker harvesting cycle that can be caused by using LED lights which enables you to change the daylight hours to maximize overall plant growth. …

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Controlling Tomato Diseases There are a couple of different tomato diseases that can be very hard to control in the vegetable garden. However, if you know what causes these diseases and the symptoms behind them you can have better success with controlling and treating these pesky diseases. Depending on where you live you may experience …

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Sweet Corn Genes: There are five different sweet corn genes that have very different characteristics from one another. When it comes to growing a standard sugary variety those are the oldest cultivars which in return makes them have the lowest sugar content (10% – 15%) at harvest. For sweet corn the lower the sugar content …

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Seeded Watermelon vs. Seedless Watermelon How do you get a seed from a seedless watermelon? There is a little bit of science behind getting these seedless watermelons. As humans, we have one set of chromosomes from our father and mother which makes us diploid. In vegetables/crops, the seed itself is diploid. When you have 3 …

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Guide to Categorizing Potato Varieties When deciding on which potato varieties to grow there are a couple of different factors that can play into your decision. There are three different categories that are based on maturity dates — early-maturing, mid-maturing, and late-maturing. However, like most other crops the maturity date is just a suggestion because …

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