When I was sampling for SCN it was pretty evident that eroded soil was a major carrier.
2025 field work
- Thread starter BCClone
- Start date
So every field that a commercial applicator was in they should clean before going to another field so not to spread scn? That is asking a lot.
At the time, and this policy didn't last for long, the mission was to not carry soil from field to field. Or more accurately, from farmer to farmer. I don't see sprayers being an issue. Anhydrous toolbar? Yeah, maybe. But we were only going from place to place for planting.
I realize sprayers wouldn’t be as bad as an NH3 toolbar. But if you carry dirt from one field to another, you are going to carry the little nematodes along.
LOL, Every once in a while Dad would end up in the same field I was field cultivating in add a extra round around the outside to make sure I didn't scrub out the planter lines.
You embedded a penis joke in here but I can't find the whole thing yet.
2" of rain in the last couple days. soaked in well. Little to no standing water in our area.
got 2 different peppers installed yesterday. top row is an early red bell... bottom is an experimental yellow bell. only 4k plants each (200 cell tray x 20 trays) about 1/2 acre for each
Your photo speaks “labor” to me. I’m an asparagus junky and have a 16’ square patch that puts out a large cutting daily for 2 months. I visited an asparagus operation in NJ that had an 80 acre field that blew me away. I have ag family connections in YOLO County, Ca. that has thousands of acres of a variety of vegetables & fruits which I have explored. Question: how has mechanization and technology changed your labor requirements?
So the majority of the larger farmers I work with all have H2A workers from Mexico... These are crews that are the same people who come back every year (they like Michigan summer much more than anywhere south).. awesome dudes/ ladies who are great at their jobs and work their asses off.. the biggest challenge is the pay from the farmers to these crews... something like $16.23/hour plus housing, travel TO and FROM Michigan back to Mexico.. at some point there will be from mechanization but we aren't there yet.... everything is planted by hand from 6 people sitting on a drawbar planter that goes across 3 beds or so..
the only area currently moving to mech on the veggie side (at least in the midwest/south) is sweet corn.... but as you know.. this requires a hybrid that can take more of a beating with less damage (lots of times can be bad tasting corn)... the large scale growers don't really care what it tastes like as long as its pretty and people buy it
oh the veggie growers i know are anything but a hippy
Here is an example of an early pipeline trial for bells... 22x new hybrids (I hand plant). We might get 1 or 2 that move on the rest will be killed.... you can see the crew planting in the background
What is your goal for determining which move on? Larger peppers,, greater production per plant, taste, disease resistance, plant vigor, color, a combination of these factors or something altogether different?
looks very similar to a strawberry patch near me. rows of mounds with buried drip irrigation.
So these trials get yield (total and curve) color, maturity and size of fruit measurements. I have this trial in 4 locations in Michigan. My other teammates have them in their territories (eastern Canada, midatlantic, Carolinas. So the best will show itself. Usually midwest is a good bellwether (what works here can do well in others)
Are they actually hybrids? Like with developed heterosis and separate inbred lines? And if so, how do you control pollen flow? Create an F1 hybrid?
Yes true hybrids. I work for one of the largest vegetable seed companies in the world (not owned by China). No real discussion about pollen flow (I’m not a breeder by training)
