Here’s a bonus episode that I put together after meeting up with Becky at the Frozen Ground winter growing conference in July 2019. I wanted to share her research about overwintering onions since it’s an opportunity that some of you may want to try out or perfect.
In This Episode:
>> Becky was shocked when even applying 900# of potassium to a greenhouse tomato crop wasn’t enough
>> Her favorite varieties for overwintered onions include bridger, gatekeeper, forum, walla walla and desert sunrise.
>> An overview of crop management, fertility, irrigation, pest and diseases in overwintered onion trials
Quotes from the episode:
“Achieving a May 15th fresh onion is really attractive to farmers”
“We need to rethink how we do research, there are so many systems that work”
About the Guest
Becky joined UNH in 2004. She has a split appointment as Cooperative Extension sustainable horticulture specialist and Extension Professor of Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems in the Department of Agriculture, Nutrition & Food Systems. She also coordinates UNH’s Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems undergraduate programs. Before coming to UNH, she worked as a plant geneticist and lettuce breeder with the USDA Agricultural Research Service in Salinas, California.
Her areas of expertise include sustainable agriculture, season extension, and high tunnel production, vegetable and small fruit crops, plant breeding and genetics, plant disease resistance and disease management. Her applied research projects have the goal of helping growers to minimize production costs and ecological impacts while producing economically viable yields of high-quality crops. Recent projects have focused on identifying new crops, cultivars and production practices, including season extension technologies, that expand opportunities for vegetable and berry growers in northern New England.
Resources and mentions
New England Vegetable and Fruit Guide
And if you want to keep the conversation going, join us in our Facebook Group to connect with us and other farmers looking to grow their business!
We also have six free eguides to help you be more effective on your farm (Winter Growing, Pastured Poultry, Washing Shed Efficiency, Profitable Farmers Toolkit, what to look for in a farm property, etc), which you can download here.
Pictures from Pleasant Valley Farm- Paul and Sandy Arnold
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