Pruning Catawba grapes began yesterday. Catawba is a winter hardy variety that is pruned earlier in the dormant season than the more cold tender grape varieties.

Breanne, Pat, Sylvia and Rachel prune Catawba grape vines.

Clint Elmore, an undergraduate horticulture student at Missouri State, presented “Two Vegetable Farmers’ First Look at Flowers” along with Rusty Lee, his summer internship mentor/employer, at our Cut Flower Workshop held at Mountain Grove yesterday.  Dr. Clydette Alsup-Egbers was in the audience along with other horticulture students to help shore him up. He gave an excellent presentation based on his summer internship work and participated in the speaker panel at the end of the day. Great job!

Clint inspects sunflowers at one of his plots at Lee Farms in Truxton Missouri this summer.

The workshop was designed for growers considering commercial cut flower production. We had a great program with excellent speakers including Dr. Alan Stevens of K-State University, Beth and Butch Eggers who own and manage the Flower Farm on Wye Mountain in Roland Arkansas, and Andy Read, Regional Horticulture Extension Agent from Rolla. Over 40 participants attended the workshop.

Although most of the conifers, or cone bearing trees, are green all year round, there are some deciduous ones that put on a lovely fall show before they lose their needles before winter.  Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostoboides), Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum), and Larch (Larix decidua) are three beautiful examples.

The beautiful fall color of bald cypress brightens up the Missouri State Campus at Mountain Grove.

Yesterday Tucker, our Ozarks Rain Gardens project manager, visited the station for a final inspection. It was raining, but then what better weather to evaluate in. Tucker was pleased with the completed project and gave us the thumbs up!

DNR project manager checks on the effectiveness of our rain gardens in intercepting and decontaminating stormwater runoff.

The rain garden project is set to get its final inspection from the DNR project manager, Tucker Fredrickson, this coming Thursday. Our field crew was out mulching and weeding for the final inspection! Wish us luck.

Mulching the river oats and shrubs along the dry creek banks of the large rain garden.

Weeding the buffalo grass on the south side of the large rain garden.

The first frost occurred late last night through early morning. It dipped down to 27.6 degrees F at the station.

The Norton grapes in the North vineyard were harvested today for the cellars. Last Monday (October 5) the juice chemistry was TSS (sugar) 22.7 Brix; pH 3.24 and TA (acidity) 1.436. The remaining Norton vineyards will be picked this week.

Norton grape

For the samples collected today.

The field crew is picking pawpaws from John Avery’s cultivar trial of this native fruit. This is the second picking this year.

Pawpaw pickers

The Catawba grapes in the research vineyard were harvested on Friday, September 18. The Chambourcin in the MVEC vineyard on the Geneva double curtain were harvested Monday and Tuesday, September 21 and 22.