Southern highbush blueberries were planted in a new research plot today. Again, spring or fall is the ideal time for planting blueberries to reduce transplant shock and allow the plants to establish a solid root system before winter time. However, the wet spring weather and scheduling prevented us from planting until now. At least this week was "cooler". The key to planting … [Read more...] about Southern Highbush Blueberries Planted
Today the field crew burned holes in the weed barrier for the blueberry plants to be planted soon. They used a homemade device to measure the plant spacing and a propane torch to burn and remove the hole for the plant. … [Read more...] about Burning holes in the weed barrier for the blueberry plants
While this is not the typical time of year for planting blueberries, the beds for the southern highbush blueberries were put in today. The rainy weather had delayed the the ground from being workable for using the bed shaper. The plot had previously been soil tested, amended and worked up. We finally had enough dry weather and sunshine to dry the plot and be able to work the … [Read more...] about Southern Highbush Blueberry Beds
Yesterday evening, Craig Jennings, a horticulture instructor at Missouri State-West Plains, brought some students to the experiment station for a tour. The students are learning about protected culture (high tunnels, low tunnels, and greenhouses). They were particularly interested in the mushroom project, so that is where we went first. They saw the set-ups for the oyster and … [Read more...] about West Plains horticulture group visit the State Fruit Experiment Station
Dr. Laszlo Kovacs, Professor of Biology at Missouri State, developed an educational vineyard at Nathanael Greene Park to highlight different grape species and hybrids as well as rootstocks. Our Viticulture students pruned the grapes this week. Students who connected to class via Zoom could see the operation thanks to Sydney and Trace, who video streamed our work in real-time. … [Read more...] about Viticulture students prune grapevines at Nathanael Greene Park