Local Foods and Small Farms Blogs

Tomato and pepper variety trials are being conducted in one of the high tunnels at DSAC, with a planting date of April 6. Tomato variety trials will consist of 5 determinate varieties, 6 indeterminate varieties, and 6 bell pepper varieties. In anticipation of the indeterminate varieties growing...

The 2026-2027 Midwest Fruit Pest Guide has been updated and the PDF files are available for download. New this year, the spray guide has been divided up into separate sections by fruit family and you can download specific sections, making it...

If you established a cover crop last fall or earlier this spring, the persistent April rainfall likely worked in your favor. Across northern Illinois, April weather was highly variable but ultimately warmer and much wetter than normal, shaping planting conditions throughout the western Chicago...

Trent Ford, Illinois State Climatologist, provided this article.April has continued our very warm and active spring, with average temperatures that have been 5 to 10 degrees warmer than average statewide (Figure 1). The warmth has pushed soil temperatures into the 60s and 70s statewide, well ahead...

One final regional update from Elizabeth Wahle. And the cycle begins again for 2026.  Asparagus harvest is ongoing and a good crop overall is being reported. Plasticulture strawberries are in week two of harvest and as usual for early berries, could benefit from some heat and...

May is a critical month for assessing winter trunk damage because trees are fully leafing out and water demand is increasing. Differences in vigor among cultivars and rootstocks that were subtle during bloom are often more obvious now. Along with thinning decisions, this is a good time to evaluate...

Bloom PeriodBy the time you read this, most fruit trees in northern Illinois will have bloomed. When I visited an orchard in mid‑April, most cultivars were at tight cluster to half‑inch green. Just a week later, some cultivars had already entered late pink and even bloom. This...

We have been on the spring roller coaster for temperatures in southern Illinois.  March 15-17 saw temperatures plummet, with March 16 not even getting above freezing.  We saw lows down to the upper teens across the area.  However, by the weekend we were pushing 90 degrees for high...

Heading into year two of the Illinois Ginger Growers Collaborative project, fourteen small farmers and six Extension field staff have just received their ginger rhizome seed pieces. Four varieties of ginger rhizome seed from two different vendors are being evaluated for vigor, disease incidence or...

The luck of the leprechauns may have been with growers this St. Patrick’s Day.  By that I mean apples and peaches in Southern Illinois were/are all in bud development stages sensitive to below freezing temperatures, and we definitely got below freezing.  Where the luck came in is...