For Northern Illinois orchards, the 2024 season has concluded. Between Halloween and Thanksgiving, some of the orchards have limited hours with pre-picked apples as they begin to shut down for the season. One of the final cultivars in October is 'Evercrisp'  a 'Honeycrisp x Fuji' MAIA apple...

Hurricane Francine might have put a damper on the first “official” pumpkin weekend this season, but the following weekends have been near perfect for drawing crowds to fall agritourism activities.  The pumpkin crop is overall good to excellent, and demand is high.  Apple harvest,...

We’re about 3-4 weeks into apple season up here with new varieties being harvested each week. For the week of 9/20/2024, this includes ‘Gala’, ‘Honeycrisp’, ‘Early Fuji’, ‘Golden Delicious’, ‘Jonagold’, ‘Cortland’, ‘Pixie Crunch’, ‘Crimson Crisp’, ‘Senshu’, and many, many others. This can vary from...

Operations with agritourism opportunities have really geared up for the fall season and everyone is hoping for great weather these next four weekends leading up to Halloween. The last weekend of September brought welcomed rain to the St Louis Metro East, breaking a moderate drought before it became...

‘Honeycrisp’ is usually known not to color well in the warm climes of southern Illinois, but not this year!  Across the board, red-colored apples are putting on a show this year.  Early apple cultivars like ‘Sweet Maia’, ‘Blondee’, ‘Buckeye Gala’, and ‘Grand Gala’ have already been...

The level or tendency to form burr knots is usually a noted characteristic for each of the different apple rootstocks, but what is burr knot and why is it a concern?  Burr knot can be described as an apple disorder that results in adventitious (formed accidentally or in an unusual anatomical...

The main challenge we have experienced from the end of July and into mid-August is that we entered a period without rain in some parts of our region and temperatures being too hot (above 90 F) for some days. This has resulted in a lot of challenges in the final ripening on tomatoes and other crops...

During the weekend of July 12 to 14 and the week of July 15, we had some farms that received quite a lot of rain and severe winds. Some farms reported receiving 7-8 inches of rain while others, like in the Freeport area, had about 3-4 inches. This was combined with very warm temperatures (above 90...

June’s hot, dry conditions were conducive to spider mite flareups, particularly in tomatoes.  Ever wonder why? Spider mites are reported to be susceptible to a pathogenic fungus that, when present, is capable of controlling spider mite populations. But for the fungi to survive and do their...

It was great to see many of you at the start of June at the Summer Hort Field Day up north at Jonamac Orchards. One of the takeaways I always enjoy from this event is the growers report, highlighting some of the challenges that growers have faced this winter and spring and the differences that we...