Take a shortcut and buy tomato plants already started in gallon containers and search out squash, pumpkin and broccoli starts from a nursery as well. When it comes to adding flowers this late in the season, look for young plants that are short and chubby like a toddler, not tall and leggy like a fashion model. Geraniums, marigolds and impatiens are three annual flowers to add now that will still give you months of blooms either in containers or planted directly into the ground. Just be...

Asingle raffle in Emerald raised $250,000 for growers, whereas an industry wide campaign by fruit and vegetable producers group Growcom raised just$5000. The industry at Emerald was decimated three years ago when citrus canker was discovered, forcing a governmentaldeclaration of a quarantinezone and hundreds of thousands of citrus trees to be destroyed. Citrus canker is a highly contagious bacterial disease of citrus crops, which causes trees to lose their leaves and fruit prematurely,...

Raspberries are a tradition with my farming family, going back to my great-grandfather, then my grandfather and father &#8212 all enthusiastic berry growers. As with vegetable gardens, full sun, good air circulation (but not windy) and well-drained soil with abundant organic matter is preferred. For more information on growing raspberries and other berry crops, you can attend the July 11 Penn State Extension garden program and also receive information on deer management. Pennsylvania, at...

Working with pumpkins and squash, Ming-Kuem Lin, a visiting postdoctoral researcher in Lucas' lab and colleagues showed that a protein, FT, is transported through the phloem sap from the body of the plant to the growing tips to trigger flowering. Many plants, including important crops such as rice, maize and wheat, flower in response to lengthening days in the spring or shortening days in fall. UC Davis News & Information :: Flowering Signal Found. Researchers thought that florigen is made...

There was a time when Ontario strawberry growers had a gentleman's agreement with their California brethren, in which the latter would back off during the local season. Next to them is a stand of California strawberries that have travelled more than 4,000 kilometres over three days first to a central warehouse and then here. It's a common gripe among fruit and vegetable farmers in southern Ontario. It now pumps out almost 1 billion kilograms of berries a year more than 130 times what...

Can biofuels deliver? The answer appears contingent on fuel prices as well as three other variables that directly influence the profitability and environmental impact of biofuels: the cost and availability of feedstock, government regulation, and conversion technologies. Can biofuels deliver? The answer appears contingent on fuel prices as well as three other variables that directly influence the profitability and environmental impact of biofuels: the cost and availability of feedstock,...