Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Field Day a (Rainy) Success!

Yesterday over 175 people attended the Annual Fresh Market Tomato and Vegetable Field Day at the Mountain Horticultural Crops Research and Extension Center in Mills River.

This annual event is an opportunity for faculty and students from NCSU to show off their research on the station.

Here are some highlights:

Dr. Frank Louws, Rob Welker and Cary Rivard discussed their research on soilborne disease control using fumigants and tomato grafting on resistant rootstock.


Dr. Ron Gehl discussed the use of black plastic, no-till and bare ground production of pumpkin, squash and gourds.

Dr. Chris Gunter explained the upcoming legislation on Food Safety and discussed his research on the use of chlorination in irrigation water with the goal of decreasing coliforms.

Dr. Jeanine Davis discussed organic heirloom and heirloom-type hybrid tomato production and the use of a microbially active Biochar product. Dr. Davis will be presenting more of this information on 21 August at the Mountain Research Station in Waynesville. Visit Dr. Davis's event calendar for more details.

And then the storm came...


The field day was moved indoors. Researchers of the plots that the participants didn't get to visit discussed their results under shelter.

Luckily, the storm blew over and we had a wonderful Pig Pickin' at Lake Julian.

To review the entire program visit: http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/agcomm/writing/Field_Days/tomato_program.pdf

If you would like a copy of the brochure from the field day, including data and results, please email me and I would be happy to send you a copy.

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