Ashley Adair, Organic Agriculture Specialist, John Orick, Extension Master Gardener State Coordinator, and Karen Mitchell, Consumer Horticulture Specialist, provided training to equip 22 Extension educators with the skills and curriculum needed to implement four hands-on horticulture activities in their local communities. Focused on plant propagation, weed identification, and hydroponics, the training emphasized practical techniques in[Read More…]
Ashley Adair presented “The Dirt… on soil health, cover crops, and the bottom line” at private applicator recertification programs in Clark, Harrison, and Washington Counties on 11/12/2024. The talk covered soil health, N-credits from cover crops, and organic transition (an unusual topic for a PARP meeting!). Across the three events, Ashley reached approximately 100 farmers.[Read More…]
Ashley Adair presented at the Rooted & Resilient Homesteading Conference in Kendallville, IN this past Saturday. She co-presented a talk on organic labeling and certification with Noble County ANR Educator Ann Kline, and presented a talk “From Scraps to Soil: Mastering Composting and Organic Production.” Shout out to the educators in Area 11 and Wabash[Read More…]
Find yourself a tin roof, a rain gauge and enjoy the smell of petrichor on the horizon – we’ve got a potential thunderstorm this morning! And I say now as many a farmer has said before me: we suuuuure needed it. As a whole, it’s been a slower week, mostly harvest and maintenance. A classic case[Read More…]
A research article entitled “Effect of in-row spacing on weed suppression and yield of ‘Covington’ and ‘Monaco’ sweetpotato” was published in Weed Technology on October 16, 2024. The research was conducted as part of the Master’s thesis of Emmanual Cooper, funded by the USDA-NIFA-OREI grant program. Co-authors include Stephen Meyers and Ashley Adair from HLA,[Read More…]
The 7th annual Midwest Mechanical Weed Control Field Day took place at Meigs Horticulture Research Facility took place Wednesday, September 11th. Welcoming about 250 participants from as far away as Quebec and Tennessee, the event showcased mechanical weed control tools and techniques for all scales of farming, ranging from tarps and hand tools to camera-guided cultivators[Read More…]
Ashley Adair wrote an article for the Flanagan State Bank Specialty Growers Ag Newsletter entitled “Raw Manure, Raw Produce – New Research at Purdue to Investigate Crop-Livestock Integration and Produce Safety” featuring Moriah Bilenky’s integrated crop-livestock study with poultry and sheep. FSB is a bank in central Illinois that specializes in ag lending and has a strong history[Read More…]
The Purdue Small Farm Education Field Day was held July 25 at the Purdue Student Farm. Petrus Langenhoven, Sofia Catucuamba, Miranda Purcell, Stephen Meyers, Wenjing Guan, Lian Duron, Ashley Adair, Brittany Weerts, and Hoagland Lab members Ada Martinez and Sophia Mears presented their research to attendees. Colleagues from the Departments of Entomology, Food Science, ABE,[Read More…]
Ashley Adair was recently interviewed by Brownfield Ag News about the USDA-NIFA funded project “Empowering Indiana’s Organic Farmers: Assessing Regional and Farm Scale Soil Health with a Farmer Network.” Ashley discussed the fledgling Indiana Organic Network and Purdue’s efforts to complete an organic soil health census across the state this year. Forage/pasture, specialty crops, and[Read More…]