Vegetables

Sustainable Food Purchasing Guide

This guide was written to help institutions determine how to source more sustainable food options.

Guide to USDA's NASS End of Season Fruit and Vegetable Inquiry

This plain language helps farmers complete the USDA-NASS End of Season Fruit and Vegetable Survey. The guide explains the survey's purpose and step-by-step instructions for completing the forms.

Harvesting Crops for Market

This plain language guide has information on when to harvest vegetables, how to prepare produce for harvest, and safe handling of produce after harvest.

Reduced Tillage and Cover Cropping Systems for Organic Vegetable Production

This information sheet captures research by Virginia Tech and the Virginia Association for Biological Farming to develop cover crop-based, reduced-tillage systems for organic vegetable production.

High Tunnels

This manual on using high tunnels or hoop houses for season extension includes case studies, a supplier list and chapters on marketing, site selection, construction and types, and soil, pest and environmental management.

Manage Insects on Your Farm

While every farming system is unique, the principles of ecological pest management apply universally. Manage Insects on Your Farm highlights ecological strategies that improve your farm’s natural defenses and encourage beneficial insects to attack your worst pests.

Cultural Practices for Root-Knot and Root-Lesion Nematode Suppression in Vegetable Crop Rotations

This publication discusses the use of non-host crops, sorghum sudangrass and castor bean grown as cover crops, RKN-resistant crops, and the application of poultry litter (PL) and PL compost to manage RKN and root-lesion nematode.

Organic Insect Management in Sweet Corn

This fact sheet discusses an integrated strategy for controlling three caterpillar species—corn earworm, European corn borer and fall armyworm—using methods that meet current organic certification standards. Any grower interested in methods that are safe for the applicator and the environment may be interested in this approach.

Diversifying Cropping Systems

This bulletin describes some of the many agronomic crop alternatives to use in rotations, with plentiful examples of on-farm successes.

Steel in the Field

Weed control demands time, labor and expense for every farmer every year. Steel in the Field shows how today's implements and techniques can control weeds while reducing—or eliminating—herbicides. Available only online.