Pumpkin Field Night Oct. 9 Focuses on Crop Management

Writer(s): 

PIKETON, Ohio -- As consumers head to the pumpkin patch and reach for their pumpkin spice lattes, growers can learn how to meet growing demand for this popular crop at a pumpkin production workshop Oct. 9.

Ohio State University’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences is hosting Pumpkin Field Night at its South Centers at Piketon.

Ohio growers planted 6,800 acres of pumpkins last year, according to Jim Collom with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service Great Lakes Region. Producers harvested 6,100 acres of pumpkins, with an average yield of 165 hundredweight per acre. The total value of Ohio pumpkins last year was nearly $15.5 million, Collom said.

The three-hour workshop will feature detailed information on the ins and outs of pumpkin production, including how to screen for resistance to powdery mildew, drip irrigation and how to evaluate which variety of pumpkins to grow, said Brad Bergefurd, a horticulture expert with Ohio State University Extension and the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center.

OSU Extension and OARDC are the outreach and research arms, respectively, of the college. The OSU South Centers is also a part of the college.

The workshop is designed to ensure that interested growers are kept up to date with the latest research on growing pumpkins, Bergefurd said.

“By attending this pumpkin field night, interested growers will be able to view some of the latest production practices to make their pumpkin farms more profitable,” he said. “Those in attendance will learn the newest disease and insect control practices as well as view some specialty pumpkins that Ohio State is testing, including giant white pumpkins, warty pumpkins and new varieties of pie-type pumpkins.”

Participants will also learn about:

  • Pumpkin crop management
  • Pumpkin cultivar and quality evaluations
  • Insect monitoring and trapping
  • Disease screening for resistance to powdery mildew, downy mildew, anthracnose and white speck
  • Integrated pest management (IPM) techniques
  • Walking tour of Ohio State’s pumpkin variety evaluations and field research trials
  • Israeli drip irrigation management

The workshop is from 6 to 9 p.m. at OSU South Centers, 1864 Shyville Road, in Piketon. Registration is $10. The deadline to register is Oct. 8. Contact Charissa McGlothin at 740-289-2071, ext. 132, or mcglothin.4@osu.edu for more information or to register.

Writer(s): 
Tracy Turner
614-688-1067
For more information, contact: 

 

Brad Bergefurd
740-289-2071, ext. 136
bergefurd.1@osu.edu

 

Charissa McGlothin
740-289-2071, ext. 132
mcglothin.4@osu.edu