Specialty Crops

Transitioning to Organic Production

Type: Bulletin

Transitioning to Organic Production lays out many promising conversion strategies, covering typical organic farming production practices, innovative marketing ideas and federal standards for certified organic crop production.

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Tomato Grafting for Disease Resistance and Increased Productivity

Type: Fact Sheet

Researchers around the world have demonstrated that grafting—the fusing of a scion (young shoot) onto a resistant rootstock—can protect plants against a variety of soil-borne fungal, bacterial, viral and nematode diseases invarious climates and conditions.

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Smart Water Use on Your Farm or Ranch

Type: Bulletin

As producers throughout the nation grow increasingly concerned about water scarcity, farmers, ranchers and agricultural educators are beginning to explore new, conservation-oriented approaches to water use.

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Researcher Shares Grafting Techniques with Agricultural Educators

Type: North Central SARE From the Field Profile

A Lincoln University researcher is training extension educators on emerging plant grafting technology and the relevant physiology.

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Rainwater Catchment from a High Tunnel for Irrigation Use

Type: North Central SARE Multimedia

This Iowa State University video/fact sheet describes how to build a system to catch, store and reuse the rainwater for irrigation in a high tunnel.

Production and Marketing of Beach Plum, a Heritage Fruit Crop

Type: Fact Sheet

Beach plum (Prunus maritima Marsh) is one of several shrubby plums native to North America. The jams produced from this fruit command premium prices at farm stands and specialty markets, even in comparison with jam made from other locally grown fruit. However, the wild-collected supply of fruit does not meet this niche market’s demand.

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Missouri Producer Envisions Future Fiber Fuel Jobs

Type: North Central SARE From the Field Profile

In Kingsville, MO, a perennial and native seed crop producer has been developing and processing energy crops and agricultural residues into biomass engineered fiber fuel, and now he and other producers in MO could help determine the future of cellulosicbased biofuels.

Managing Cover Crops Profitably, 3rd Edition

Type: Book

Managing Cover Crops Profitably explores how and why cover crops work and provides all the information needed to build cover crops into any farming operation.

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$19.00

Managing Alternative Pollinators

A Handbook for Beekeepers, Growers and Conservationists

Type: Book

Managing Alternative Pollinators: A Handbook for Beekeepers, Growers and Conservationists is a first-of-its-kind, step-by-step, full-color guide for rearing and managing bumble bees, mason bees, leafcutter bees and other bee species that provide pollination alternatives to the rapidly declining honey bee.

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$23.50

How to Manage the Blue Orchard Bee

Type: Book

How to Manage the Blue Orchard Bee explains how to use this alternative pollinator successfully, including nesting, rearing and wintering, how to manage predators, and more. Available only online.

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Experiential Curricula in Sustainable Agriculture Topics

Resources for Instructors

Type: Online Course/Curriculum

These in-depth training manuals, produced by the University of California Santa Cruz, help instructors conduct hands-on teaching in organic farming and gardening, direct marketing, and small-farm business planning.

Evaluation of Supplemental Flowering Plant Strips for Sustainable Enhancement of Beneficial Insects

Type: North Central SARE From the Field Profile

The primary short-term goal of this graduate student grant project was to test a strategy for utilization of  native plants to increase biodiversity in a perennial fruit system. This project is of particular relevance to specialty crop farmers that are under pressure to reduce pesticide inputs while also producing the highest quality food. 

Diversity Initiatives Underway

Type: North Central SARE From the Field Profile

Funded in 2005 through the Farmer Rancher Grant Program, Pov Huns’ high tunnel project, “Can Screened High Tunnels Extend the Growing Season of Bitter Melon in the Midwest?” (FNC05-551) aimed to determine whether pest control and season extension could make a tropical vegetable such as bitter melon protable by using a high tunnel on his Kansas City farm.

Crop Rotation on Organic Farms

A Planning Manual

Type: Book

Crop Rotation on Organic Farms: A Planning Manual provides an in-depth review of crop rotation, including how it improves soil quality and health and helps manage pests, diseases and weeds.

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$24.00

Building Soils for Better Crops, 3rd Edition

Sustainable Soil Management

Type: Book

Building Soils for Better Crops is a one-of-a-kind, practical guide to ecological soil management, now expanded and in full color.

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$20.95

Award Winning Farm Family Conducts Research and Outreach on Traditional Hmong Herbs

Type: North Central SARE From the Field Profile

In Minnesota, Mhonpaj Lee, NCR-SARE Farmer Rancher grant recipient, is researching and documenting information about traditional Hmong herbs. In addition to her job as a translator at Hennepin County Medical Center, Lee farms with her family. They are currently offering shares from the first certified organic Hmong owned and operated Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) operation.