Vegetable Program at the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Convention

Mark your calendars! The annual Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Convention is being held at Brock University in St. Catherines on February 20th and 21st. This year the vegetable program on the 20th features a wide range of topics. During the morning session there will be presentations:

• on pest issues facing Ontario garlic and onion producers including bulb and stem nematode, leek moth and iris yellow spot virus;
• on fertility research on specialty crops, including ethnocultural crops and sweet potatoes;
• a hands-on approach to making insect traps work for you in the field; and,
• the tools you need for irrigation management.

It's then off to lunch where you can browse through the trade show and poster session. Come back and join us for the afternoon session where research conducted in 2007 will be discussed, including:

• how European corn borer control products used in sweet corn are impacted by summer temperatures; and,
• an update on the in-the-field microbial survey of leafy greens and tomatoes conducted in 2007.

If you're interested in learning more about the Fresh Market Vegetable Acreage Loss Production Insurance program, join us for Agricorp's presentation. To finish the session off, come meet Seth Jacobs of Slack Hollow Farms, who will speak to us about growing locally, 365 days a year!

In addition to these sessions, there are a number of workshops and demonstrations this year. If you need help implementing on-farm food safety, check out the on-farm food safety workshop which includes information on irrigation and post harvest water, hygiene and hand washing, and manure and compost use. Maybe you're interested in pollination. Then come meet Dr. Julianne Tuell to learn about native pollinators that can work for you. And, finally, do you want to learn more about horticulture traceability, stop in at the traceability demonstration.

For more information on the vegetable session and OFVC, visit www.ofvc.ca.

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