Research looks at strategies to grow late season veggies veggVegetables

AMES — On Oct. 3, Iowa State University Extension and Outreach vegetable specialist Ajay Nair planted lettuce transplants at the Iowa State Horticulture Station to study two strategies that may extend the growing season for vegetable growers. One strategy was the use of row covers; the second was the application of varying rates of calcium.

In Extending the Lettuce Growing Season, a Nov. 10 video, Nair takes a look at the crop and talks about his findings during the first year of the study.  “Using row cover to extend the season has three main advantages. It increases temperature and protects plants from frost and wind,” Nair said. Walking through the test plot during the video, he shows how plants received applications of 10 millimolar calcium compare to those that received 20 millimolar treatments.

Follow Nair’s study by reading his Oct. 9 blog entry http://www.iowavegetables.blogspot.com/ or watching the video at www.ag.iastate.edu/video/v/Extending_the_Lettuce_Growing_Season.