by Tim Baker
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One of the premier conferences for vegetable growers is found right here in northwest Missouri. Held in St. Joseph, the Great Plains Vegetable Conference is put together every year by extension educators from five states: Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota. The conference will be held next month on Jan. 8-10, 2009.
This conference is open to everyone, from backyard gardeners to commercial vegetable growers. Topics cover not only vegetables, but also small fruits and flowers. There are also presentations targeted toward organic growers.
The event begins with two pre-conference workshops on Thursday. The first explores the use of high tunnels in vegetable and fruit production. High tunnels, sometimes called hoop houses, are similar to traditional plastic greenhouses, except that they are normally not heated. Their main use is season extension. Typically, crops will be several weeks earlier in the spring, and will remain viable several weeks later in the fall, compared to field crops.
The second pre-conference workshop looks at a popular method of marketing known as Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). CSA’s allow the farmer to make sales before the growing season even starts, by selling subscriptions. A family, for example, may sign up to receive a bag or two of fresh produce during the growing season. Typically, they pay in advance for the produce. Then, the farmer delivers the agreed-upon amount of produce every week to his customers.
The main conference begins on Friday. There are four concurrent tracks to choose from, so there is usually something of interest for everyone.
Some of the tracks include organics, hydroponics, general vegetable production, bees, small fruit, cut flowers, greenhouse production, farm business, farmers markets, ethnic vegetables, conserving farm energy usage, and more.
Many of the talks are given by university researchers, and discuss the latest studies on vegetable management, diseases, cultivar selection, and similar topics.
Other talks are presented by successful farmers, who share their stories in the hopes that they can benefit another grower. They usually do. These talks are always followed by many questions from farmers who are looking for practical advice, and experienced farmers such as these will have a lot to share.
There will be approximately 30 exhibitors available to provide information about seeds, irrigation, horticulture equipment, chemicals, and other topics. Meals, break refreshments, and handouts will be included in the $35 per day registration fee for the main conference. If you wish to attend the special pre-conference high tunnel workshop on Thursday, the cost is $50, and the CSA workshop is $60. Registrations made after Dec. 26 will cost an additional $5 per day.
The conference is being held at a new location this year, on the campus of Missouri Western State University. For more information about the conference and a registration form, call the Buchanan County Extension office at 816-279-1691. You may also register on-line and find additional information on our web site at: http://extension.missouri.edu/buchanan/GPVGC.shtml.