Home Garden Trials are now available
- Frank Becker, OSU Extension Wayne County
- January 28, 2025
- 266
The 2025 Home Garden Trials are now available. It’s hard to believe it’s already time to start ordering seeds. The trials are open to any home gardener in the state of Ohio. This means you and all your friends. This is the seventh year of the trials, and we have some exciting news. We have brought back a cut flower trial, an herb trial and a youth trial (to get the kids excited about gardening). We’ve been listening to feedback, and this year we’ve added lots of varieties that can be grown in containers.
The purpose of the trials is to have gardeners grow two varieties of a vegetable or flower side by side and then give us their feedback through our online reporting site. To learn more details about the trials, visit u.osu.edu/brown.6000/vegetable-trials.
There are a total of 13 trials this year. You can select to do from one to five vegetable trials, plus the flower, herb and youth trials. Community Gardens can choose to do all 13 if they would like. The cost of each trial is $3 plus shipping. If you pick up your order at the local extension office, there are reduced shipping charges. To see a description of this year’s trials and to place your order for this year, visit the 2025 Trials Home at u.osu.edu/brown.6000/vegetable-trials/2025-trials. The deadline to order is Feb. 16 for guaranteed seeds or March 2 for remaining seeds.
This year we have the following:
—Cool season vegetables: carrots, lettuce, peas, spinach, beets.
—Warm season vegetables: cucumbers, green beans, summer squash, peppers (sweet), tomatoes (cherry).
—Flowers: zinnias.
—Herbs: parsley.
—Youth: crazy beans.
If you have any questions about the Home Garden Trials, call or email Ed Brown at 740-893-8555 or brown.6000@osu.edu.
OSU Extension also will hold the 2025 Northern Ohio Vegetable Grower Winter Meeting on March 4. This program will provide opportunities to learn from and engage with OSU Extension specialists on various topics in vegetable production. The educational sessions include topics on crop protection against vegetable pests (insects, diseases, weeds), high tunnel management, safeguarding water quality and more. Take part in this educational opportunity to help equip you with the knowledge you need to help improve vegetable production on your farm.
The agenda includes the following topics and speakers:
—Weed Control in Sweet Corn & Pumpkins, with Chris Galbraith, OSU/MSU Extension.
—What’s New in High Tunnel Production and Potato Varieties, Matt Kleinhenz, OSU.
—Soilborne Disease Management in Tomatoes, Andres Sanabria Velazquez, OSU.
—Preserving Water Quality in the Western Lake Erie Basin, Jocelyn Ruble, OSU Extension.
—Cover Crops for Weed Control in Vegetables, Ram Yadav, OSU.
—Pepper Insect Pest Control/IPPM in Cucurbits, Ashley Leach, OSU.
—Vegetable Diseases of 2024: Diagnostic Lab Recap, Francesca Rotundo, OSU.
—Use of Spray Drones in Vegetable Production: Challenges & Opportunities, Erdal Ozkan, OSU.
The program will run from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., with check-in beginning at 8:30 a.m. Registering online prior to the event is required to ensure there is room. The event will take place at The Neeley Center at Terra State Community College, 2830 Napoleon Road, Fremont.
This event is free and will include a catered lunch. This event is worth three ODA credits for Commercial category 2B (category 3 for Private) and 0.5 credit for Commercial category 1. Vegetable growers won’t want to miss this opportunity to learn from and connect with fellow growers, extension staff and other individuals working within the vegetable industry.
Visit this link to register for this event: Go.osu.edu/nwveg.
Reach out to Chris Galbraith at galbraith.108@osu.edu or 734-240-3178 with any questions.
OSU Extension also is pleased to announce our first ePLUS annual report is here. ePLUS is a collection of research reports from on-farm and on-campus projects involving produce, landscape, urban and specialty (PLUS) crops. Browse the issue online at go.osu.edu/eplusreports or download a PDF copy of the 174-page, full-color publication. Physical copies will be available soon from OSU Extension.
ePLUS represents an Ohio State University program dedicated to advancing production agriculture and wise use of natural resources through on-location research. This program utilizes modern technologies and information to conduct applied, cooperative research with an educational and demonstration component used to help growers, managers and advisers understand how new practices and techniques can improve farm, forest and garden sustainability.
Frank Becker is the agriculture and natural resources extension educator with Ohio State University Extension Wayne County and a certified crop adviser and may be reached at 330-264-8722 or becker.587@osu.edu.