Vegetable

All Vegetable Content

To small pumpkins sitting on a kitchen counter.

Preserving Pumpkin

Pumpkins are a staple for the fall season. They can often be seen used to decorate homes or for carving jack-o'-lanterns, but they’re great to eat or can for later too!

Preservation, Canning, Vegetable, Fruit

a variety of bright colored fruits and vegetables arranged on a table

A Guide to Drying Foods

Fact sheet about drying foods

Fruit, Vegetable, Preservation, Food Safety

Black beetles with orange or yellow spots feeding on a ripe tomato.

Insects are Invading My Produce!

Ripe fruit that has been injured as well as ground fall fruits often attract undesirable insects into an area.

Fruit, Vegetable, Garden & Yard Issues

Woody looking zucchini plant.

What’s Killing My Zucchini and Squash Plants?

For many of us, this time of year is tough for our zucchini, squash and pumpkin plants. A close inspection of wilting plants may reveal a sawdust-like substance around the soil surface or on the base of the stem. When pushed, the plants typically break and reveal clear evidence of insect feeding through the stem.

Garden & Yard Issues, Fruit, Vegetable

Black and grey bugs of different sizes feeding on a yellow squash.

Squash Bugs in Zucchini

Squash bugs are now becoming a headache for gardeners across South Dakota. Most of the reports so far have been on zucchini plants, but squash bugs feed on pumpkins and other types of squash as well. Injury caused by extensive feeding appears as wilting and may result in the death of infested plants.

Garden & Yard Issues, Vegetable, Fruit

A color-coded map indicating the average date of 32 degree temperatures across various Midwestern states.

Fall Frost and September Climate Outlook for 2019

This year’s struggles with weather and climate are continuing this fall. Late planting of corn and soybeans in the spring have now combined with near average or cooler than average summertime temperatures. This combination has led to slow crop growth and the need for an extended frost-free season to ensure these crops reach maturity.

Crop Management, Corn, Soybean, Wheat, Garden & Yard Issues, Fruit, Vegetable

A Kohlrabi plant with broad, frost-covered green leaves.

Fall Frost Tolerance of Common Vegetables

Vegetables vary widely in how much cold they can tolerate as they reach maturity.

Vegetable, Garden & Yard Issues

A green squash vine with a large, yellow flower blooming from it.

Saving Seed of Pumpkins, Squash, Cucumbers, Melons and Gourds

If gardeners wish to save seed from cucurbits (squash, pumpkins, gourds, cucumbers, and melons), special precautions need to be observed, as these plants are insect-pollinated.

Fruit, Vegetable

Three common potato issues. From left: Potato scab, knobbing and cracking, and hollow heart.

What’s Wrong With My Potato?

We are accustomed to perfect-looking potatoes from the grocery store, but sometimes our homegrown tubers don’t meet that same standard. Following are a couple of common problems home gardeners may contend with.

Vegetable, Garden & Yard Issues

A diagram of two parent plants. The left plant is an inbred plant with a red flower, long stem, and narrow leaves. (Traits are labeled: RR, LL, NN) The right is an inbred plant with a white flower, short stem, and fat leaves. (Traits are labeled: WW, SS, FF)

Saving Seed: Will the seed produce plants similar to the plant it was collected from?

It can be very rewarding to harvest and save seed of ornamental and vegetable plants. But why is it that sometimes when we plant the seed we saved, the results do not seem to be very like the plant we collected the seed from?

Flower, Plant, Fruit, Vegetable