Dr. Egel's program is designed to provide disease management recommendations to commercial vegetable growers in Indiana with an emphasis on sustainability.  Some of the programs that help me to answer grower questions include:

·      The use of host resistance to manage anthracnose and Fusarium wilt in watermelon.

·      MELCAST, a weather-based disease-forecasting program that, on average, cuts fungicide applications down by 2-3 a year. 

·      The assessment of organically certified products for use against tomato diseases.

·      Fungicide trials that include a diverse array of products to manage diseases on cucurbits and solanaceous crops in the field and in the greenhouse. 

The applied research (briefly) described above is driven by the extension needs I witness as I travel around the state.  His extension program, in turn, depends on the results of applied research.  To get the message out, I use bulletins, newsletters, presentations around Indiana, his blog as well as the one-on-one interactions that come with phone calls and office visits.  

Useful links to Egel's program include:

         ·      watermelondr.info

         ·      veggiediseaseblog.org