SWPAC 2024 Research

 

Dennis Nowaskie, Superintendent
4669 North Purdue Road
Vincennes, IN 47591
812-886-9661
nowaskie@purdue.edu
https://ag.purdue.edu/arp/pac/Pages/swpac-home.aspx

 

  Department of Agronomy

Clean Air Status Trends Network/ Dry Deposition Measurements (CASTNET)
Purpose: The measurement of gaseous and collection of gaseous and particulate pollutants in combination with meteorological conditions are made at this site in order to 1) characterize geographic patterns and temporal trends in chemical atmospheric dry deposition 2) support assessments of atmospherically – deposited nutrients.
Contact: Rich Grant
           
National Atmospheric Deposition Program/Mercury Deposition Network (MDN)
Purpose: The collection of rain water from this site in order to: 1) characterize geographic patterns and temporal trends in wet chemical mercury deposition and 2) Support assessments of atmospherically-deposited mercury on the productivity of biological accumulators such as fish.
Contact: Rich Grant
 
National Atmospheric Deposition Program/Mercury Litterfall Network (MLN)
Purpose: The collection of litterfall from this site in order to: 1) characterize geographic patterns and temporal trends in dry chemical mercury deposition and 2) Support assessments of atmospherically-deposited mercury on the productivity of biological accumulators such as fish.
Contact: Rich Grant & SWPAC Staff
 
National Atmospheric Deposition Program/National Trends Network (NTN)
Purpose: The collection of rain water from this site is made in order to: 1) Characterize geographic patterns and temporal treads in chemicals as well as quantity and conductivity of atmospheric wet deposition and 2) support assessments of atmospherically – deposited nutrients influencing crop productivity.
Contact: Rich Grant
           
National Atmospheric Deposition Program/Ammonia Monitoring Network (AMON)
Purpose: The collection of gaseous ammonia from the site is made in order to 1) characterize geographic patterns and temporal trends in background ammonia levels, 2) support assessments of atmospherically-deposited nitrogen on the ecosystem function.
Contact: Rich Grant
 
Purdue Automated Agricultural Weather Station (PAAWS)
Purpose: Automated collection of weather data from this site is sent to the Indiana State Climate Office at Purdue University - data can be observed at: http://climate.agry.purdue.edu
Contact: Beth Hall
 
National Weather Service Station (NWS)
Purpose: Manual collection of daily weather observations from this site are sent to the NWS via a web-based application known as WxCoder.
Contact: Rich Grant & SWPAC Staff
 
 

 
Wheat Fungicide Trial WHT 24-03
Purpose: Evaluation of fungicide efficacy on wheat scab.
Contacts: Darcy Telenko & Steven Brand
 
Industry Wheat Fungicide Trial WHT 24-03
Purpose: Evaluation of fungicide efficacy on wheat scab.
Contacts: Darcy Telenko & Steven Brand
 
Soybean Fungicide Trial SOY24-02
Purpose: Uniform fungicide evaluation in soybeans.
Contacts: Darcy Telenko & Steven Brand
 
Industry Soybean Fungicide Trial SOY24-02
Purpose: Uniform fungicide evaluation in soybeans.
Contacts: Darcy Telenko & Steven Brand
 
Corn Fungicide Evaluation COR24-11
Purpose: Uniform fungicide evaluation in corn.
Contacts: Darcy Telenko & Steven Brand
 
Industry Corn Fungicide Evaluation COR24-11
Purpose: Uniform fungicide evaluation in corn.
Contacts: Darcy Telenko & Steven Brand
 
Cowpea Protein Improvement Project
Purpose: Evaluating cowpea lines for seed protein concentration, growth habits and tannins content.
Contacts: Jeneen Fields & Jean Paul Iyakaremye
 
  

 
Sustainable Watermelon Production
Purpose: Most watermelon producers follow a conventional production approach, this project will test al alternative watermelon production approach with hairy vetch as a cover crop, a threshold-based insecticide program and the reliance on wild pollinators.
Contact: Ian Kaplan & Zeus Mateos
 
Spider mite Outbreak on Watermelon
Purpose: This study will evaluate the use of aggressive insect management triggering spider mite outbreaks and the use of rye to protect watermelon seedlings from sand blasting damage.
Contact: Ian Kaplan & Zeus Mateos
 
Resilient Ag Demonstration Plot – Year One Pumpkins
Purpose: The purpose is to establish long-term commercial scale plots to compare current (conventional) practices to those that are referred to as resilient.
Contact: Laura Ingwell & Christian Krupke
 
Corn Earworm Trapping Network
Purpose: To monitor the presence of corn earworm moths.
Contact: Laura Ingwell & John Obermeyer
 
Squash Vine Bore Trapping Network
Purpose: To monitor the presence of squash vine bore moths.
Contact: Laura Ingwell

Armyworm Pheromone Trapping
Purpose: To monitor the presence of armyworm moths.
Contact: Laura Ingwell & John Obermeyer
 
Indiana Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey (CAPS) for Exotic Insect Pests of Soybean & Corn
Purpose: Establish traps sites and sample areas needed to monitor for exotic insect species.
Contact: Alicia Kelly
 
 

Day on the Farm for 3^rd Graders
Purpose: Educational event to allow Knox County 3^rd graders an opportunity to plant a watermelon and visit a farm.
Contact: Valerie Clingerman & Mitch Wagoner
 
Pumpkin Days for 1^st Graders
Purpose: Educational event to allow Knox County 1^st graders the opportunity to visit a pumpkin field and pick their own pumpkins.
Contact: Valerie Clingerman & Mitch Wagoner
 
Winter Canola Proprietary Germplasm Screen
Purpose: Evaluate winter canola entries for winter hardiness, stand ability, disease tolerance, and yield potential.
Contacts: Kenneth Eck & Brian Caldbeck
 
National Winter Canola Variety Trial
Purpose: Evaluate canola varieties to identify best adapted varieties for southwest Indiana.
Contacts: Kenneth Eck & Mike Stamm
 
Industrial Rapeseed Germplasm Screen
Purpose: Evaluate commercially available industrial rapeseed entries for winter hardiness, standability, disease tolerance, and yield potential.
Contacts: Kenneth Eck & Brian Caldbeck
 
Wheat Variety Trial
Purpose: Southwestern Indiana Independent Wheat Variety Trials exist to provide growers in this area unique information to their geographic area.
Contacts: Valerie Clingerman & Amanda Mosiman
  
 
Indiana Melon Production Agricultural Region Environmental Surveillance for Foodborne Bacterial Pathogens
Purpose: Seeks to collect air, soil, and water samples in order to develop baseline information that will inform future development of interventions and risk reduction techniques for use by produce growers.
Contacts: Scott Monroe, Amanda Deering & Tari Gary
 
 
Seedless Watermelon Variety Trial (2024)
Purpose: Evaluate yield and fruit quality of seedless watermelon varieties.
Contact: Wenjing Guan
 
Seeded Watermelon Variety Trial (2024)
Purpose: Evaluate yield and fruit quality of seedless watermelon varieties.
Contact: Wenjing Guan

Personal Size Watermelon Variety Trial (2024)
Purpose: Evaluate yield and fruit quality of personal size watermelon varieties.
Contact: Wenjing Guan

Specialty Watermelon Variety Trial
Purpose: Evaluate different flesh-colored watermelons.
Contact: Wenjing Guan
 
Watermelon Fertilization Irrigation Experiment
Purpose: Evaluate Stroller fertilizer programs for watermelon production
Contact: Wenjing Guan
 
Melon Post-harvest Shelf-Life Evaluation
Purpose: Evaluate shelf life of newly developed melon cultivars.
Contact: Wenjing Guan, Amanda Deering & Scott Monroe
 
Explorer No-till Watermelon
Purpose: Explore potential of growing watermelons using a no-till system
Contact: Wenjing Guan & Laura Ingwell
 
Cantaloupe Variety Trial (2024)
Purpose: Evaluate yield and fruit quality of cantaloupe varieties.
Contact: Wenjing Guan
 
Evaluate Transgenic Camelina
Purpose: Evaluate field performance of transgenic camelina
Contact: Wenjing Guan & Kianthi Varala
 
Exploring Mature Watermelon Vine Decline in Indiana Purpose: Greenhouse experiment to understand relationship of Fusarium wilt and waterlogging stress
Contact: Wenjing Guan & Dan Egel
 
Effects of Irrigation Management on Watermelons, Tomatoes, Cucumbers and Peppers
Purpose: Demonstrate different irrigation management strategies on yield of common vegetable crops.
Contact: Wenjing Guan
 
Effects of Using Different Mulch Materials on Vegetable Production Purpose: Compare plastic mulch, bare soil, wood chips and straw mulch in growing common vegetable crops. Exploring their effects in crop yield and maintain soil moisture
Contact: Wenjing Guan
 
Evaluate Open Field Strawberry Cultivar (2022-2024)
Purpose: The project is to evaluate different strawberry cultivars grown on white vs. black plastic in open field plasticulture system
Contact: Wenjing Guan and Steve Meyers
 
Buckwheat Production in Caterpillar Tunnel
Purpose: Evaluation of buckwheat
Contact: Wenjing Guan
 
Dill Production in Tunnels
Purpose: Evaluation of dill
Contact: Wenjing Guan
 
Wine Grape Research
Purpose: Evaluation of wine grape varieties in southwest Indiana.
Contact: Miranda Purcell
 
Table Grape Research
Purpose: Evaluation of table grape varieties in southwest Indiana.
Contact: Miranda Purcell
 
Chestnut Study
Purpose: Evaluate Chestnut tree growth and nut production.
Contact: Miranda Purcell
 
Sweet Potato Variety Trial
Purpose: A plant, maintain, harvest trial to evaluate yield and quality.
Contact: Stephen Meyers and Wenjing Guan
 
Mulit-Year Plasticulture Strawberry Cover Crop Trial (2022-2024)
Purpose: The objective is to determine if cover crops can be used to suppress weeds in row middles for multi-year plasticulture strawberry production.
Contact: Stephen Meyers & Wenjing Guan
 
Mulit-year Plasticulture Strawberry Herbicide Program (2023-2024)
Purpose: Evaluating several herbicides to control weeds in a two-year production system.
Contact: Stephen Meyers & Wenjing Guan
 
USDA AFRI Grant – Taking the Next Step as a Small and Medium-sized Farm: Understanding the Integration of Production, Food Safety, and Profitability.
Purpose: The goal is to improve the profitability of small and medium-sized vegetable farms.
Contact: Petrus Langenhoven & Nathan Shoaf
 
 

 
Knox County CISMA Native Plant Propagation
Purpose: The Knox County CISMA hopes to continue to propagate a variety of native plant species in one of the SWPAC’s greenhouses starting in March 2021 through September 2021.
Contact: Ben Burke, Knox County Soil and Water & Larry Sutterer
 
Native Plant Restoration for the Pollinators at SWPAC
Purpose: Restore native plants for bee pollinators.
Contact: Ben Burke, Knox County Soil and Water
 
Invasive Species Control
Purpose: Remove and control of invasive species in woodlands.
Contact: Ben Burke, Knox County Soil and Water
 
Monitoring and Visual Surveys for Silver Y Month & Spotted Lanternfly
Purpose: Maintaining pheromone trap for Silver Y Moth and doing visual surveys for the Spotted Lanternfly.
Contact: Bonnie Spindler, Indiana Department of Natural Resources
  
Collections & Sequencing of Weed Populations
Purpose: Data collection and sequencing of weed populations over the course of a growing season and across years to better understand the rate of weed adaptation to herbicides and other selective pressures.
Contact: Julia Kreiner, University of Chicago