December 14, 2007

This year's Great Plains Vegetable Growers Conference is expanding its conference topics to include whole tracks of sessions devoted to small fruits, cut flowers and organic farming in addition to its mainstay of vegetable production research updates. A trade show also will be available.

The conference will begin at 9:30 a.m. Jan. 11 and adjourn at 3 p.m. Jan. 12 and be held at the St. Joseph, Mo., Ramada Inn.

"We've also added a new mini school for Jan. 10, the day before the conference. It will address the ins and outs of using the community-supported agriculture or CSA approach to selling fresh produce," said Ted Carey, Kansas State University horticulturist and the 2008 conference coordinator.

A concurrent pre-conference workshop on Jan. 10 will explore "high tunnels," the unheated greenhouses that can extend market farmers' production season by months.

The program will offer three day-long sequences of topic-related sessions — organic farming, cut flowers, and marketing and finance — from which participants can choose in addition to shorter tracks on such subjects as sweet corn, pumpkins and melons, tomatoes, pesticide safety, pest management, farmers markets, food safety, specialty crops, flowers, and berry crops.

"We try to include the latest in research and hot topics," Carey said. "As often as possible, we also feature speakers who are successful growers with years of experience and sometimes hard-won insights. They're always a favorite of both experienced and novice growers."

The conference sponsors include the Kansas and Missouri Vegetable Growers associations and the Cooperative Extension Services of five land-grant universities: Kansas State, Iowa State, Missouri-Columbia, Nebraska and South Dakota.

A full conference schedule and a printable registration form are available on the Web at http://www.hfrr.ksu.edu/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=513.

The conference registration fee is $35 per day until Jan. 4 and $40 per day after that date. The fee will cover all materials, refreshment breaks and noontime meals.

Registration is $50 for the Jan. 10 high-tunnel workshop and $60 for the CSA mini school.

Further information is available by contacting Carey at 913-856-2335, Ext. 120 or email at tcarey@ksu.edu, or Christy Dipman at 785-532-6173 or email at cdipman@ksu.edu.

Kansas State University News Release