Pam Knox

  • “Tree of 40 Fruit”

    Every once in a while I run across a story about an agricultural oddity that is delicious to read. In this case, almost literally. Gastro Obscura published a short article on a tree in Syracuse NY that contains grafts from 40 different varieties of stone fruit. You can read it and see some pictures here.

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  • I have never heard of pongamia, an oilseed tree from India and Australia. So I was interested to read this article from Biofuels Digest on how it might provide an alternative crop for farmers in Florida who have been crushed by citrus greening and Hurricane Irma’s destruction earlier this year. The article makes it sound…

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  • Here is a very cool video showing the atmospheric loading by dust, smoke, sea salt, and other aerosol tracers over the 2017 hurricane season. It’s amazing to watch the dance of different aerosol types and see the hurricanes develop and move over the Atlantic Ocean as the season progresses.  The smoke coming off the western…

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  • New map to show individual farm fields

    Brad Haire of the Southeast Farm Press wrote an interesting story this week on a new interactive global map which is supposed to be so detailed that you can zoom down to individual farm fields. I’ve played around with it a little bit and it is pretty interesting to see. For some products you can…

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  • Do you believe that woolly bear caterpillars predict winter conditions? The State Climate Office of North Carolina published a look at the coming winter season from the standpoint of weather folklore in their latest blog post today. You can read it at https://climate.ncsu.edu/climateblog?id=246&h=5666e5c1.

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  • More Problems for Pecan Industry

    Pecans are one of the most valuable crops grown in the Southeast, and the impacts of Hurricane Irma hit pecan growers pretty hard this year, with about 30% of the nuts blown off the trees in the storm.  Trees were also blown over or dropped limbs and may need to be replaced. Vegetable and Specialty…

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  • We’re almost halfway through November, and a quick look at the climate maps shows that almost all of the Southeast is above normal in temperature so far, and most of it is much drier than usual. The only parts that are cooler than normal are in Virginia and central North Carolina.  Two areas centered near…

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