Fruit
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The rainy and cloudy weather this year has affected a lot of pecan production in the Southeast, but as Clint Thompson of Vegetable and Specialty Crop News points out, growers are still feeling the impacts of tree loss due to Hurricane Michael in 2018. Many trees have still not recovered from the damaging winds and…
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One of the ways that farmers in the Southeast are becoming more resilient to changing markets and changing weather conditions is to add new crops that can take advantage of these trends. This story from the Atlanta Journal Constitution describes how one farmer in southern Georgia started growing olives for oil. One thing I learned…
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The dry weather we have had recently has had some benefits to farmers, according to my conversations with extension agents and this article from Vegetable and Specialty Crop News. Due to the low humidity and lack of rain to splash soil microbe onto the plants, disease pressure from fungal diseases is very low. This is…
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A recent article from UGA Extension discusses the 2021 pecan crop and how the weather adversely affected this year’s production. It includes the effect of the cold spring on pollination, wet conditions on the development of scab, and the cloudy conditions, especially late in the season, keeping the nuts from filling properly. You can read…
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The Texas freeze in February 2021 and the heat wave that hit the Pacific Northwest this past summer both had significant effects on fruit production in those regions. Here are a few stories that describe some of the issues they had. Growing Produce: Texas Citrus Crop on the Comeback Trail from Winter Storm Damage Citrus…
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Changes in the frequency of heavy rain and cold outbreaks have caused challenges for fruit growers in Michigan, where I grew up. Late cold outbreaks in spring have caused frost damage to some fruit like blueberries and peaches, and heavy rains have caused erosion and other issues for many orchards. There are some methods producers…
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How do you know how plants will respond to changes in climate? You try them out in different conditions to see how well they grow in a less than ideal climate and see whether or not they survive. Here is an interesting story from Atlas Obscura describing one testbed at the Wolfskill Experimental Orchards in…