Fruit
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I was shopping at the grocery store this week and found my first Georgia peaches of the year packed and ready to go. The ones I bought were a little small and firm, but they look and taste good. Vegetable and Specialty Crop News posted a story this week quoting UGA Extension agent Jeff Cook…
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Georgia’s warm and humid climate is conducive to the development of fungal diseases in all types of crops. We have been fairly dry lately, so have not seen too much disease in the crops until now. But with a return to more humid, and (hopefully) more rainy conditions, the likelihood of crops like grapes developing…
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Impacts from our two April freezes are continuing to come in. Peach producers have been surprised to see some of the biggest impacts have been on late-blooming peaches, rather than the early varieties which were farther along. Losses could amount to 30 to 40% of a full crop. But it is still better than the…
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Here’s an interesting story about freeze protection of apples in Italy. While I know that Southeastern farmers use irrigation to protect blueberries from freezing conditions, this is the first time that I have read about Italian farmers using the same method to protect their apples. The system they use is a little different in that…
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According to an article this week in Vegetable and Specialty Crop News, the citrus industry in northern Florida and southern Georgia is increasing rapidly, with acreage in North Florida at around 1,200 acres and in South Georgia at around 2,000 acres. I have worked with a few of the producers, who are growing satsumas and…
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While the frost we had here in the Southeast in early April caused some problems for fruit and vegetable farmers in parts of the region, it was nothing like the severe frost that caused widespread damage to grapevines in Europe and especially in France. This frost affected up to 80 percent of all producers, with…
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According to The Packer, Florida is the first state in the US to have ripe, marketable peaches each year. Their short season begins near the end of March and goes into May. With good chill hours this year, they are expecting one of the best crops in the last five years. You can read more…