Fruit
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According to a story from UGA by Paul Pugliese, “This year has been a terrible year for mummy berry disease due to the unusually cool, wet spring weather. Late freezes also predisposed leaves and flower buds to infection.” Mummy berry is a fungal disease of blueberry plants that causes blueberries to dry, shrivel and drop…
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According to reports from earlier in June, North Carolina may have experienced its best strawberry season ever. A relatively mild spring with no major frost events helped growers prolong this year’s growing season. Growers were able to get an early start to the season using row covers, which allowed some plants to start flowering as…
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I love all summer fruit, but one of my favorites has to be the watermelon. Good thing I live in the South! It’s easy to find them here, and they taste great. But that was not always the case. Atlas Obscura has an interesting story about the history of the watermelon and how it was…
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In spite of a lot of worry on the part of peach farmers this year with a warm winter limiting chill hours and some late frosts occurring after a warm start to the season, Georgia peach producers are welcoming an abundance of peaches this year. According to a story by WSB television, the weather this…
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A couple of weeks ago I posted a link to the UGA Blueberry Blog describing the impact of the unusual weather this spring on flies in blueberries. This week they posted another story which showed a different impact on the berries–fungal diseases such as fruit rot. The berries have also suffered from splits which have…
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The rainy conditions this spring have caused some negative impacts on the Georgia blueberry crop, including soft fruit, vertical berry split, and worms. You can read more about it at the UGA Blueberry Blog here.
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With plenty of wet conditions occurring in the northern half of our region, it should be no surprise that the rain is causing problems for producers. Vegetable and Specialty Crop Newsletter noted this week that strawberry growers were one such group, with torrential rains causing water damage to late berries and fungal diseases spreading rapidly…