Fruit
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As winters get warmer across the US, chill hours that are essential for fruit farming also decrease. This has a variety of effects on fruit and nut production, including changes in how flowers are pollinated and how many blooms are produced. National Public Radio had an interesting story about these effects…
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If you are interested in how farmers produced fruit and vegetables in the days before modern technology and greenhouses in colder climates, you will enjoy reading this article in Low-Tech magazine. It describes the use of walls to help warm up local areas…
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Here is an interesting story I read in Modern Farmer this morning. You may have heard that dogs’ keen sense of smell has been used to find truffles underground or even identify potential cancer in humans, but in this story, research has shown that dogs may also be able to identify citrus trees that are…
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Fruit producers in Georgia may be interested in seeing our summary of chilling hours for all 87 UGA weather stations in one place. You can find the complete list which provides chill hours from November 1 through yesterday at https://www.georgiaweather.net/?content=ch. It includes the last four years so you can see how this year compares to…
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According to The Packer, “Growing organic strawberries has never been easy for Florida farmers, but the task got a lot more challenging in late December, when a fungus called Pestalotiopsis took hold in some of the state’s berry fields.” Their article from earlier this week noted that the growth of the fungus exploded during Christmas…
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The Southeast Farm Press discussed the take-over of the top production spot for pecans by Mexico this year in an article here. The loss is due in large part to the destruction of 27 percent of Georgia’s pecan orchards due to Hurricane Michael. Some additional production has started in the southwestern US and California but…
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Producers in the Southeast are always keeping an eye out for the next new crop they might be able to incorporate into their farms. In recent years we have heard a lot about satsumas and olives here as well as commercial production of pomegranates. Here is a story from Vegetable and Specialty Crop News on…