Fruit
-
Vegetable and Specialty Crop News posted a story this week on delays in planting watermelons due to wet soils in south Georgia. Some areas are almost three weeks behind due to the excessive rainfall in February and early March. If the producers have to wait too long to plant, the melons may not be ready…
-
The warm and wet weather we’ve had over the winter has had some impacts on blueberries across the region, according to this recent article by Clint Thompson in Vegetable and Specialty Crop News. The excessive rain may lead to increases in disease pressure as the rain helps move root-rot spores around the fields. The rain…
-
You might consider Georgia the Peach State, but peaches also grow in otehr parts of the Southeast like South Carolina and in Florida, and in fact Florida’s are the first to market since they are grown farther south. Florida peach farmers need to use varieties that are low-chill because of the lack of cold air.…
-
As temperatures warm up across the globe, crops are being affected in different ways. Wine grapes are very sensitive to local variations in temperature, and with warmer temperatures the varieties of grapes that can be grown may change to varieties that are less useful for wine production. Here are several stories about the impacts of…
-
Farmers face many threats from the environment, from pests and diseases to extreme weather. The Daily Tar Heel described some of the new challenges agricultural producers are facing from the changing climate and how it is affecting their blueberries and other crops in this article posted last week. Farmers in other Southeastern states will understand…
-
National Public Radio published a story earlier this week collecting information on how the trend towards warmer winters is causing impacts in different parts of the US. Here in the Southeast, we are seeing impacts on fruit like blueberries and peaches and on disease vectors…
-
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…