Fruit
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Over the last few years I’ve worked with several satsuma farmers in southern Georgia helping them with insurance information and low temperature climatologies. One grower even sent me a box of them in the mail! The Georgia Farm Bureau posted a story this week in Growing Georgia describing the increase in satsuma farming over time…
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Vegetable and Specialty Crop News posted a story earlier this week describing problems that Georgia peach farmers are having with the unusually low number of chill hours that have been observed this year due to the warm winter and spring. For the peaches that survived the mid-March frost, the lack of chill hours has led…
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The record of the blossoming date of cherry trees in Kyoto, Japan, is one of the longest phenological records climatologists have. Historical information on the blossom date goes back all the way to 812 AD, although nearly continuous records are not available until 1406 AD. The dates have recently been compiled into a single record,…
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The Vegetable and Specialty Crop News published an article this week on the impact of weather on Florida peaches. Research is showing that peach leaf rust is a big issue for Florida peaches. According to the article, “Due to Florida’s hot, humid and rainy summers, peaches are much more susceptible to the rust. The disease can…
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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution noted this morning that a variety of local spring crops are making an early appearance in stores this year due to the extremely warm winter and spring we have been having. In addition to local strawberries, asparagus, onions and pea shoots are all available in markets around the area. They are showing…
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Recent rains in California have not only provided a superbloom of wildflowers but have provided desperately needed rain for the vineyards there. The Los Angeles Times reports: “It’s hard to imagine what might have happened to the region without this season’s rains. Record low rainfall levels, coupled with record average temperatures in an age of…
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Estimates of damage from last week’s killing frost continue to come in. Here are a few more stories about impacts of the frost on crops in the Southeast, particularly Georgia blueberries and South Carolina peaches. But other crops have felt some impacts as well, while others largely escaped significant damage. The Packer: Georgia blueberries bear…