Fruit
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The Packer published a roundup of crop summaries for Florida vegetable and fruit production this year earlier this week. You can find it here. In the article they say “Following difficult, weather-related growing conditions that negatively impacted many commodities last spring, this year’s outlook has been optimistically deemed “as good as it can get.”” Nearly…
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Farmers use a variety of techniques to help protect their vulnerable crops against frost damage when temperatures get near 32 F, including irrigation, large fans, or other heating methods. But it is hard to know when to start the frost prevention measures, because if you wait until it gets to 32 F, then it is…
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Even though most people are watching colder temperatures and a slight possibility for wintry precipitation this weekend, especially in the northern mountainous areas, I think the real concern this week is going to be the potential for a hard freeze mid-week across a lot of the Southeast north of the Georgia-Florida border. This could be…
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The Packer published a story yesterday on the growth of the production of Florida peaches. The article notes that “With virtually no other peaches on the market for an eight- to 10-week period each spring, Florida’s peach crop is establishing a place for itself in the market.” The story goes on to quote a grower…
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AgWeb published a story from Bloomberg News yesterday on the potential impacts of a hard freeze on the fruit industry this year after warm temperatures are bringing flowers to fruit trees as much as a month early this year. You can read the story here. While the flowering trees might be able to withstand short…
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The Southeast Farm Press published a story yesterday from Lenny Wells of UGA discussing the impacts of the unusually warm winter on this year’s pecan crop. He expects that most buds will break dormancy in the next couple of weeks. The most likely problems will be with decreased pollination and susceptibility to a late frost.…
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I noticed when I drove home from work in Watkinsville GA today (just outside Athens) that the peach orchard on the university farm is in bloom (and no, this picture is not from Watkinsville-we’re a lot flatter). This is about a month earlier than usual, which is consistent with observations I’ve previously mentioned from the…