AgNet DEMO

Author: Clint

  • Phony Peach Prevalence in Southeast

    A tree (left) with phony peach disease has shortened internodes, a flattened top and darker green foliage compared to a healthy tree (right).

    By Ashley Robinson

    Peach trees are plagued by several different diseases throughout the growing season. But one disease is causing noticeable losses within orchards in Georgia.

    Phony peach disease, caused by the bacterium Xylella fastidiosa, has been challenging for growers ever since its first detection in 1885 near Marshallville, Georgia.

    Recently, growers across the southeast have reported an increase in disease prevalence, which is a threat to production. The disease results in stunted tree growth and reduced fruit size and quality.

    Kendall Johnson, a graduate research assistant at the University of Georgia (UGA), discussed phony peach disease during the 2021 virtual Southeast Regional Fruit and Vegetable Conference. According to Johnson, warmer winters may be to blame for increased disease pressure. Phony peach disease is vectored by sharpshooter insects, which are widespread in warm southeastern climates.

    Through on-site surveying, Johnson confirmed phony peach disease is very much prevalent in the central and southern parts of Georgia, Alabama and Florida. However, the disease was not found in north Georgia or South Carolina, likely due to higher altitudes and cooler temperatures.

    Johnson reported that phony peach incidence in sample orchards ranged from 12.12% to 30.5%.

    Since phony peach is not a curable disease, control is directed toward prevention and minimizing the spread. To date, the most often used detection method is visual assessment. However, according to Johnson’s research, this method may not be an effective form of management as experts can’t accurately identify symptomatic trees. Non-symptomatic trees are often infected.

    Visual detection is highly dependent on an isothermal DNA amplification and detection system, which through field trials, proved to be 95.5% accurate in detecting the disease. 

    Although a 4.5% error rate may not seem devastating, infected trees that are not detected and left in the orchard could serve as inoculum sources for additional disease spread throughout the orchard, disrupting production.

    Currently, Johnson is working with UGA to utilize hyperspectral imaging for early detection of the disease. She is also working to develop a phony peach disease identification training session for growers, scouts and Extension agents in hopes of better controlling disease spread.

  • Marketing Key Issue in Hemp Production

    File photo shows a hemp field.

    Marketing remains one of the top challenges facing Alabama hemp producers. It’s also a topic that Katelyn Kesheimer, Auburn University Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist, hopes to address during a series of informative webinars this spring.

    “A lot of questions are revolving around, ‘What does the market look like?’ ‘How do I market and sell my hemp?’ ‘What variety should I be growing?’” Kesheimer said.

    “I think a lot of it is around the market stability and consumption of the product. Are people still holding on to it? Should they sell it to be turned into crude oil? How do you find a buyer? Should you go into a vertical integration where you’re processing and doing everything on your own. Should I even get into this business because of the market? The biggest questions are around, what does it look like and can I actually make money off this crop?”

    Kesheimer said she is working to schedule multiple webinar sessions designed to educate potential producers about hemp. It will include speakers from across the Southeast, including economists, agronomists, plant pathologists and entomologists.

    Further details of the meetings are still being finalized.

  • Florida Blueberry Producer: Data Makes the Case for Us

    house
    File photo of blueberry production.

    A decision could come soon for Southeast blueberry growers hoping to find relief from seasonal imports causing harm to their farming operations.

    The International Trade Commission (ITC) heard the American Blueberry Growers Alliance Case in early January. Now, it will formulate a recommendation for President Biden to decide how to move forward.

    “I think the data makes the case for us. I think we have the data on our side. It’s hard not to look at the data and see what’s going on,” said Ryan Atwood, who lives in Mount Dora, Florida and farms 56 acres of blueberries, manages another 350 acres and is part-owner of the largest packing house in the Southeast United States.

    Gloomy Picture

    The statistics paint a picture of Southeast blueberry producers struggling to compete with imports from other countries, namely Mexico.

    Florida Ag Commissioner Nikki Fried said Florida’s blueberry market share had declined by 38% since 2015. Mexico’s market share has increased by 2,100% since 2009.

    Brittany Lee, Executive Director of the Florida Blueberry Growers Association said in 2010, when her family planted blueberries, there were only 1.8 million pounds of Mexican blueberries in the Florida window of March, April and May. Last year, there was 51.68 million pounds in that window.

    Jerome Crosby, Chairman of the American Blueberry Growers Alliance, testified that imports of fresh blueberries have increased 75% over the past five years and is only expected to worsen.

    According to the American Blueberry Growers Alliance, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Marketing Service reported a 68% increase in imported fruit from Mexico from 2019 to 2020, amounting to more than 15 million pounds of fresh blueberries during a 14-week period. Mexico, along with Peru, Chile, Canada and Argentina account for more than 98% of total U.S. imports. Import values increased from $530 million in 2014 to $1.2 billion in 2019.

    Opposing Groups

    Groups who opposed the blueberry’s alliance case also made their case to the ITC. Atwood believes their makeup consisted mostly of marketers and not farmers.

    “The only thing that I felt hurt us was they tried to portray themselves as a bunch of growers. Honestly, it was marketing interests that were being represented on the opposition,” Atwood said. “I think anyone who knows the industry and knows the players and knows who was on who’s side know it was marketers on the other side and growers on our side. It was pretty clear.”

    Now comes the hard part…waiting.  A recommendation from the ITC and a decision from President Biden could come as early as March.

    “I don’t know how this will all turn out if the president will sign it. That’s to be determined, to be seen. I think there’s a lot of us that are really interested in the outcome. One good thing about the process, it’s a fairly quick process when you think about it in terms of being politics,” Atwood said. “Start to finish, it’s going to end up being what, four, five, six months? I’m pleased at least that it wasn’t like we were dragging this thing out over three or four years.”

  • Georgia Pecan Production Season Best Since 2007

    Photo courtesy of UGA College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences

    Georgia pecan producers enjoyed a banner production season, according to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service. Georgia, which accounts for 47% of the nation’s pecan production, showed a 23% increase in value of production for 2020.

    Georgia produced 142 million pounds, compared to just 73 million in 2019 and 70 million in 2018. Those two years were down because of Hurricane Michael’s impact in October, 2018. The value of Georgia’s utilized production was $168.9 million, compared to $137.2 million in 2019 and $113.4 million in 2018.

    Favorable conditions aided Georgia producers. Utilized production would be the highest since 2007.

    United States’ utilized production in 2020 totaled 302 million pounds, up 18% from 2019.

  • Peach Chill Hours Make or Break Growing Season

    File photo shows peaches growing on a tree.

    By Mary Leigh Oliver

    AUBURN UNIVERSITY, Ala. — When picking up a peach from the store, consumers often don’t think about the intricate growth process fruit endures to be store ready. Peach farmers know the importance of nurturing and monitoring the peach growing process. The most important part of a peach’s growth are chill hours. These hours serve as the make or break point for tasty, store quality peaches. 

    Chill Hours

    A chill hour is the exposure the peach or fruit has to chilling temperatures by hour. According to Alabama Extension specialist Edgar Vinson, peaches and other temperate fruits are required to meet a certain number of chill hours. This allows the fruit to break dormancy in the spring when temperatures are warm.

    “It’s like an internal clock that lets the plant know that warm weather in on the way,” Vinson said. “It will soon be time to bloom and produce leaves.”

    Peach Hours

    Peach varieties have different chill hour requirements. Some require as few as 50 chill hours, while others need as many as 1,400 chill hours. However, the number of hours each peach requires is dependent on the specific variety.

    “The early season variety ‘June Gold’ requires 650 chill hours, whereas the ‘Contender’ requires 1,050 chill hours,” Vinson said.

    In the Southeast, chilling measurements begin Oct. 1 and end on Feb. 15 the following year, depending on the region. Chill hours are traditionally measured using the Weinberger model. This model measures chilling at 45 degrees Fahrenheit and below. However, the modified Weinberger measures chilling between 32°F and 45°F. Another model, the Dynamic model, measures chilling in terms of chill portions where the optimum chill occurs at 43°F. As temperatures rise above or fall below 43 degrees, chilling accumulation becomes less efficient according to this model. It also shows that chilling can be lost as a result of exposure to warm temperatures in the winter.

    If peach trees receive an excess number of chill hours, the buds will bloom too early. This will then make the blooms vulnerable to late season frosts.

    Complex issues occur when peaches receive too few chill hours. If chill hours are deficient, it will delay the bloom period causing a protracted harvest season. The marketability of the fruit will substantially diminish with too few chill hours. While there are a few solutions to inadequate chill hours, they cannot have the same effect as the chill hours themselves.

    Solutions to Inadequate Chill Hours

    It is important to first research the amount of chilling your area historically receives if you are growing peaches.

    “It is not advisable to plant a tree that requires 1,050 chill hours when your area historically only receives 650,” Vinson said.

    If there comes a late-season frost and the peaches received too many chill hours, simply delay pruning. Pruning invigorates the trees to help stimulate bud break in the case of low chill accumulation.

    If there are too few hours, some farmers will use rest breaking chemicals to stimulate bud break. The efficiency of these chemicals relies on weather conditions and the degree to which the tree is deficient in chilling.

    “Research is still being conducted to determine optimal methods of applying these chemicals,” Vinson said.

    More Information

    For more information on peach chill hours, visit the Alabama Extension website, www.aces.edu.

  • Florida Tomato Growers Reminded to Destroy Plants Following Final Harvest

    tomato growers
    File photo shows a tomato field in Florida.

    University of Florida/IFAS reminds tomato producers that plants must be destroyed within five days following final harvest of their crop. Under Florida law, abandoned tomato fields that have not been destroyed within five days after final harvest are subject to an Immediate Final Order per Rule, says Gene McAvoy, UF/IFAS Extension agent emeritus.

    If tomato plants are left in the field, they could attract viruses and pests, including whiteflies. This could be problematic for neighboring fields or for future crops in the tomato field.

    “Most growers are pretty good about it. They plant successive plantings, and you end up shooting yourself in the foot if you don’t clean them up pretty quickly. Most guys do, but occasionally you get a bad actor, maybe they’re leasing land and season’s not going good for them, for whatever reason, they walk away and leave it there,” McAvoy said.

    “It just becomes a festering sore. We’ve seen problems with whiteflies. We’ve seen problems with virus. We’ve seen problems in seasons where we have late blight.”

    McAvoy said growers in south Florida will plant every couple of weeks, starting in August. This provides a continuous supply of tomatoes to satisfy market demands. That means farmers may be harvesting non-stop from late October to early May.

  • Georgia Pecan Producer: Cautiously Optimistic About Future Market Prices

    georgia pecan

    One South Georgia pecan producer is cautiously optimistic farmers will soon experience an increase in market prices. Coming off a season where pecan yields were the best in years and prices were the worst in some time, growers like Randy Hudson are hopeful prices will soon rebound.

    “The old saying about the cure for low prices is low prices. The cure for high prices is high prices. When prices are low, people come in the market and buy a lot of pecans. Supply goes down. Demand goes up because the prices are cheaper. On the other hand, when prices are really high, demand has a tendency to really taper off. Supermarket sales, retail sales begin to go down. As a result of high prices, we typically follow it with low prices. It’s all kind of cyclic in nature any way,” said Hudson, who also works with the American Pecan Council, serves on the Pecan Export Trade Committee and member of the Georgia Pecan Growers Association

    “It’s not a good year for growers, it’s a really good year for processors. I hope next year is a really good year for growers, and it may not be quite as good of a year for processors.”

    The recent surge in interest from other countries has Hudson excited about the future market prices. Price increase is desperately needed considering the amount of Georgia crop that is in storage. Hudson estimates between 25 million and 35 million pounds are currently being stored.

    “We’re already beginning to see in the last several days, we’re seeing some real interest in China, specifically, but around the world in general. Getting China back into this market is going to be a real positive. They’re back into, particularly, the Georgia market. They’re out here now competitively bidding on loads. We’re beginning to see the prices increase,” Hudson said.

    “I’m very cautiously optimistic about the remainder of this market season. I know there’s a lot of growers in Georgia that have a lot of inventory on hand. I think it’s going to bring a little higher price than back during harvest season.”

    High Yields

    According to the latest USDA numbers, Georgia was projected to produce approximately 135 million pounds in 2020. It was amazing production and one growers were looking forward to following Hurricane Michael in 2018. However, prices were devastatingly low which hampered producers’ optimism and forced many to store their crop.

    “It’s the best of times, it’s the worst of times. It was the best of times harvesting because we just had a great harvest season. We had outstanding yields. The quality was superb, probably the best quality we’ve seen in years. The weather was very important because the quality sustained itself all the way through second harvest. That was the best of years,” Hudson said. “The worst of years as a grower, though, when we started having to price this and getting paid for the crop, prices in some cases were half of what they were a year ago.”

    Alabama Production

    It was a devastating year for Alabama producers as well. Not just because of low prices but of two hurricanes that wiped out a substantial amount of this year’s crop. Winds from Hurricanes Sally and Zeta also uprooted many trees, creating countless future losses for the state’s producers.

  • Crop Rotation in SE Vegetable Production

    File photo shows a field of eggplant.

    According to the Southeastern U.S. 2021 Vegetable Crop Handbook, crop rotation is key in preventing the buildup of soil-borne pathogens. Specialists from universities across the Southeast implore producers to consider an effective rotation sequence that consists of crops from different families that are poor or non-hosts of these pathogens.

    The longer the rotation the better the results will be. A 3-to-5-year rotation is recommended.

    However, growers must weigh the practicality of rotating their crops on the availability of land, the markets, what alternate crops that are able to grow in the area, the pathogens and the purpose of the rotation.

    Crop specialists from across the Southeast, including the University of Georgia and Auburn University, collaborated on the Southeastern U.S. 2021 Vegetable Crop Handbook.   

  • Clemson Extension Agents Provide Crop Updates

    Clemson Extension agents provide updates in the The South Carolina Grower this week about the status of various crops being produced throughout the state.

    Weekly Field Update

    Statewide

    Dr. Matt Cutulle reports, “Burndown herbicide efficacy can be reduced in colder weather, especially systemic products such as glyphosate (Reduced translocation in the cold means herbicide does not move through the plant as much). A contact herbicide like Gamoxone is not significantly impacted by cold weather, thus it might be a good option to use on medium to small weeds. If you have to use glyphosate make sure that the formulation is loaded with a non-ionic surfactant (NIS) and then add 2.5% Ammonium Sulfate (AMS). If the glyphosate formulation is not loaded with NIS, added an NIS product (should contain at last 90% active ingredient) such as Induce at 0.25% (quarter of 1%) in the tank mix.”

    Coastal

    Zack Snipes reports, “Now is the perfect time to gear up for the upcoming season with preventative maintenance on sprayers and tractors. Proper spray coverage is absolutely essential when spraying expensive pesticides and nutrients. Why would you buy a jug of pesticide for $800 and not have it properly applied? I was at a farm last week working on a spray trial and we took a few hours to clean out screens, filters, and orifices in the sprayer.  The sprayer I was working on had 5 out of 10 nozzles completely clogged and corroded. We would only get half or less coverage since the nozzles were so clogged. Once we cleaned everything, we needed to recalibrate our sprayer since we were actually putting out product through all of the nozzles. Take the time and get things ready for the year.”

    Proper spray coverage on a nice looking crop of strawberries.  Photo from Zack Snipes.

    Midlands

    Justin Ballew reports, “Last week stayed pretty cool (high temps in the 50s), wet and cloudy. Crops aren’t growing very fast right now. We still have a few greens being harvested, but we’ve slowed down from the New Years rush. Most of the strawberries I’ve looked at are still around the 2-to-3 crown stage. We’re seeing some aphids here and there, but those are rarely anything to be concerned about. Instead, keep checking for mites. Spider mites are active when daytime temperatures are over 50 degrees, so even though it’s chilly to us, they’re active for most of the winter. Fields planted adjacent to tomatoes back in the fall need to be scouted especially well.”

    Great stand of rye between the rows of this strawberry field. This will help tremendously with weed suppression. Photo from Justin Ballew.

    Pee Dee

    Bruce McLean reports, “Be sure to get out and scout your strawberries. Starting to see a fair amount of Phomopsis in the fields. Captan will give some control, but Rally is a better option. Also, starting to see some Botrytis showing up on ripening fruit… that fruit that has been able to escape frost events and develop. Removal of infected fruit and dead leaves will help reduce pathogen when it comes time to flower and fruit. Across the northern portion of the Pee Dee the strawberry crop is pretty varied in development and appearance. Some plantings are well behind others. This is primarily due to the frequent and heavy rains since planting. Any plants that may have been set (even the least bit) low, experienced loose soil to be washed down around the crown, burying the crown too deep. With the crown being buried, the plants were either stunted or killed. Stunted plants can recover, but likely will not develop and yield properly come spring. Now is the time to begin winter pruning of blueberries, blackberries and muscadines… as well as many fruit trees. Proper winter pruning will go a long way towards improving yield, plant health, overall plant architecture and size management. Ideally, winter pruning for perennial fruiting plants should be performed between early January through early March.”

    Botrytis already showing up on strawberries. Photo from Bruce McLean.

    Tony Melton reports, “Wet, wet, wet.  Badly need to start bedding for stale-bed-culture. Putting off bedding sweet potatoes until March. I have seen a lot of spider mites on strawberries and started to spray to get them under control. However, too wet to get tractor in fields, so many farmers are using backpack mist sprayers to get job done.”

  • Vegetable Weed Management a Complicated Practice for Producers

    Photo submitted by Stanley Culpepper/UGA: Shows a blend of yellow and purple nutsedge.

    Weed management in vegetable crops across the Southeast remains a diverse and complicated practice that all producers need to be reminded of.

    “There are so many components that a vegetable grower has to consider, especially when it comes to weed control. Some production systems you can use tillage. Some you can’t. Some you have plasticulture in a fumigant system. Some that you don’t,” University of Georgia Cooperative Extension weed specialist Stanley Culpepper said.

    “Then when you start thinking about herbicides, we’ve been very fortunate over the last 10 years, getting our growers a lot of cool herbicide tools as a component to their management program, but when you’re a vegetable producer and going to have a crop and be in and out in 60, 80, 90 days, you’ve got to think about herbicide carry-over. I can or I can’t use herbicide ‘A’ because of what it could potentially do to the next crop, which means you’ve got to know what the next crop is going to be. You know vegetable guys as good as I do, a lot of times, they just don’t know.”

    Producers have to implement the right herbicide and do so at the right rate. They have to use the right irrigation program. The tank also has to be perfectly clean.

    “The complexity goes on and on for a vegetable farmer. A lot of decisions have to be made in a 12-month cycle because we could be producing three crops in a lot of our farms,” Culpepper said.

    Weed Problems

    Certain weed species are also problematic at different times of the year. Weeds that are normally a concern for producers in the spring are not the same as those that are plaguing producers right now. Different weeds require different management strategies.

    “Lets start in the spring. In a fumigated plasticulture production system, nutsedge remains the baddest boy that there is. That’s the only weed that can penetrate through the mulch. Nutsedge is still a huge dominant player. In addition to nutsedge, what has really taken its foothold on a lot of my guys has been purslane species and a lot of ours is actually pink purslane; a bunch of different grasses that have always been here and then our amaranth species (not palmer amaranth),” Culpepper said.

    “If you look at this time of year, wild raddish is the baddest boy that there is.”

    Weed Management

    Weed management remains key to successful vegetable production, whether you are talking about now or in the spring. Before plants are ever put in the ground, weed control needs to be a top consideration for producers. Weeds challenge and can overwhelm crops for water, sunlight and nutrients.

    Culpepper said in most situations, the weeds are better competitors than the crop.

    “Before you ever start a conversation, you say, ‘Look, vegetable weed control is really challenging. There can’t be any weed emerge at planting.’ It’s very likely that if we’re going to implement a herbicide program we’ve got to start it before we ever plant,” Culpepper said.

    “In transplanted onion production, obviously, very important to Georgia, we have an excellent herbicide program that will be successful probably 95-plus% of the time, which is really, really good. If you wanted to grow seeded onion production in the state of Georgia, I don’t think you’ll have a chance because you can’t manage the weeds. Or if you do, you’ll spend a tremendous amount of money.

    “There’s the same crop per se grown two different ways; one is very unlikely to be successful and the other is very likely to be successful with regards to weed management.”

    “If you wanted to seed cabbage, because of wild raddish, you’re in trouble. But if you want to transplant cabbage, I have a herbicide you can put out before you transplant, and I’ll take the wild raddish out.

    “There’s two examples, exact same crop, of how you want to process or implement your program will determine how successful you’ll be.”