National Weather Service Graphic/Shows Eta moving across the northern part of Florida and southern part of Georgia today.
An already challenging year for Florida vegetable farmer Sam Accursio was made worse this week following the impact of Hurricane Eta on his squash crop; hundreds of acres but no production following heavy rainfall and strong winds.
“The heaviest impact is going to be to our squash crop. The beans, they were hanging on the plant and they’re up off the ground, so some of the plants took it hard, but we’re still harvesting there. The squash production for Thanksgiving on my farm, I’m not going to be able to meet the demand. There’s no way possible,” said Accursio, who farms in Homestead, Florida. “But there’s nothing we can do. I’m sick over it. We had a decent day of weather (Tuesday), and Tuesday night it rained an inch and a quarter again. It just won’t leave us alone.”
Excessive Rainfall
He estimated that from the time rain started falling around Saturday or Sunday until Wednesday, it had rained approximately 10 inches.
“Squash don’t like either (wind or rain). They’re a hollow plant. Some of the wind where we planted north and south rows, some of the plants just broke off. The fields that were planted east to west, the rain got them but not the wind as bad. It’s a crazy deal,” Accursio said. “I’m out here right now looking at it. No. 1, the bees are non-existent. I don’t know what they’re doing. The actual squash is melting on the plant. What grades out is nice, but there’s not a lot of them.”
Terrible Timing
It’s never an ideal time for a farmer to experience hurricane-like conditions, but the damage was magnified this week with Thanksgiving just two weeks away.
“This is the second time in my career this has happened prior to Thanksgiving. It’s devastating, because we gear up for volume because the consumers are eating. They’re eating everything I grow; beans and squash. It’s going to hurt our bottom line severely,” Accursio said.
“Everybody’s in the same boat. Some are worse than others. There’s one grower where his farm, it looked completely like a lake. It was devastating. At least mine, in the field that was puddled and every row middle was full but his, you couldn’t see anything green. It was completely like a lake.”
Accursio’s challenging year started last spring amid the coronavirus pandemic. The closures of restaurants combined with so many citizens unemployed left fruits and vegetables not being consumed like they should be. The onslaught of Mexican imports compounded problems.
With COVID-19 lingering, it might be a good time to use your green thumb to grow some vegetables in your garden. While you’re at it, you can get help from the UF/IFAS Florida Vegetable Gardening Guide — now also in Spanish — and as a downloadable web app.
Because we’re nearing the holidays, let’s look at some vegetables you can grow in November and December throughout Florida: beets, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, carrots, collards, kale, spinach and others.
The Vegetable Gardening Guide is a collaborative effort of faculty from three UF/IFAS departments: horticultural sciences, environmental horticulture and entomology and nematology. Danielle Treadwell, associate professor of horticultural sciences and Francisco Rivera, an agent for UF/IFAS Extension Hillsborough County, spearheaded the new Spanish translation.
The Florida Vegetable Gardening Guide was created in the 1970s by Jim Stephens, a UF/IFAS professor emeritus of horticultural sciences. It has proven to be the most popular UF/IFAS Extension document year after year. Park Brown led an effort in 1999 to substantially revise the original guide, and it’s undergone several revisions since then.
But the app really refreshes the approach to residential vegetable-gardening efforts.
“The Florida Fresh web app offers a modern-day way to access the information in the vegetable gardening guide,” said Park Brown, a retired UF/IFAS Extension educator. “Gardeners simply enter their zip code, and the app generates a list of the vegetables that can be planted at that time of year and in that part of the state – whether that’s north, central or south Florida.”
The free app also offers detailed information on each vegetable links to a host of helpful publications in the UF/IFAS Electronic Data Information Source (EDIS), and refers gardeners to UF/IFAS Extension experts in their county, and lots more, Park Brown said.
“It also lists the Florida-grown veggies and fruits that are in markets at that time of year,” Park Brown said. “This part of the app was a collaboration with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ ‘Fresh from Florida’ campaign.”
As the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Industrial Hemp Pilot Project research continues, growers around the state have begun growing hemp on their own farms. Researchers from the UF/IFAS Mid-Florida Research and Education Center (MREC) in Apopka have important considerations for Florida growers contemplating or currently growing hemp. Research lessons learned and new findings are the focus of this article.
FLOWERING REQUIREMENTS
Understanding hemp genetics, specifically flowering requirements, before you plant is vitally important.
Hemp is predominantly a short-day, photoperiod-sensitive plant. In controlled environments like greenhouses, hemp is commonly grown under 18 hours of light to keep plants in a vegetative phase and then transitioned to 12 hours of light to initiate flowering. Supplemental lighting is necessary to maintain plants in a vegetative state when natural daylength is below the daylength that initiates flowering. Photoperiod requirements vary among hemp varieties and cultivars.
Genetics determine whether flowering in a particular variety or cultivar is daylength dependent or daylength neutral (known as autoflowering).
Daylength-dependent varieties and cultivars flower when daylength shortens to a critical threshold and triggers flowering. This is somewhere between 12 to 15 hours of daylight, depending on the variety or cultivar. Florida has between 13 to 14 hours of daylight on the longest day of the year, the summer solstice on June 21, which limits optimal planting time to within a few weeks of the solstice. Beyond optimal planting dates, plants can reach a desirable size if grown vegetatively under lights for three to six weeks prior to transplanting or removal from supplemental lighting. However, this is dependent upon the growth rate and plant architecture of the variety or cultivar.
Daylength-neutral or autoflowering varieties and cultivars will flower after a specific maturity time, commonly 30 to 50 days after sowing. Autoflowering hemp plants are generally smaller and can be planted at higher densities, with some reports of seeding rates of up to 26,000 plants per acre.
Take time to learn what the early stages of flowering look like so you can accurately track flower development. Flower bulking is noticeable starting around two to three weeks.
Weekly or twice weekly, sampling of upper plant flowers and other plant tissue should be conducted after flowering has begun. Sample to ensure the crop does not exceed the 0.3 percent limit for total Delta-9 THC, commonly known as “going hot.” High floral density can be achieved by six to eight weeks after floral initiation.
This illustration is representative of one cultivar’s flowering process. The transition can appear different across cultivars.
Source: UF/IFAS Industrial Hemp Pilot Program
Most high-cannabinoid hemp cultivars are dioecious, meaning plants are either male or female. Only female hemp plants produce desirable flowers and high-cannabinoid extract. When fertilized by male pollen, female plants produce seeds and produce less oil. It is critical to determine plant sex when cultivating essential oil-type hemp to prevent accidental production and pollination by male plants, which would reduce high-cannabinoid production ideal for CBD and CBG products.
PEST MANAGEMENT
Consider pest management early and evaluate pest pressure in your hemp crop often.
You will encounter pests within your hemp crop. Commonly found pests include aphids, mites, arthropods (grasshoppers) and worms (tobacco budworm, corn earworm and beet armyworm).
Weekly scouting for pests is recommended with special attention being made during flowering. Worm pressure is most noticeable during flowering and can devastate a hemp crop. If you identify your plants transitioning, be prepared for worm pressure.
Pesticides available for use in hemp are limited. UF/IFAS recommends testing approved pesticides on a few plants to see if the products cause harm before treating the entire crop. Growers will want to be prepared to spray as soon as they see a need, so conducting this testing before a problem arises is critical. Since there are a lack of conventional pesticides available for use in hemp, be sure to know what pest control products are approved by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
Fungal issues in hemp have been observed both in greenhouse and field trials.
IRRIGATION AND FERILIZATION
Hemp needs adequate water for optimal growth but does not like “wet feet.” Hemp sitting in water for just a day or two can promote virulent fungi and kill plants.
Selection of appropriate growth media or field space is critical to keep plants healthy. Keep in mind that hemp cultivars have varying water demands and tolerance. Dialing in your irrigation will be critically important for success.
Preliminary findings for greenhouse-grown hemp suggest that plants can be grown in a wide variety of substrates. Hemp in container production seems to favor substrates with greater porosity (air space). Plants perform poorly in substrates that stay too wet, as root rot has been observed in other substrates.
If fertigating, low fertigation on a consistent basis is advised to reduce leaching through the soil.
In potted studies, significant losses were seen at soil electrical conductivity of 1.9 or greater. If fertigation is not possible, consistent results can be achieved with appropriate amounts of granular fertilizer.
ADDITIONAL ADVICE
If taking vegetative cuttings of the crop, the selection of proper rooting media is critical. Always use a rooting hormone to increase rooting success. Hormone concentrations that are too high can reduce rooting success; 1,000 parts per million indole-3-butyric acid tends to work well.
Florida has unique growing conditions and pressures that make producing any new crop a challenge. Along with UF/IFAS Industrial Hemp Pilot Project information, rely on those successfully growing hemp in your area to provide data-driven and specific production advice. If you have not yet begun to grow hemp, consider the rules and regulations as well as the inherent risks of growing any new crop.
Hemp production lacks a body of knowledge validated by years of scientific research and data, much of which the UF/IFAS Industrial Hemp Pilot Program actively seeks to develop. UF/IFAS researchers recommend growers make hemp cultivation and management decisions and choose genetics based on information appropriate to their region and backed by science.
UF/IFAS Extension agents across the state are available for support and to answer questions tailored to your region and farm. The UF/IFAS Industrial Hemp Pilot Project website (programs.ifas.ufl.edu/hemp) is updated regularly with the latest research results and ways to learn more about growing hemp in Florida.
Acknowledgments: Steven Anderson, Brandon White, Brian Pearson and Roger Kjelgren contributed to this article.
Farm Share, a nonprofit organization that distributes food to those in need, is looking for Florida farms with bulk produce available for purchase immediately. The organization received funding from the CARES Act to use for food purchases for distribution to families affected by the pandemic.
If you have bulk produce available for purchase, contact John Delgado, Farm Share’s inventory operations manager, at 786-261-7907 or by email at John@farmshare.org.
FLORIDA. – The fall crop season is underway in Florida and over the next few months, an increase in the farmworker population will help plant, maintain, and harvest our crops in the Sunshine State. Agriculture is an essential industry where farmworker safety is paramount to the successes underlying timely and efficient crop production activities.
For the first time, free online resources along with a required certification course are also available in Spanish, putting safety in the hands of non-English-speaking agricultural workers and pesticide handlers through a statewide program led by the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Extension.
The program, UF/IFAS Extension Farm Labor Education, is part of UF/IFAS Extension Online Learning, is a central source for online training and professional development opportunities related to agriculture, natural resources, youth and families, and communities. These continuing education and non-credit courses and educational modules are developed by UF/IFAS experts in a variety of fields throughout the year. New research-based courses and modules are continually added to the catalog of offerings.
For the first time, the Worker Protection Standard Train the Trainer (WPS TTT) certification course is available online in both English and Spanish as part of the Farm Labor Education program. This course provides the WPS TTT Certificate that is required by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to train agricultural workers and pesticide handlers. The program also provides a free, self-paced, online review option that allows one to download the “How to Comply” WPS documents.
The Farm Labor Education Program also offers farm safety videos. These training videos are designed to comply with safety standards and enhance agricultural worker learning experiences. Videos promoting safety with tractors, ladders, citrus harvesting, tomato production, field sanitation, food safety, and sugarcane harvesting are also available in Spanish.
“This is the first-ever online and EPA-approved Worker Protection Standard Train the Trainer certificate for Florida, which we have developed in partnership with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS),” said Cesar Asuaje, a UF/IFAS regional specialized extension agent in farm and pesticide safety based at UF/IFAS Extension Palm Beach County.
“Given COVID restrictions that prevented traditional in-person group trainings over the past seven months, the opportunity to earn the FDACS-approved WPS Train the Trainer Certificate through the on-line platform is timely,” added Asuaje. “With the crop season up and running, it is also the time when the agricultural community is challenged with getting their workforce trained up for the upcoming growing season, which makes the timing of this on-line WPS training opportunity particularly relevant.”
The latest hurricane activity to threaten the United States could impact South Florida vegetable production early next week.
According to weather.com, Hurricane Eta is threatening to approach South Florida this weekend and bring rain, high winds or a combination of both as early as Monday morning.
Vegetable producers are feeling anxious right now, says Gene McAvoy, University of Florida Regional Vegetable Extension Agent IV Emeritus, especially since they’re at the height of the fall season.
“We’re watching it anxiously. No matter what happens, I’m sure we’re going to get a bag of rain out of it,” McAvoy said. “Even if it doesn’t directly hit Florida and we don’t have any wind; right now it looks like it will remain a tropical storm and not a hurricane; but there’s one model that has it coming into Southeast Florida as a Category 3 (hurricane) or more.
“We’re anxious about it because we’re at the stage now where our crops are pretty far along.”
What’s Being Harvested?
McAvoy said farmers are harvesting eggplants, peppers, squash, cucumbers, herbs and specialty vegetables. They’ll begin harvesting tomatoes next week.
“It’s a little different than if they’re baby plants and you can replant rather quickly. Even if (Eta) misses Florida completely, I’m sure it’s going to result in a lot of rain, and we don’t really need any. The past several tropical systems that went through the Gulf, while they didn’t directly impact us, they’ve pumped a lot of moisture into Florida and we’ve had a lot of heavy rains and flooding,” McAvoy said.
“We’re approaching the height of the fall season. Our big market in the fall is Thanksgiving. The next couple of weeks are critical in Florida.”
The state’s citrus crop could also be impacted.
“Citrus, we’re not harvesting yet, but the fruit is big enough that if you do get a lot of wind, the fruit is big enough it could start swinging around on the trees and you’ll have a lot of fruit dropping on the ground,” he added.
All South Georgia vegetable farmer Sam Watson wants when competing against Mexican imports is a level playing field. Right now, that does not exist and has the Moultrie, Georgia farmer concerned about the future of the American farmer.
Watson
“When you look at what we have to do from our cost of production standpoint and you look at our labor costs mainly, where we have to pay (hourly) H-2A wages that are in the $12 range and yet you can go to Mexico and have the same labor down there and pay $8 a day on the high end; and then there’s no regulatory environment,” Watson said.
“You don’t have EPD and Department of Agriculture and FDA and OSHA. The food safety requirements exist on this side, but do we know how much of that is being regulated on their side? The whole regulatory environment is different.”
Virtual Hearings
Watson was one of many Georgia farmers and Florida farmers who testified in virtual hearings with the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office about unfair trade practices with Mexico. All who testified voiced similar concerns that they are unable to compete now and in the future.
Not a Level Playing Field
“It’s a totally different playing field. If I didn’t have to pay but $8 a day, I could do a whole lot better job probably when it comes to quality and harvesting and that kind of stuff,” Watson said. “They’ve got state of the art facilities down there that we can’t compete with. The government is subsidizing those guys down there. Their government is pumping a ton of money into economic development and growing that sector of their economy down there.
“You’ve got cost of production, you’ve got regulatory environment and you’ve got subsidies. When you put all of that together; the cost of production continues to go up. Our regulatory environment continues to get worse. Our labor costs continue to go up.
“You reach a point where it’s just not worth it anymore.”
Federal Response
Federal agencies responded to the hearings with a plan to help farmers of seasonal and perishable fruits and vegetables, including those from Georgia and Florida. Click here to view details of the plan.
“We’re not saying we want to stop the production. We just want there to be a level playing field. They shouldn’t be sending product into the United States of America open on a $16 squash market. That’s called dumping. I’ve got evidence of it,” Watson said. “That happens all the time.”
When Patricio Muñoz developed the University of Florida’s newest blueberry variety, he wanted to name the fruit in honor of Alto Straughn, a longtime, strong supporter of UF’s blueberry breeding program.
Muñoz decided to call the new variety the ‘Sentinel.’
“A ‘sentinel’ is a watcher or guardian,” said Muñoz, a UF/IFAS assistant professor of horticultural sciences. “It is symbolic. We came up with the idea to name the blueberry after Alto because he ‘watched and guarded’ the blueberry breeding program for many years.”
For years, Straughn, an alumnus of the UF/IFAS College of Agricultural and Life Sciences and a former UF/IFAS Extension administrator, owned blueberry farms near Waldo, Florida, northeast of the main UF campus in Gainesville.
Now in his 80s, Straughn still meets regularly with the UF/IFAS blueberry breeder.
“Since I arrived at the program, Alto and I have discussed much about blueberries: cultivars, production, packing, marketing and more,” said Muñoz. “Alto has seen the industry from the beginning, and I am glad he has shared all that information with me and the blueberry breeding program team.”
Scientists first tested the new UF/IFAS variety on Straughn’s farm in Waldo, and later in fields stretching as far south as Arcadia, Florida.
“So, we have determined that the best area for its production is the central and northern parts of Florida,” Muñoz said.
Blueberries are about a $60 million-a-year industry in Florida. To put the impact of blueberries into further economic perspective, Florida’s blueberry farmers produce about 10 to 12 million tons annually in Florida, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.
The new blueberry variety ‘Sentinel’ increases the farmers’ yield for central and northern Florida. It’s a low-chill southern highbush variety. UF/IFAS breeds southern highbush blueberries, which are synonymous with low-chill and can be grown in the South, Muñoz said.
It’s a higher quality fruit than previous UF/IFAS cultivars. It also gives the grower fruit at the best market window, Muñoz said.
And it tastes good. This variety was tested in multiple flavor panels at UF, and they rated ‘Sentinel’ “high” regarding flavor, Muñoz said.
The release of the new blueberry variety couldn’t come at a better time, Muñoz said.
“While 2020 has been a tough year – with hurricanes and COVID, among other issues — some good things are still happening, including a new blueberry that farmers and consumers will both enjoy,” Muñoz said.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 28, 2020 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is reminding communities, farmers, ranchers and small businesses in the path of Hurricane Zeta that USDA has programs that provide assistance in the wake of disasters. USDA staff in the regional, state and county offices stand ready and are eager to help.
Perdue
“Our neighbors in the Gulf have endured a devastating Hurricane season this year, and I’ve been awed by their resilience,” said U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue. “We ask everyone in the path of the storm to again prepare, and to rest assure that this Administration will stand by them to provide all the assistance we can, for as long as they need.”
USDA has partnered with FEMA and other disaster-focused organizations to create the Disaster Resource Center, a searchable knowledgebase of disaster-related resources powered by subject matter experts. The Disaster Resource Center website and web tool now provide an easy access point to find USDA disaster information and assistance.
Food Safety During an Emergency
Power outages from severe weather could compromise the safety of stored food. USDA encourages those in the path of the storm to take the following precautions:
Store food on shelves that will be safely out of the way of contaminated water in case of flooding.
Place appliance thermometers in the refrigerator and the freezer to ensure temperatures remain food safe during a power outage. Safe temperatures are 40°F or below in the refrigerator, 0°F or below in the freezer.
Freeze water in small plastic storage bags or containers prior to a storm. These containers are small enough to fit around the food in the refrigerator and freezer to help keep food cold.
Freeze refrigerated items, such as leftovers, milk and fresh meat and poultry that you may not need immediately — this helps keep them at a safe temperature longer.
Consider getting 50 pounds of dry or block ice if a lengthy power outage is possible. This amount of ice should keep a fully-stocked 18-cubic-feet freezer cold for two days Group foods together in the freezer – this ‘igloo’ effect helps the food stay cold longer.
Keep a few days’ worth of ready-to-eat foods that do not require cooking or cooling.
Protecting Livestock During a Disaster
USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is urging everyone in the potential path of the hurricane to prepare now – not just for yourselves, but also for your pets and your livestock.
Plan for evacuation – know how you will evacuate and where you will go. If it is not feasible to evacuate your livestock, be sure to provide a strong shelter and adequate food and water that will last them until you can return.
If you are planning to move livestock out of state, make sure to contact the State Veterinarian’s Office in the receiving state before you move any animals. You may also contact the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Veterinary Services state offices for information and assistance about protecting and moving livestock.
Listen to emergency officials and evacuate if asked to do so.
Helping Producers Weather Financial Impacts of Disasters
Livestock owners and contract growers who experience above normal livestock deaths due to specific weather events, as well as to disease or animal attacks, may qualify for assistance under USDA’s Livestock Indemnity Program. Livestock, honeybee and farm-raised fish producers whose mechanically harvested or purchased livestock feed was physically damaged or destroyed; or who lost grazing acres or beehives due to an extreme weather event may qualify for assistance. Producers of non-insurable crops who suffer crop losses, lower yields or are prevented from planting agricultural commodities may be eligible for assistance under USDA’s Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program if the losses were due to natural disasters.
Zeta, a tropical system and an expected hurricane once it reaches the U.S. by Wednesday, is churning in the Gulf of Mexico and is expected to move across the Southeast later this week. According to the UGA Extension Viticulture Blog, Pam Knox, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Agricultural Climatologist, said there will be some rain and gusty winds from that system as it moves through the area after making landfall in Louisiana.
Knox
At the same time, a low-pressure center is expected to move through the Southeast region. This would bring more rain to the Ohio and Tennessee River valleys. It could include up to several inches of rain in the more mountainous regions of the region.
“Cooler temperatures are expected this week due to the cold fronts that are now starting to move through the region. However, the coldest air, which is bringing snow and single-digit temperatures to the northern Plains, is not expected to get to the Southeast. I don’t see any signs of frost in the next couple of weeks,” Knox said.
This would be welcomed news for vegetable growers, like Sam Watson in Moultrie, Georgia, who are still harvesting their fall crops.
