AgNet DEMO

Category: Georgia

  • Whiteflies not yet a concern for Alabama producers

    Apurba Barman, a post-doc researcher on the UGA Tifton campus, examines a cotton plant with whiteflies in his lab. By University of Georgia 8-24-18

    By Clint Thompson

    Whiteflies have already been reported in Georgia vegetables this spring. They are not yet a concern for Alabama producers, however.

    Extension Entomologist Ron Smith said as cotton continues to be planted in Alabama, the focus right now is managing grasshoppers and thrips. Their focus will turn to whiteflies in early July.

    “I knew they overwintered at some level over there somewhere around Tifton (Georgia). It’s the winter vegetables that are causing them to be able to overwinter over there. We don’t have a lot of vegetables down in the southeastern corner of the state. They have damage and problems at least a month before we do,” Smith said.

    University of Georgia Cooperative Extension vegetable entomologist Stormy Sparks said in early May that whiteflies were already present in Georgia vegetables. This is not good since cotton farmers are currently planting their crop in Alabama and Georgia. Whiteflies like to feed on cotton plants as well.

    While colder temperatures do not eliminate whiteflies, they do kill many of their wild hosts. They also slow population development in cultivated hosts. Warmer temperatures this winter allowed for larger whitefly populations to overwinter and become mobile earlier.

    “We have the potential of having another outbreak like 2017 or 2018 this year because of the mild winter. A lot of things can happen between now and then that can make the problem worse or better. One of the things is planting date, getting our cotton planted on time. Another is how dry it is during the season. Things like that can impact it,” Smith said. “We will really start focusing on what’s happening in Georgia about the first of July.”

    Smith said whiteflies’ impact in Alabama is normally felt about a month later than Georgia.

    “It is one thing that we’re concerned about because of the mild winter and we will be focused on it a little bit later,” Smith said.

    Whiteflies cause feeding injury issues in vegetables and transmit two viruses: cucurbit leaf crumple virus and cucurbit yellow stunting disorder virus. Vegetables like squash, zucchini, cucumber, cantaloupe and snap beans are highly susceptible to these viruses. Commercial cultivars that have resistance or tolerance to these pathogens are not available.

    Will They Get Worse?

    The weather patterns over the next couple of months will determine if the whiteflies continue to worsen. How much rain will there be? How heavy are the rains and when will they occur? This is especially important as farmers move from winter crops to spring crops and then to cotton. Freezes in the winter and a tropical storm-type of weather system really impact populations.

    Sanitation is also key with whitefly management. Farmers need to get rid of spring vegetables once they’re done harvesting.

    “If you’ve got crops where you know you’ve got them, if you’re done with the crop, get rid of that crop,” Sparks said. “I think, overall, we’ve been doing a better job with sanitation. That’s something we always need to hammer on and remind them that sanitation is critical.”

  • UGA Agriculture Faculty Produce COVID-19 Video, Materials for Farm Workers

    University of Georgia photo/UGA Professor Francisco Diez, director of the UGA Center for Food Safety, and his wife, Claudia Buzo, a ServSafe consultant who trains Hispanic restaurant workers, to translated the video scripts and recorded the video in Spanish.

    By Maria M. Lameiras for UGA CAES News

    As the spring harvest approached, members of the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association knew they needed assistance to provide important information about COVID-19 safety measures and food handling protocols to workers who make up the majority of the seasonal agricultural workforce, many of whom are native Spanish speakers.

    University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and Cooperative Extension faculty responded quickly by producing a COVID-19 safety video in Spanish that could be incorporated into farm employee trainings

    UGA Extension Southwest District Director Andrea Scarrow, Tift County Extension Agent Justin Hand, and Assistant Professor Laurel Dunn in the UGA Department of Food Science and Technology were a part of the group that spearheaded the effort to quickly produce and distribute the video resources to producers throughout the state.

    Bill Brim, co-owenr of Lewis Taylor Farms in Tift County, previously worked with UGA Extension to develop financial education materials in Spanish for temporary workers at the farm. He knew who to ask when the need for COVID-19 educational materials arose, Scarrow said.

    “Our growers, both small and large, depend on Extension to get immediate answers and help for all kinds of issues. Mr. Brim knew we had that capacity to develop resources in Spanish so he contacted us for that reason,” Scarrow said. “Our producers are in constant communication with our agriculture agents. They depend on us quite a bit. Our agents are very sensitive to the needs of farmworkers and the large Hispanic population we have in the area that supports farming, so we moved on it as fast as we could.”

    Working with Beth Oleson, a director of education and food safety for Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association, UGA Extension recruited the help of UGA Professor Francisco Diez, director of the UGA Center for Food Safety, and his wife, Claudia Buzo, a ServSafe consultant who trains Hispanic restaurant workers, to translate the video scripts and record the video in Spanish.

    “Dr. Dunn and I work together frequently on food safety issues. Crafting employee safety language was easy, but making sure we included CDC recommendations that seemed to be changing frequently was a challenge,” said Oleson. “Working with Dr. Diez and Buzo really made the video a success. Buzo’s experience with Hispanic employees helped guide the language and examples to make it approachable to the Spanish-speaking audience.”

    During the COVID-19 crisis, UGA Extension has been actively involved in getting research-based materials from faculty out to farms, packing houses, u-pick farms and other agricultural producers.

    “We enlisted the help of N.C. State Extension, which shared a lot of materials they had already translated into Spanish,” Dunn said. “This was great, but we felt we needed audio-visual resources to reach a greater number of Spanish-speaking workers.”

    Working with Oleson, Dunn developed a general script explaining what the COVID-19 disease is, where it came from, why it is different from other illnesses and why employers would have new safety rules this year.

    “It also showed workers how to protect themselves, explained why social distancing is important and outlined what modifications employers can and cannot require,” Dunn said.

    Diez and Buzo, who translated the script into Spanish, said they were happy to help communicate this important message to Spanish-speaking agricultural workers through the video, titled “Lo que necesita saber sobre el coronavirus” (“What you need to know about coronavirus”) available at www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugddqd8N0S4.

    “My wife and I are originally from Mexico and we are native Spanish speakers. In an urgent situation, such as the one we are in, information like this could make the difference between someone getting sick or not,” Diez said. “We are committed to helping the Hispanic community as much as we can, and many of the migrant workers who come to work on these farms are individuals with only a grade school or middle school education. We wanted to make sure to use simple language and messages so it would be useful and understandable.”

    The 24-minute video was distributed through the network of UGA Extension offices around the state and shared directly with producers. 

    “This is most of what I do really, it is just the subject matter that changed,” said Dunn, a food microbiologist and Extension specialist. “Producers are used to hearing from me about salmonella and E. coli, so we just switched the message to keeping workers healthy.”

    The request for the video came in the day before a worker safety production training was to be held at Lewis Taylor Farms, a major agricultural producer in Tift County, so Hand said the UGA team worked throughout the night to get the video ready to show the next morning.

    “Jessica Kirk, director of food safety and marketing at Lewis Taylor Farms, talked to several of her crew leaders and some of the workers who said the video really helped the workers to understand the situation a lot better,” Hand said. “These workers came into the U.S. from Mexico and they didn’t know how much this had spread or how important safety is to stop the spread of this virus. They said it was easy to understand the video and they appreciated the message.”

    UGA Extension’s COVID-19  resources in English and Spanish are available at extension.uga.edu/emergencies. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also has print resources in multiple languages, including posters that describe how to stay healthy during this time, how to protect members of your household, proper hygiene and many other topics, available at www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/communication/index.html.

  • UGA Extension Offers Webinar on Backyard Fruit Production

    Backyard peaches sound good don’t they?

    By Maria M. Lameiras for UGA CAES News

    Home gardeners who want to expand their edible backyard bounty to include fruits are invited to participate in the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Backyard Fruits webinar series that runs through June 5.

    The series was born out of an idea for a short course on fruit production that was sidelined by the COVID-19 crisis, said Ashley Hoppers, Agriculture and Natural Resources agent for UGA Extension in Fannin and Gilmer counties.

    “As the COVID-19 crisis began to stretch out, it sparked a lot of interest among homeowners in using their backyards for food production,” Hoppers said. “We have had many webinars on growing vegetables, but with my background in fruit production, I thought it would be useful to do a series on backyard fruits.”

    Unlike growing vegetable crops, most of which are annuals, nearly all fruit crops are perennial and need special attention to establish properly.

    “With fruit crops, you’ve got to get off to a good start and it is a bit more complicated,” Hoppers said. “We decided to break the sessions out by commodities based on what could be grown throughout the Southeast to make it a more comprehensive, wide-reaching program for those looking to grow fruit in their backyards.”

    Sessions have already been held on blackberries, blueberries and muscadines, with a session on strawberries scheduled for today. Twice-weekly sessions are held at noon on Wednesdays and Fridays through June 5 and will cover apples and pears, peaches and plums, specialty fruits and citrus.

    “Specialty fruits will give a snapshot of lesser-grown fruits like figs, Asian persimmons and pomegranates,” Hopper explained.

    “All of the sessions will be recorded, as we have had an overwhelming interest, with more than 1,000 people registered to attend and about 300 people attending per session,” Hoppers said. Recorded sessions will be available on the UGA Extension YouTube channel at youtube.com/user/ugaextension.

    Visit tinyurl.com/UGAbackyardfruits for the full schedule and a link to register for upcoming sessions.

  • Sneak Peek: June 2020 VSCNews Magazine

    By Ashley Robinson

    Policies and regulations can impact a farmer’s ability to make a living. The 2020 Florida, Georgia and Alabama legislative sessions have officially wrapped up, and the June issue of VSCNews magazine will tell readers how agriculture fared in each state.

    Adam Basford, director of state legislative affairs for Florida Farm Bureau, discusses the successes and progress that has been made this legislative session.

    Mary Ann Hooks, director of governmental affairs with the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS), gives an update on how the UF/IFAS budget fared this year.

    Georgia Lawmakers pressed the pause button on the 2020 legislative session due to COVID-19.

    Georgia Agribusiness Council President Will Bentley discusses the Ag bills that were still in play when the session paused.

    Furthermore, Ashley Robinson, AgNet Media communications intern, dives deeper into the Alabama session based on an interview with Leigha Cauthen, executive director of the Alabama Agribusiness Council.

    Farmworker safety is also highlighted in the June issue. Amy Wolfe, president and CEO of AgSafe, discusses precautions that farm owners and managers should implement to ensure the safety of their farmworkers as the industry navigates through the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Wolfe warns not to trade out one risk for another. On top of additional COVID-19 precautions, growers shouldn’t overlook other tried-and-true general farm safety measures.

    Hemp interest is still strong in the Southeast. Clint Thompson, AgNet Media multimedia journalist, looks at the impacts of COVID-19 on the hemp industry. Thompson also addresses the rules and regulations for producing hemp in Florida, Georgia and Alabama.

    Lastly, Jaya Joshi, a postdoctoral associate at UF, discusses the future of meeting the demand for meat with plant proteins. According to Joshi, there is rising interest among consumers who want to eat less meat and dairy and more fruits and vegetables without compromising their protein intake. Plant-based protein may be the answer for these individuals.

    To receive future issues of VSCNews magazine, visit click here.

  • UGA Helps Produce Growers With Water Quality Calculations and Education

    Drip irrigation lay in a tomato field.

    By Josh Paine for UGA CAES News

    An online tool developed by the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences is helping produce growers assess their water quality and prepare for increased testing requirements.

    Uttam Saha, a program coordinator at the UGA Agricultural and Environmental Services Labs, developed an online calculator and simulator to help educate farmers and Extension agents with necessary actions related to the water quality component of the Produce Safety Rule (PSR) in the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).

    The water quality subpart of the rule covers produce types that are frequently consumed raw to ensure growers use water that does not contribute pathogen contamination — like E. coli, norovirus or parasites — to produce so that it is ultimately safe for human consumption.

    “The rule requires a lot of technical knowledge to understand the water-testing needs and to determine whether a farm is in compliance,” said Saha.

    The PSR requires farms to establish a Microbial Water Quality Profile (MWQP) for each untreated water source used on the farm, as well as conduct annual microbial water quality surveys. This MWQP is based on the levels of generic E. coli measured in a water source over time, and testing frequency varies depending on the source of the water.

    The program, available at aesl.ces.uga.edu/calculators/FSMA, also provides various model situations to train users.

    “The biggest change for most farmers is the production (preharvest) water requirements, due in part to increased testing frequencies and the required calculations to determine water microbial quality,” said Laurel Dunn, an assistant professor of food science. “These calculations are not intuitive, so a tool was needed to assist farmers interpreting the results of their water tests.”

    Dunn and her colleagues produced an instructional video on preharvest sample collection available at t.uga.edu/5Zj and another on postharvest sampling at t.uga.edu/5Zi.  

    Requirements for the smallest and final group of farms covered by the PSR began in January 2020. However, the water requirements don’t go into effect until January 2022 for large farms (more than $500,000 in average sales), January 2023 for small farms (between $250,000 to $500,000 in average sales), and January 2024 for very small farms (between $25,000 and $250,000 in average sales).

    “Farms aren’t required to even begin taking water samples until 2022, but are strongly encouraged to do so, and many third-party audits require them to do it already,” said Dunn. 

    Fruits and vegetables grown for the fresh market are Georgia’s third-largest agricultural sector, with a combined farm gate value of more than $1.8 billion, according to UGA agricultural economists.

    In addition to testing, at least one person on each farm covered by the PSR must have attended a Produce Safety Alliance Grower Training by the compliance date. The Georgia Department of Agriculture and UGA Department of Food Science and Technology have partnered to offer courses. Learn more about the trainings and more at agr.georgia.gov/produce-safety-program.aspx.

    Georgia produce growers can contact their local UGA Cooperative Extension office for more information about testing frequency and requirements, for submitting water samples for testing by UGA Agricultural and Environmental Services Labs, and for interpretation by UGA experts including Saha and Dunn.

    To learn more about UGA Extension food science programs, visit extension.uga.edu/programs-services/food-science.

  • Watermelon Shortage Keeps Prices Up for Famers

    By Clint Thompson

    Times have changed in the past two months for watermelon farmers in the Southeast. When farmers in Alabama, Florida and Georgia began planting their crop in late winter and early spring, the coronavirus pandemic struck and created a cloud of uncertainty for growers.

    Watermelon prices are good right now for farmers.

    What would harvest season look like? Would there be customers to purchase the crop? What kind of market value would there be?

    Fast forward two months later; watermelons are in high demand amid fears of a shortage.

    “Six weeks ago, a lot of these guys down here, including myself were concerned about, with the pandemic, just getting their money back,” said Greg Leger, a grower and shipper in Florida and Georgia. “Everybody was like, ‘If we can just get our money back.’ Everybody was scared to death because we didn’t know if there was going to be movement and consumption.

    “(But) I had a friend tell me he was in a store up in Atlanta and people were social distancing waiting to get to the watermelon bin. Everybody in there was putting a watermelon in their buggy, which is good. It is a value and always has been. That’s promising to me, especially for Georgia and the Southeast for the fourth of July. I just hope that as long as consumption stays up and movement stays good, it should be a good season for us.”

    First Signs of Lack of Fruit in Florida

    Carr Hussey, a watermelon farmer in Florida and Alabama and chairman of the board of the Florida Watermelon Association, addressed the possibility of a watermelon shortage on May 12. He said the reason Florida is running out of melons is due to three straight weekends of rain events. Heavy rains on mature vines led to a quick harvest season.

    South Georgia watermelons are poised to be ready between June 10-15. If there continues to be a shortage of melons, prices should remain strong for farmers in Georgia and Alabama. Currently, they’re around 22 cents per pound.

    “Pricing is good. The reason pricing is so strong is that availability is shorter than normal,” Liger said. “I think we’re going to be a week earlier than we’ve been in the past couple of years. Two years ago, we didn’t even start til, we only had like 2 ½ weeks to get the crop off before the holiday. This year I think if things stay like they are now, we’re going to get started around the 15th with decent volume. I hope we do anyway.”

  • USDA, USTR Announce Continued Progress on Implementation of Phase One Agreement

    Contact: USDA Press
    Email: press@oc.usda.gov

    WASHINGTON, May 21, 2020 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) today announced additional progress in the implementation of the agriculture-related provisions of the U.S.-China Phase One Economic and Trade Agreement (The Agreement), which entered into force on February 14, 2020. Recent actions described below build upon the actions announced by USDA and USTR on February 25, March 10, and March 24. These are difficult times for both our countries. It is important that we each continue to work to make our agreement a success. Because of this continued progress due to the Agreement:

    • U.S. blueberries and California Hass avocados can now be exported to China. This new market access will provide California avocado growers and blueberry growers from around the United States with new opportunities to market their products to Chinese consumers in the coming years. In 2019, China imported a record volume of fresh fruits and vegetables exceeding $8.6 billion.
    • U.S. barley for processing, along with the forage products Timothy hay, alfalfa hay pellets and cubes, and almond meal pellets and cubes can now be exported to China. In 2019, China imported $1.5 billion of barley used as feed and for malt beverage production, and a record $500 million of forage products.
    • In recent weeks, China updated its lists of U.S. facilities eligible to export beef, pork, poultry, seafood, dairy, and infant formula products to China. China’s lists now include 499 beef, 457 pork, 470 poultry, 397 seafood, and 253 dairy and 9 infant formula facilities. As a result of these actions, more U.S. facilities are eligible to export U.S. food and agricultural products to China than ever before. USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service continues to update its export library, which provides additional guidance for U.S. meat and poultry meat exporters, including information related to the scope of products that may be exported to China, China’s labeling requirements, and other guidance.
    • China published on May 15 a new domestic standard for dairy permeate powder for human consumption that will allow imports of this product from the United States in the future. In 2019, China imported nearly $12 billion of dairy products from around the world.

    China continues to implement its tariff exclusion process in an attempt to facilitate imports of U.S. commodities. USDA continues to publish guidance for U.S. exporters seeking to participate in this process (USDA Global Agricultural Information Network). USTR is continuing to process and where appropriate grant exclusions of products from China. USDA also is implementing its obligations under the agreement.

    Perdue

    United States Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue said, “China is a market of tremendous potential for U.S. agriculture and these actions will help U.S. exporters expand their sales there. We look forward to continued cooperative work with China on implementation of Phase One commitments, and immediate increases in U.S. exports of all manner of agricultural products.”

    United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said, “China has worked with the United States to implement measures that will provide greater access for U.S. producers and exporters to China’s growing food and agricultural markets. Under President Trump’s leadership, we fully expect this agreement to be a success.”

  • UF/IFAS Awarded USDA Grant to Lead Multistate Research, Study Disease Resistance in Lettuce

    lettuce
    University of Florida researchers are part of a research project focusing on lettuce.

    By: Lourdes Rodriguez, 954-577-6363 office, 954-242-8439 mobile, rodriguezl@ufl.edu

    BELLE GLADE, Fla. – Lettuce is one of the top 10 vegetables cultivated in the United States and for good reason. Romaine, iceberg, leaf and butterhead types of lettuce are staples in refrigerators around the world. Used as a basis for salads, as a topping for burgers and sandwiches, as a bread substitute for wraps, and even as a garnish for elegantly plated cuisines, lettuce serves as a recommended source of extra nutrition, much-needed fiber and fewer added calories to diets.

    But the crop has experienced devastation nationwide with the emergence of the deadly Bacterial Leaf Spot (BLS). It’s a disease caused by a pathogen known as Xanthomonas campestris pv. vitians (Xcv). This unpredictable disease can cause severe economic losses and devastate entire harvests. Currently, there is no control method.

    University of Florida scientists at Everglades Research and Education Center in Belle Glade, along with other land grant universities and federal agencies, have been at the forefront of research since the disease emerged. Focus has been on studying BLS and how it destroys lettuce.

    An $850,816 grant will fund the continuation of research led by UF/IFAS scientists in a multistate endeavor with Pennsylvania State University and the United States Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Research Services (USDA-ARS) in Salinas, California. The grant, managed by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Service (FDACS) through the Specialty Crop Multistate Program of the USDA-AMS to UF/IFAS, is designated for the study of disease resistance in lettuce, to boost cultivar variations that are BLS-resistant through breeding and genetics, and to research BLS-lettuce interaction.

    Germán V. Sandoya-Miranda, assistant professor of lettuce breeding and genetics at Everglades Research and Education Center, and overseer of the project as principal investigator, has been researching BLS since 2016.

    Sandoya is joined by UF’s Calvin Odero, UF/IFAS associate professor of agronomy specializing in weed science as co-lead; UF/IFAS Extension Palm Beach staff; Pennsylvania State University’s Carolee Bull, a professor and department head of Department of Plant Pathology; Maria GorgoGourovitch, an Extension educator and Plant Pathology affiliate instructor at Pennsylvania State University; and lettuce plant breeder and geneticist Ivan Simko of the USDA-ARS in California.

    “This is the first time that experts in plant breeding, genetics, bacteriology, and weed science partner to develop sustainable and long-term solutions to battle an unpredictable and devastating disease in lettuce”, said Sandoya. “I have intentionally brought together the leading experts representing the strongest possible group to work on this disease for a variety of geographic impacted areas and assorted farm-size growers.”

    For more information, see University of Florida press release.

  • Connecting the Watermelon Industry with Retail and Foodservice Buyers

    File photo shows a watermelon in a field ready to be harvested.

    Winter Springs, FL — May 20, 2020 – The new National Watermelon Promotion Board (NWPB) Watermelon Supplier Database is the perfect platform to connect retail and foodservice buyers with suppliers as the summer season takes off for America’s favorite melon.

    Each year the NWPB staff promotes watermelon to retail and foodservice audiences, both in person and digitally. When a contact asks where they can get watermelon, this new database with help connect the dots. The new Watermelon Supplier Database is based on the new watermelon.org in the Industry, Retail and Foodservice sections and at watermelon supplier database, so all interested groups can easily access the database.

    The Board is still working to populate the database so if a member of the watermelon industry is interested, please visit watermelon supplier database. Multiple roles in the industry are encouraged to be a part of the database including wholesalers, growers, importers, brokers, processors, seed, transportation companies and more.
    Please reach out to supplierdatabase@watermelon.org with any questions.

  • UGA’s Releases New Muscadine Variety ‘RubyCrisp’

    By Sadie Lackey for UGA CAES News

    From late summer into fall, Southerners start looking for muscadines – a popular grape native to the southeastern United States. Selections run from the dark purple, thick-skinned traditional muscadine to a light golden-green variety. Growers and consumers can soon add a new red variety to the mix.

    UGA photo/UGA researchers released a new red ‘RubyCrisp’ muscadine variety for those who want a sweet berry flavor with just a hint of muscadine.

    The University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences’ muscadine grape team, led by horticulture professor Patrick J. Conner, developed a variety of muscadine for those who prefer the sweet taste of a berry with limited muscadine flavor.

    “The unusual red color of this berry really makes it stand out,” Conner said. “But the tender skin and crisp flesh of this variety are what truly make it unique. The texture of this variety is a marked change from traditional muscadines, which are often known for having tough skins and a soft pulp.” 

    ‘RubyCrisp’ Background

    Researchers found ‘RubyCrisp’ to be a good fit for pick-your-own operations and home gardens because of its distinctive taste and texture and excellent productivity. Unfortunately, commercial production is not a good fit for this specialized berry, because it often cracks with rough handling. However, ‘RubyCrisp’ vines can flourish in the backyards of at-home cultivators looking to try the newest muscadine.

    ‘RubyCrisp’ originated in Tifton, Georgia, as a result of a cross between ‘Supreme’ and ‘Tara’ varieties. ‘Supreme’ produces black berries with exceptional size and firmness. ‘Tara’ produces bronze berries with dry pedicel scars that ripen early in the muscadine harvest season. In 2011 the ‘RubyCrisp’ vine was chosen because of its large berry size, flower type and outstanding flavor.

    The original ‘RubyCrisp’ vines were tested on UGA experiment plots in Tifton and at a commercial vineyard in Wray, Georgia. Researchers discovered there that given the large berry size and high production potential of ‘Ruby-Crisp,’ growers may need to limit vine fruitfulness by increasing the distance between fruiting spurs or thinning the crop so that the vine is not weakened by maturing excessive crops. 

    UGA researchers also found that heavy rainfall can lead to fruit cracking. ‘RubyCrisp’ has a mid-season harvest date around Aug. 21 in south Georgia and has perfect flowers so it does not need a pollinator.

    “Because further study is needed to explore the optimum environment for producing this vine, especially its cold hardiness, we suggest growers in northern muscadine regions refrain from planting large numbers of ‘RubyCrisp’ until more data is collected,” Conner said.

    UGA’s Established Muscadine Breeding Program

    UGA has the oldest muscadine breeding program in the United States. The program began in 1909, and since then, has released over 30 cultivars and counting. The program focuses on continued improvement of the muscadine grape by developing new cultivars that satisfy the needs of growers and the demands on consumers. The UGA muscadine breeding program works to create new cultivars that combine large berry size with perfect flowers, expand the harvest season with earlier and later ripening dates, and produce berries with dry stem scars, crisp flesh and tender skins.

    A list of nurseries licensed to propagate ‘RubyCrisp’ muscadine is available by contacting Conner at pconner@uga.edu. For more information about the UGA muscadines.