Alabama strawberry producers enjoyed sweet success in 2020. Farmers are hoping for a repeat performance this year as planting season nears. Edgar Vinson, assistant research professor and Extension specialist in the Department of Horticulture at Auburn University, said growers target Oct. 15 date as the latest timeframe they want to have this year’s crop in the ground.
“They can certainly be planted after that date but you’re sacrificing plant size when you do that, and that’s going to affect yield,” Vinson said. “The later you plant, the less time you have to grow them to get them to that optimal size.”
Increased Interest
While strawberry production in Alabama is small compared to high-production states like Florida, it is growing with interest when you consider the number of farming operations there are in the state. In 2012, there was 74 farms on 158 acres. But that number increased 123 farms on 111 acres in 2017.
“It certainly speaks to the growing interest, the growing consumer demand for fresh Alabama grown strawberry,” Vinson said. “Agritourism is a growing industry and strawberry production is certainly a destination for a lot of people who want to be able to harvest strawberries themselves.”
It will certainly continue to grow in popularity if growers find similar success with production and marketing like they did in 2020. Against the backdrop of a global pandemic, strawberry producers capitalized on selling their crop to families who wanted to get their children out of the house.
Alabama grower Bobby Ray Holmes said demand was overwhelming. U-pick strawberry operations provided families an outlet to escape the new norm of social isolation.
“We had a really great year last year. Northern parts of the state, a lot of growers had more yield than they’ve ever had,” Vinson said. “I really think the (’21) outlook is good. You do have to consider the pandemic and where we’ll be.”
Strawberries will normally be ready for small harvest in late March and continue through mid-June.
(Washington, D.C., September 29, 2020) – U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced today that more than 100 million food boxes have been distributed in support of American farmers and families affected by the COVID-19 pandemic through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Farmers to Families Food Box Program.
Perdue
Earlier this month, the Department announced it had entered into contracts with 50 entities for the third round of food box deliveries, which include contracts to purchase up to $1 billion authorized by President Donald J. Trump.
“It is incredible to think that in a little more than five months, this food box program has gone from an idea to a reality that has provided more than 100 million boxes of nutritious foods to people in need and along the way has helped to keep farmers and ranchers in business and allowed Americans working in our nation’s food supply chain to get back to work,” said Secretary Perdue. “I have been meeting with food banks and recipients across the country and it’s been heartening to hear all the positive feedback on how the program has saved businesses and fed Americans in need. We are now into the third round of deliveries and we’re working harder than ever to continue to build on the success of the program.”
“With 100 million Farmers to Families Food Boxes delivered, we have utilized critical funding authorized by President Trump to continue connecting our great American farmers to millions of food insecure families. I am proud of this Administration’s mission to keep our most vulnerable families fed and support American family farms in the process,” said Advisor to the President, Ivanka Trump.
You may view the Farmers to Families Food Box Program video or click on the image below to watch a highlight video of USDA’s Farmers to Families Food Box Program in action across the United States.
As laborers return to the fields this fall in Florida, both unauthorized workers and those authorized to plant and pick crops through a guest worker visa are vulnerable to the coronavirus. In fact, an estimated 75% of Florida crop workers have at least one underlying health issue that puts them at risk of developing COVID-19 complications, new UF/IFAS research shows.
However, sources of risk for these two groups are different, according to the study.
That is largely because domestic unauthorized workers are significantly older than H-2A workers, which increases their risk of developing COVID-19 complications, said Gulcan Onel, a UF/IFAS assistant professor of food and resource economics.
Most of the members of both legal groups of workers do not speak English and have less than a high school education, Onel said.
“These findings highlight the need for accessible and culturally-minded outreach efforts to educate workers about preventive measures for COVID-19,” she said.
One example of UF/IFAS outreach is based at the Southwest Florida Research and Education Center in Immokalee. Faculty and experts there are hosting a series of workshops in September and October to help train farm supervisors to keep their employees as safe as possible from COVID.
For her study, Onel used three different sources of data, including a citrus harvester’s survey her team conducted in several Florida counties. Onel also synthesized existing health and employment data from federal sources. She then compared the demographic differences of H-2A workers with those of unauthorized agricultural workers to draw conclusions about COVID-19 risks among these farm workers.
Onel
The federal H-2A guest workers program provides legal, temporary nonimmigrant visa classification to foreign-born workers, where able, willing and qualified U.S. workers are not available. That work typically lasts no longer than one year.
Unauthorized workers are foreign-born workers who lack proper, legal documentation to work in the United States. Data show that unauthorized domestic workers, on average, have been in the United States for more than a decade.
In addition to legal status groups, workers’ susceptibility to the virus varies by location across Florida counties, the study shows.
Onel and her colleagues saw a high correlation between counties with the most COVID-19 cases and counties with the most agricultural workers. Among counties with the highest crop worker populations, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Hillsborough counties had the most COVID-19 cases. They were followed by Broward, Collier, Lee, Manatee and Polk counties.
Among other findings:
H-2A workers live in employer-provided and controlled housing, which may make it easier to take measures to help mitigate COVID-19 for them, compared to domestic workers. On the other hand, H-2A workers spend more time traveling to their work sites than domestic workers, which may make transportation a higher risk factor for this group of workers.
Preventing or mitigating COVID-19 among unauthorized workers gets more complicated by today’s immigration environment. Contact tracing and encouraging workers to seek testing and/or care may be difficult because unauthorized domestic crop workers fear they will be deported. Ensuring privacy of workers and their contacts will be vital for effective mitigation strategies.
H-2A workers send more of their earnings back home compared to domestic unauthorized workers; therefore, H-2A workers likely have stronger ties with family in their countries of origin, the survey found.
“This is important with the recent spikes in COVID-19 cases in Mexico and South America; higher remittances (back home) indicate that H-2A workers — who are mostly married and have minor-aged children – likely have stronger ties to their country of origin,” Onel said. “They might be more reluctant to return to U.S. farms amid the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, existing workers in the fields may continue working, even when they are sick, to keep up with their support for family back home. Piece-rate payment schemes may further encourage risk-taking behavior among workers, posing a challenge for containing outbreaks.”
While the study’s findings provide insights into COVID-19 risks for Florida crop workers, predicting when and a COVID-19 outbreak will occur is difficult and no trivial matter, Onel said.
“This type of prediction requires tracking of data over time,” Onel said. “The county-level maps in our article — which layer farm worker populations and COVID-19 cases — can easily be updated periodically for more up-to-date information on higher-risk agricultural counties.”
COLUMBIA – South Carolina farmers and food processors who want to pursue organic certification may qualify for reimbursement through a grant administered by the South Carolina Department of Agriculture.
Weathers
“Organic certification can help agribusinesses find new customers and expand to new markets, and we’re happy to be able to help,” said Commissioner of Agriculture Hugh Weathers.
The Organic Certification Cost Share Program will reimburse producers and handlers of agricultural products up to 50% of the operation’s total allowable certification costs, up to a maximum of $500 per certification scope: crops, livestock, wild crops, and handling (i.e., processing). The deadline to apply for reimbursement for the current fiscal year is Dec. 18, 2020.
“This program is a big help in offsetting the expenses of becoming a USDA certified organic producer and the yearly inspections required to maintain the organic certification,” said organic beef farmer Leland Gibson of Gibson Organic Farms. “I try to encourage many farmers to get their farms transitioned into organic production, and one common response is that farmers hesitate to get organic certification because of the cost. My response is to mention the Organic Cost Share program.”
SCDA also has three other cost share reimbursement programs available as projects of the USDA Specialty Crop Block Grant Program, including one that offsets the cost of installing an affordable Cool Bot cold storage unit; and two that support businesses through the Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) Audit process.
University of Georgia breeders developed the Orange Bulldog pumpkin.
By Cecilia McGregor and George Boyhan
Cucurbit crops are some of the most widely grown vegetable crops in the Southeast. However, the hot and humid climate is conducive to pest and disease development, which presents a challenge to growers. Cucurbit breeding at the University of Georgia (UGA) is focused on breeding pumpkin, watermelon and squash with excellent fruit quality and enhanced disease resistance.
PUMPKINS
Pumpkins are an important crop in the United States, particularly as decorations during the fall. Unfortunately, pumpkins are difficult to grow in the Southeast because of diseases. There are several diseases (particularly viruses) that affect traditional pumpkins. These diseases are transmitted by aphids in a non-persistent way. This means that as soon as the insect probes the tissue, the virus is transmitted. Control is difficult, because even with 90 to 95 percent insect control, the remaining 5 to 10 percent can effectively infect the crop.
UGA began a breeding program in 1996 with a collection of pumpkin seeds from Brazil. Seed from both elongated and flattened fruit of Cucurbita maxima were obtained and interplanted. Putative hybrids were collected. This began several years of selection for fruit with a round shape, pleasing color and open cavity. These pumpkins have a greater degree of virus resistance compared to traditional pumpkins (C. pepo), so they produce more consistently.
The resulting variety, Orange Bulldog, was released in 2006. Since there was no interest among seed companies, UGA has been handling sales. The primary audience for this variety is pick-your-own and roadside marketers. The vines hold up particularly well into the fall for direct marketers that “reseed” their pumpkin patch with new fruit each day.
Pumpkin research concentrated on developing disease resistance into commercially acceptable pumpkin lines has continued at UGA.
WATERMELON
UGA is also actively breeding for gummy stem blight and fusarium wilt resistance in watermelon. Resistance to gummy stem blight was first described in 1962 when it was discovered in a wild relative of watermelon, Citrullus amarus. This is the same species that was used to breed the fusarium-resistant, non-harvested SP pollinizer cultivars.
Breeding disease resistance into commercial, edible cultivars from this wild germplasm has proven difficult since the wild relative has hard, inedible flesh. This is further complicated by the fact that there are different species of the Stagonosporopsis pathogen that cause gummy stem blight and different races of Fusarium oxysporum var. niveum that cause fusarium wilt. The resistances to these diseases are quantitative, meaning that a single resistance gene does not give field-level resistance to the diseases. All these factors have delayed the development of cultivars resistant to these diseases.
Susceptible (left) and resistant (right) watermelon seedlings infected with gummy stem blight.
The breeding effort at UGA focuses on using modern selection methods to accelerate selection for resistance genes to speed up breeding efforts. Currently, selection is in progress for fusarium race 2 resistance and gummy stem blight resistance.
In addition to these disease-resistance breeding efforts, UGA breeds cultivars specifically for homeowners and farmers’ markets. The focus here is on novel traits like a variety of flesh colors and rind patterns and the egusi seed trait.
Egusi watermelon is very popular as an oilseed crop in many parts of Africa. The seeds are very high in oil (40 to 50 percent) and protein (25 percent) and are eaten as snacks or as a thickener in soups and stews. Egusi seed is large and flat with a unique fleshy outer layer that dries into a very thin seed coat that can easily be shelled. Traditional egusi watermelon has hard inedible flesh, which goes to waste. UGA is breeding egusi watermelon with edible flesh. These plants will produce fruit that pack the health benefits associated with the antioxidants in red- and orange-fleshed watermelon while also being a source of high oil and protein seed.
SUMMER SQUASH
In 2019, UGA started a squash breeding program. This program was launched in response to the severe yield losses experienced by Georgia growers in recent years due to whiteflies and whitefly-transmitted viruses.
The sweetpotato whitefly (Bemisia tabaci) can directly cause yield losses in many different crops due to feeding, but an even bigger cause of yield losses are the viruses it transmits. Sweetpotato whiteflies can transmit more than a hundred different viruses. Cucurbit leaf crumple virus (CuLCrV) and Cucurbit yellow stunting disorder virus (CYSDV) are some of the most important to squash growers.
Commercial squash cultivars have proven to be very susceptible to these viruses, and sources of resistance have not been identified. UGA, in collaboration with the University of Florida, has started large-scale evaluations of squash germplasm from all over the world in search of resistance. Several genotypes with resistance to CuLCrV and CYSDV were identified in 2019 and are now being evaluated further for use in the breeding program.
The UGA cucurbit breeding programs are committed to developing cultivars well adapted to the Southeast, with high disease resistance and exceptional fruit quality for both large- and small-scale growers in the region.
Applications continue to be accepted from fruit and vegetable crop producers looking to participate in the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program 2. Veronica Nigh, economist with American Farm Bureau, encourages producers in Georgia, Florida and Alabama to get signed up sooner rather than later.
“Anytime there’s a limited amount of funds, a lot of folks would be interested in it. You never know how the rules on CFAP 2 are a little bit different. The commodities are a little bit different than the last time. You never know if the changes that have been implemented are enough to bring folks out of the woodwork who weren’t participating in the first program,” Nigh said. “There’s no need to wait. Get on in there and make sure you get applied for the program.”
Fruits, Vegetables, Tree Nuts Included
According to the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program 2 website, more than 230 fruit, vegetable, horticulture and tree nut commodities are eligible for CFAP 2. These includes blueberries, strawberries, pecans, cucumbers and squash.
CFAP 2 follows the first round of CFAP, which had an application period of May 26 through Sept. 11. CFAP 2 has allocated $14 billion to aid producers who continue to face market disruptions and associated costs because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“It never seems to be enough, whatever is allocated. There’s a lot of producers and our industry is one that’s high valued. We hope that it provides the emergency assistance that growers need,” Nigh said. “I think we should look a little bit to the first CFAP program which has yet to reach its full subscription for a variety of different reasons. So far, about $10 billion in support has been provided to cattle, hog, dairy, non-specialty crops, specialty crops and other producers for losses experienced through mid-April. Certainly, the $14 billion would suggest they’re in the ballpark of what makes sense for a limited window of damages, which is what the CFAP programs have to look at.”
Clemson Extension agents provided updates in The South Carolina Grower this week about the status of various crops being produced throughout the state.
Weekly Field Update – 9/28/20
Coastal
Zack Snipes reports, “Cooler temperatures have really helped out the direct seeded fall crops. Carrots, beets, and arugula are looking great around the Lowcountry. We had about two inches of rain so many fields are soggy. I am still seeing high numbers of whiteflies on just about every crop. Whitefly feeding will lower yields so make sure to scout the underside of leaves. I expect to see an increase of disease, particularly downy mildew on cucurbits and black rot on brassicas with the cooler temperatures and abundance of moisture.”
Arugula is looking great in this cooler weather. Photo from Zack Snipes.
Midlands
Justin Ballew reports, “It’s been cooler this week and we got a little rain from the remnants of Beta. Its been several days since we’ve seen the sun, also. Lots of brassicas are being harvested now, and more are being planted. There is a little black rot out there and plenty of caterpillars still. Strawberry plastic has been laid in a number of places and planting is just right around the corner.”
Strawberry plastic being laid in the Midlands. Photo from Justin Ballew.
Pee Dee
Tony Melton reports, “Too wet to plant greens or harvest sweet potatoes & peas. Peas are falling down reducing yield due to the inability to combine harvest. Sweet potatoes are beginning to rot due to the wet soils reducing yields and quality. Farmers are having to mud through fields to harvest pickles. Downy Mildew, Pythium leak, and belly rot are bad!”
Upstate
Kerrie Roach reports, “With the end of September, most all the local farmers markets are finishing up for the season. Online markets and specialty/holiday markets will continue, but many produce growers have finished production until spring. Apples are continuing to be about 2 weeks ahead of schedule with decent crops across the board. Some growers have experienced high rates of fungal pathogens just because of the high rain incidence.”
The October issue of VSCNews magazine covers a variety of topics, including establishing an olive industry in Florida, the potential for hops and a strawberry spotlight.
Currently, Florida has approximately 800 acres of olives under production. Although olives grow well in Florida’s warm climate, little formal research on Florida olive cultivation is available to support industry development. Michael O’Hara Garcia, president of the Florida Olive Council, explains what it will take to establish an olive industry in the Sunshine State.
There is a lot of hype surrounding hops production in Florida. According to Shinsuke Agehara, an assistant professor at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Gulf Coast Research and Education Center (GCREC), Florida hops show potential. The UF/IFAS hops research goal is to develop a viable industry for Florida growers and brewers.
Furthermore, the crop spotlight returns in the October issue of VSCNews magazine, this time focusing on strawberries.
Sriyanka Lahiri, an assistant professor at the UF/IFAS GCREC, shares pests that are problematic to Florida strawberries and effective management strategies.
Also, two new strawberry selections have been approved for release by UF/IFAS and are in the commercialization process. Vance M. Whitaker, an associate professor at UF/IFAS, shares the specifics on the new releases. The first release is an early short-day variety with excellent fruit
shape and quality. The second release is a white-fruited strawberry, it is expected to be the first such variety on the market in the United States.
Severe outbreaks of Pestalotiopsis, a new strawberry disease, has threatened Florida strawberries the last two growing seasons. Natalia Peres, a professor at UF/IFAS, shares control strategies that growers can use to manage the disease.
If you would like to receive future issues of VSCNews magazine, click here.
According to the UGA Extension Viticulture Blog, Pam Knox, UGA Extension climatologist, said the nights of Oct. 2-4 could see temperatures in the 30s across the Southern Appalachians and into northern Georgia and Alabama.
She said while most places won’t have temperatures that get down to freezing, areas that are frost pockets and prone to frost could freeze. A second outbreak could also happen the second week of October.
It’s still a ways off, so the predictions are likely to change somewhat in strength and timing, but something to keep an eye on if you have tender plants that could be impacted by the cold air. You can view these probabilistic threats at https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/threats/threats.php.
University of Georgia CAES picture/Swelling (galls) produced by the root-knot nematode on the roots of okra grown on an organic farm in Georgia.
By Maria M. Lameiras for CAES News
While weeds and plant parasites are a concern for all agricultural producers, organic farmers are doubly challenged to combat these problems without chemical solutions. Through a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a University of Georgia researcher is working to discover and integrate biological products and cover crops to control nematodes and weeds in organic vegetable production.
Since joining the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences in 2017, assistant professor of plant pathology and UGA Cooperative Extension nematologist Abolfazl Hajihassani’s lab has surveyed more than 400 vegetable fields in 29 Georgia counties for plant-parasitic nematodes and found 10 genera of nematodes. Hajihassani’s group found that root-knot nematode is the most prevalent based on distribution, soil population density and incidence, which is why he has focused his research on this particular pest.
“In certified organic production or on farms transitioning to organic, growers are not allowed to use chemicals. Producers have to use non-chemical procedures, which means that their management approach is very limited,” said Hajihassani, project director for the grant. “In this project we are trying to integrate a couple of techniques that we know have some efficacy as a single technique against nematodes and weeds to see if combining these strategies will result in the best management of nematodes and weeds and a higher crop yield than the growers’ standard practices.”
The three-year, $500,000 grant is part of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s (NIFA) Organic Transitions Program (ORG), which is designed to improve the competitiveness of organic livestock and crop producers, as well as those who are adopting organic practices.
Root-knot nematodes can enter a plant’s roots and move through its cells, where they grow, produce eggs and cause the roots to swell. This reduces the plant’s growth and yield potential in a relatively short timeframe and can lead to severe yield losses for organic farmers. South Georgia’s sandy soils allow root-knot nematodes to reproduce frequently because they can move easily through the soil’s loose texture and infect almost all vegetable crops. If the nematodes can’t be controlled in organic production systems, the producer may have to abandon the field and move operations to an uninfected area.
As part of the study, the team will cooperate with Raffi Aroian, a professor of molecular medicine at University of Massachusetts Medical School to identify native strains of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) crystal proteins, which have nematicidal tendencies against root-knot nematodes.
“The lab we are working with at the University of Massachusetts Medical School has been working on Bt strains for years, but they have never used these strains against plant-parasitic nematodes. They are going to give us some strains that have had efficacy against nonparasitic nematodes and we will screen those strains in the lab and greenhouse to find out the most effective for root-knot nematode control,” Hajihassani said.
In addition to the Bt strains, the team will research the use of entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) — nematodes that can kill other nematodes — and their bacterial metabolites to try to control root-knot nematodes.
“There are two known species of entomopathogenic nematodes that produce bacterial metabolites and we are trying to find out which one of those species or their metabolites have nematicidal efficacy against the root-knot nematode,” Hajihassani said.
Because weed control is another concern for organic production and farmers cannot use chemical herbicides, the team will test several cultivars of summer and winter cover crops in the field for the greatest nematode- and weed-suppressive qualities.
“We know which species and cultivars of winter and summer crops have suppressive effects against different common species of root-knot nematodes, in particular the southern and peanut root-knot nematodes. In field conditions, we need to find out the optimum timing for cover crop termination in our environments to get maximum suppression of weeds and nematodes,” he said. “Understanding the role of all these factors will help us integrate the best practices of cover cropping with the most effective bacterial or microbial combinations and commercial biological products for the control of nematodes and weeds in organic vegetable production systems.”
UGA researchers who are co-project directors on the grant are Ganpati Jagdale, UGA Extension nematologist; Timothy Grey, crop and soil sciences professor and UGA Extension weed specialist; Juan Carlos Diaz-Perez, horticulture professor; and Gregory Colson, agricultural and applied economics associate professor. David Shapiro-Ilan of the USDA Agricultural Research Service is also a co-project director on the grant.
For more information on research being performed by the Hajihassani Nematology Research Group, visit site.caes.uga.edu/nema.
