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News Stories - Page 227

Squash vine borer larvae hatch and eat their way into the plant's stem near the soil level. Since the pests are hidden inside the plant, most home gardeners have no idea that pests are present until the plants wither and die. A healthy squash plant (left) is shown in a Spalding County, Georgia, garden next to a plant infected with squash vine borers. CAES News
Tips from UGA Extension will keep you serving squash year-round 03/10/16 Bob Westerfield
To most Southern gardeners, fried yellow squash or grilled zucchini are staples on the table during the summer. Serving up homegrown winter squash in the fall is worthy of bragging rights. While normally easy to grow, the endless choice of varieties and numerous garden pests have made growing squash a little more challenging.
A yellow squash matures on the vine of a squash plant growing in Butts County, Georgia. CAES News
Both summer and winter squash grow in summer gardens 03/10/16 Bob Westerfield
Squash varieties come in unique shapes and colors. Pattypan is a yellow squash that’s shaped like a star or scallop, while eight-ball is a dark squash that looks like a Magic 8 Ball toy. Summer squash come in straightneck, crookneck, striped, light green, dark green and every shade of yellow. Winter squash come in very different shapes and the traditional favorites include butternut, acorn and buttercup.
Abnormally dry conditions this summer have kept Georgia's mosquito populations mercifully low, but that's no reason for Georgians to let down their guard, especially this season. CAES News
Spring is the time to eliminate mosquito habitats from the landscape 03/10/16 Merritt Melancon
With warmer temperatures around the corner, Georgia’s mosquito season won’t be far behind. This year the remote chance of a southeastern U.S. outbreak of Zika — a mosquito-borne virus now prevalent in parts of South America — has university and public health officials doubling down on their message of how to control the pest.
Floyd County UGA Master Gardener Extension Volunteers stand with a "This Garden is Served by UGA Cooperative Extension" sign posted at community garden in Rome, Georgia. CAES News
UGA Extension is here to help community and school gardeners 03/10/16 Becky Griffin
In early 2016, UGA Cooperative Extension Agents report they are working with over 550 community and school gardens across Georgia and this number will increase.
UGA weed scientist Eric Prostko studies sicklepod in a greenhouse on the UGA Tifton Campus in 2015. CAES News
Possibility of herbicide-resistant sicklepod a potential concern for Georgia peanut farmers 03/09/16 Clint Thompson
The possibility of sicklepod becoming resistant to herbicides is a potential concern for all Georgia peanut farmers, said Eric Protsko, a weed scientist with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
CAES horticulture professor Tim Smalley leads his students on a walking plant ID tour on the UGA campus in Athens, Ga. CAES News
UGA horticulturist named Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor 03/03/16 Camie Williams
Tim Smalley, associate professor of horticulture in the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, has been named a Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professors, the university’s highest recognition for excellence in instruction at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Over the course of February, swaths of northwest and southeast Georgia received as much as three or four inches more rainfall than normal, leaving some farm fields that have reached the planting milestone of 55 degrees Fahrenheit too wet to plant. CAES News
Soggy spring soil has farmers concerned 03/03/16 Pam Knox
Overly wet weather in Georgia’s major row crop regions during February 2016 has farmers worried that soggy soil may delay corn and peanut planting or cause fungal diseases to be a major issue later this spring.
Mike Doyle, director of UGA Center for Food Safety, holds a bowl of spinach. CAES News
Healthier eating, better tracking results in more produce-related foodborne illness cases 03/03/16 Sharon Dowdy
Mike Doyle doesn’t eat raw bean sprouts, medium-rare hamburgers or bagged salads. He isn’t on a special diet, but as director of the University of Georgia Center for Food Safety in Griffin, Georgia, he studies the food pathogens that sicken thousands of Americans each year. For a time, foodborne illness was most often connected with undercooked meats; today, 33 percent of cases are tracked back to raw produce.
This is a file photo of a center pivot irrigation system being used. CAES News
Time to get agricultural irrigation systems checked and fixed 03/02/16 Clint Thompson
Leaky pipes, flat tires and rodent-infested electrical boxes are issues that should be addressed now by farmers with irrigation systems, says University of Georgia Cooperative Extension precision agriculture and irrigation specialist Wes Porter.