Clemson Extension agents provide updates in The South Carolina Grower this week about the status of various crops being produced throughout the state.
Coastal Region
Rob Last reports, “A little welcome rainfall over the weekend along with some warmth and sunshine has improved the growth of strawberries. I believe it will be worthwhile for growers to utilize row covers for a month to ensure we achieve the thermal time accumulation. Brassica and leafy greens are looking good, with a little Alternaria leaf spot being found.
Zack Snipes reports, “We have some warmer and sunnier weather coming this week that should really push all of our crops. We are still behind on our growing degree days (GDD) for strawberries, but with the coming weather we should accumulate a good many units this week. No matter how many GDD we get, if you do not protect your strawberries from deer, it won’t matter. Please protect your strawberry plants with a fence. I saw some beautiful crops on Edisto last week (broccoli, greens, lettuce, beets, carrots) with very little disease or insect damage. This time of year is the perfect time of year for sprayer calibration. Most growers are shocked to find out how much money they are losing because their sprayers aren’t properly calibrated or they are misapplying pesticides (incorrect nozzle, wrong pressure, clogged nozzles, not using adjuvants, etc). Clemson Extension just released the “Spray Fundamentals” online course that covers how to spray better on-farm. This, folks, is the best stocking stuffer or white elephant gift a farmer could receive. Click here to give the gift you’ve all been waiting for.“
Midlands
Justin Ballew reports, “We had a fairly cloudy Thanksgiving week. The temperatures were warmer, and we received between 0.8 and 1.1 inches of rain over the week. Sunday afternoon was very windy and dried out the rain we got earlier in the day pretty quickly. In a way this was a blessing, as it didn’t allow water to sit on the leaves of our crops for very long. However, the wind whipping the leaves around likely caused some small mechanical wounds that could allow black rot to take hold. Luckily, black rot levels have been very low this fall. Growers are reporting they had good sales of leafy greens for Thanksgiving. We will now reset and get ready for Christmas and New Year’s sales.”