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Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Specialty Crop Grower Magazine”
Florida specialty crop farmer Matt Parke may still be a relative newbie when it comes to blackberry production. But he seems to have figured out a secret to blackberry success in Central Florida. “Here in Central Florida, we don’t get the chill hours required to make them flower good, so you’ve got to figure out how to trick them into …
The cover story of the July issue of Specialty Crop Grower Magazine puts the spotlight on DiMare Company, one of the largest field-grown tomato producers and packers in the U.S. Tony DiMare, president of DiMare Fresh and DiMare Homestead, recounts the company’s history, which spans 96 years and started with Tony’s grandfather, Anthony, and his two brothers. Deer and feral …
By Frank Giles When Ksenija Gasic interviewed for her position at Clemson University in 2007 to reboot the school’s peach breeding program, she saw an omen of things to come. A late freeze that year had wiped out the peach crop on campus and across the state. Building a Better Program Gasic was hired and joined Clemson as its peach …
By Maegan Beatty Bulimulus bonariensis, also called the peanut snail, is a non-native tree snail from the West Indies. As a detritivore, B. bonariensis was not considered an agricultural pest until around 2015 when peanut growers in the Florida Panhandle started seeing the snail in large numbers. The pest does not only affect peanuts; it can harm other southeastern crops …
By Frank Giles San Jose scale is one of the more problematic pests peach growers in the Southeast must manage. Since the early 2000s, San Jose scale has emerged as a one of the region’s most common and damaging pests. Spread The scale is a prolific breeder. According to the University of Georgia (UGA), the female can produce about 10 …
By Clint Thompson Georgia peach producers are at risk every year of having their crop succumb to brown rot disease — either through fungicide resistance or looming regulatory hurdles. Growers are successfully avoiding resistance with their current fungicide spray program, but potential regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have Phil Brannen, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension fruit disease specialist, …
By Clint Thompson Spencer McLeod did not set out to be one of the largest peach producers in the Southeast. It just happened that way. “I don’t necessarily want to be the biggest grower and I don’t want to be the smallest grower, but I want to be the best grower,” McLeod said. Producing a Plethora of Peaches McLeod has …
The cover story of the June issue of Specialty Crop Grower Magazine highlights Spencer McLeod’s pursuit to be the best peach grower in South Carolina. He talks about how his farming operation has expanded to cover 50 different peach varieties and more than 1,000 acres every year. Speaking of peaches, brown rot disease is an annual challenge for peach producers …
By Rick Scott Florida growers play a critical role in providing for and contributing to the state, its families and businesses. They are job creators, innovators and hardworking Floridians that drive our state forward generation after generation and show the rewards of hard work in achieving the American dream. That’s why I am so proud to fight every day in …
By Maegan Beatty In the last 25 years, the number of whitefly-transmitted viruses affecting vegetable production in Florida and the southeastern United States has steadily increased. The rise in average winter temperatures, the development of widespread resistance to broad-spectrum insecticides and the absence of new varieties with resistance to the multitude of new viruses have collectively contributed to this increase. …
