Small Fruit News
The Southern Region Small Fruit Consortium posts articles and sends the SMALL FRUIT NEWS to subscribers four times annually.
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Planting date, pre-plant soil and bed preparation and plant quality are the three important pillars that make the foundations for a successful crop. There is still time to enhance plant growth, even if you are a few weeks late on planting.
Posted in: Fall 2022 -
Broad mite continues to be a sporadic issue in Blackberry across the Southeast. This pest can severely limit plant growth, result in high levels of yield loss and growers in the entire region should be scouting each year.
Posted in: Fall 2022 -
Blueberry bushes are notorious for their strict soil requirements. The blueberry industry has relied on soil amendments to create ideal conditions for blueberry roots. Containers filled with soilless substrates are the latest tool growers have to achieve this purpose.
Posted in: Fall 2022 -
The 10th North American Strawberry Symposium will be held in conjunction with the annual North American Strawberry Growers Association conference, March 7-10, 2023, in San Luis Obispo, CA.
Posted in: Fall 2022 -
The North American Raspberry & Blackberry Association will be gathering in person for their annual meeting to be held January 22-24, 2023 in Tampa, Florida.
Posted in: Fall 2022 -
Kathy Demchak, Matt Cooper, and Rich Marini (Penn State University); Maria Cramer (Univ. of Maryland, formerly Penn State) High tunnels are widely used for raspberry production in much of the world, and it is easy to understand why. The longer growing season, increased yields and improved quality, and the ability to schedule tasks without concerns,…
Posted in: Summer 2022 -
By Stacia L. Davis Conger, Ph.D., State Irrigation Specialist, LSU AgCenter Inherent to the southeastern United States, rainfall in hot-humid climates is highly variable in both frequency and duration. In Louisiana, historical rainfall averages 1,350 – 1,700 mm (53 – 67 inches) annually with most dry periods expected during the summer months (Sohoulande et al.,…
Posted in: Summer 2022 -
By Lisa Rayburn, NCSU; Josh Mays, TriEst Ag Group, Inc.; James Hewitt, Lewis Nursery and Farms; and Gina Fernandez, NCSU In 2021, NC State University started an on-farm research project with Lewis Nursery and Farms to investigate the feasibility of long-cane raspberry production in the state. Until now, commercial production of this high value crop…
Posted in: Summer 2022 -
By David Gadoury (Cornell University) and Natalia Peres (University of Florida) Microbial pathogens that attack the above-ground parts of plants live in a world that is bathed in sunlight and have done so for nearly 300 million years. In that time, these simple one-celled microbes have evolved to sense, use, and interpret light to direct…
Posted in: Summer 2022 -
Dr. Amanda McWhirt Increasingly researchers and growers are investigating the use of drones for small fruit production. In North Carolina a strawberry grower used a drone to monitor a strawberry field that had flooded or there have been instances of using drones to spray strawberry plug plants. The applications of drones are endless, including: spraying,…
Posted in: Summer 2022