Cooperative Extension Service
College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
The University of Georgia
George
Boyhan, Extension Horticulturist-Vegetables
East Georgia Extension Center
Nessmith-Lane Building, 2nd Floor
PO Box 8112
Georgia Southern University
Statesboro, GA 30460
912-681-5639 | 912-681-0376, Fax | 912-682-3481,
mobile
Specialists from throughout the Southeast met in Fletcher, North Carolina, on August 20-21. This annual meeting is used to update the Vegetable Crops Guidelines for the southeastern United States. This multi-state publication brings together in one place information on cultural practices and disease, weed and insect control. Here in Georgia, we continue to publish the Pest Management Handbook, which should be your primary source for information on pest control.
The guidelines publication is a handy first source of information on vegetables grown in the Southeast. It includes information on planting dates, varieties, spacing and other considerations for each of the common vegetables grown here. An interesting part of this publication is the inclusion of alternative pest control measures that would be of particular interest to organic growers. They include specific alternative control methods for each crop. The plant pathologists at the meeting plan on updating and improving the alternative disease control measures over the next year or two. I distributed the latest version of this publication back in October, 2002, but if you didn't get one or if you would like extras, I will be happy to send them to you.
Additional discussions were held in our section to update the fertilizer recommendations in this publication. Related to this, Terry Kelley and I met to update the soil test recommendations for vegetables in Georgia. I will be putting this together in a table and sending it to several key county agents for their feedback. If you would like to review this prior to submission, let me know and I'll send you a copy.
Finally, we decided to hold next year's meeting in Charleston, South Carolina, at the new Clemson University facility.
A field day is scheduled at Relinda Walker's farm in Screven County on September 18, 2003. She has a no-till organic broccoli demonstration that will be installed. There will be a follow-up field day at Heritage Organic Farm in Effingham County with a workshop on organic weed control on October 30. For more information, Relinda Walker may be contacted at 912-481-2263 or by e-mail at Relinda@georgiaorganics.org
On a separate note, a pre-proposal on developing protocols for organic onion production that we submitted to the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program has been selected for development into a full proposal. Organic onions appear to be positioned as a new and lucrative revenue source for both organic and conventional growers.
Georgia Organics is looking to hire a coordinator for their Direct Marketing Program, which is funded through a partnership grant with the Risk Management Agency of the USDA. This is a part-time position that will run for approximately 17 months. This half-time position will be working in cooperation with Dr. Luanne Lohr at the university. The closing date is September 5, 2003. I know this is short notice, but if you know someone who fits the qualifications, it may be a great opportunity. Click the link below for a PDF version of the job description.
Georgia Organics Coordinator position
Onion season is almost upon us. I've been receiving onion seed from the seed companies for the past several weeks. We hope to be direct seeding at the Vidalia farm on September 15 if the weather cooperates.
Talk to you next month.