News Stories - Page 6

Anny Chung studies the smaller things in life — microbes in plants and soils, to be exact. And though microscopic, these organisms can influence entire ecosystems by altering a plant’s ability to survive and thrive.

A multidisciplinary team of University of Georgia agriculture experts are working to determine causes and solutions to postharvest quality problems that have hit Georgia’s blueberry growers hard in recent seasons. Funded by the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Office of Research and UGA Cooperative Extension, the project will address “major issues” with fruit quality, particularly in rabbiteye blueberries.

On a warm morning in mid-September, tractor-drawn peanut-digging equipment burrowed beneath the peanut vines on the first of Tift County peanut farmer Greg Davis’s fields. This is the day peanut producers — and University of Georgia Cooperative Extension agents and UGA peanut researchers — work all season for.

From year to year, many row crop producers rotate the crops they plant to reduce pest and disease pressure and to benefit the land, often alternating peanuts with cotton and corn. Peanuts in particular are considered an important cash crop for many farmers.

Whether they show up whole in a candy bar, are transformed into a sandwich spread or lend earthy notes to a spicy curry, peanuts are an important part of foodways in the U.S. and of cuisines from around the world. Georgia is the No. 1 peanut-producing state in the U.S., growing approximately 52% of the peanuts produced in the country in 2021, mostly in the state’s sandy Coastal Plain region.

When Cassandra and Gary Wiseman bought 185 acres of land in rural Jackson County, Georgia, they envisioned preserving the land through sustainable forestry stewardship. Over the next decade, they recognized the abundance of naturally growing muscadine vines throughout the property. This bounty ultimately sparked the dream of operating a vineyard and winery on the property.