News Stories - Page 9

When University of Georgia peanut pathologist Bob Kemerait does something, he does it wholeheartedly. A passionate advocate for producers both near his academic home at the University of Georgia Tifton campus and around the world, Kemerait describes himself as “a field guy,” most comfortable among the rows detecting, diagnosing and addressing the myriad diseases and pests that threaten Georgia’s second-largest row crop.

Southern gardeners love crape myrtles, but many don’t know how to care for them to realize the full, gorgeous blooms they expect in the summer.

Five members of the faculty and staff of the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and UGA Cooperative Extension have been honored as members of the Fruit and Vegetable 40 Under 40 Class of 2021.

Chief scientist of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Ismahane Elouafi is set to deliver the talk at this year's D.W. Brooks Lecture and Awards, which will be held virtually Nov. 2. Elouafi’s lecture, “How science, technology and innovation can accelerate the transformation of our agri-food systems,” will highlight the advancement of e-agriculture and it’s benefits for farming around the world.

Excessive rain signals another a bad year for leaf spot diseases on landscape trees and shrubs. The leaf spotting that affects pear trees, including both edible pears and ornamental Bradford types, is caused by a fungal disease known as Entomosporium leaf spot. This disease also affects related shrubs such as Indian hawthorn and red tip photinia.

A decade ago, University of Georgia plant scientists David and Soraya Bertioli were living and working in Brazil when they began to wonder about peanut plants they encountered in different corners of the world with an astounding ability to withstand fungal diseases without the use of fungicides. The Bertiolis wondered if these different plants might all have something in common. Did they owe their natural resistance to a single genetic source?