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Browse Squash Stories - Page 2

36 results found for Squash
Tim Coolong, UGA vegetable horticulturist, looks for squash in a plot on the UGA Tifton Campus. CAES News
Hard Squash
Georgia growers produce hard squash in the spring to avoid tremendous virus pressure in the fall, according to University of Georgia Cooperative Extension vegetable specialist Tim Coolong.
GM crops chart CAES News
GMO Safety
Genetically modified foods are tested for safety testing before they reach the marketplace. It can take over a decade and cost tens of millions of dollars, and as a result, GMOs are the most safety-tested foods in history, says University of Georgia plant breeding and plant genetics expert Wayne Parrott.
A syrphid or flower fly hovers over a swamp sunflower bloom. The tiny insect is sometimes called a hover fly because its flight pattern resembles that of a hovering hummingbird. CAES News
Pollinator Plan
Many food items, including fresh fruits and vegetables, would never make it to grocery store or farmers market shelves without the help of beneficial insects like honeybees and butterflies. The number of these pollinating insects in the U.S. is declining, and to help, Georgia agricultural experts developed a statewide plan to teach gardeners and landscapers how to care for their plants and protect these vulnerable insects that are vital to food production.
Green beans grow up a trellis in a Spalding County, Ga., garden. CAES News
Garden Plan
This time of the year gardeners get excited about their soon-to-be-planted spring vegetable gardens. They envision lush rows of perfect pods of peas, scrumptiously delicious sweet corn and big, beautiful tomatoes. University of Georgia Extension urges gardeners to wait and put some thought and vision into their garden first.
Squash vine borer larvae hatch and eat their way into the plant's stem near the soil level. Since the pests are hidden inside the plant, most home gardeners have no idea that pests are present until the plants wither and die. A healthy squash plant (left) is shown in a Spalding County, Georgia, garden next to a plant infected with squash vine borers. CAES News
Winter and Summer Squash
To most Southern gardeners, fried yellow squash or grilled zucchini are staples on the table during the summer. Serving up homegrown winter squash in the fall is worthy of bragging rights. While normally easy to grow, the endless choice of varieties and numerous garden pests have made growing squash a little more challenging.
A yellow squash matures on the vine of a squash plant growing in Butts County, Georgia. CAES News
Squash Planting
Squash varieties come in unique shapes and colors. Pattypan is a yellow squash that’s shaped like a star or scallop, while eight-ball is a dark squash that looks like a Magic 8 Ball toy. Summer squash come in straightneck, crookneck, striped, light green, dark green and every shade of yellow. Winter squash come in very different shapes and the traditional favorites include butternut, acorn and buttercup.
Mike Doyle, director of UGA Center for Food Safety, holds a bowl of spinach. CAES News
Produce and Pathogens
Mike Doyle doesn’t eat raw bean sprouts, medium-rare hamburgers or bagged salads. He isn’t on a special diet, but as director of the University of Georgia Center for Food Safety in Griffin, Georgia, he studies the food pathogens that sicken thousands of Americans each year. For a time, foodborne illness was most often connected with undercooked meats; today, 33 percent of cases are tracked back to raw produce.
Whether you are searching for pelleted seed, unique vegetables or hard-to-find flowers, seed catalogs are full of every kind of seed a gardener could imagine. CAES News
Garden Seed
Seed catalogs introduce gardeners to new or different plants that they may not be able to find as seedlings at local garden centers. The information in catalogs can be a bit overwhelming to novice gardeners, so it is important to know how to interpret some of the technical information and abbreviations, much like learning the language of gardeners.
Two steers graze on sorghum/sudangrass hybrid forage at the UGA Eatonton Beef Research Unit as part of a 2014 study on grass-finished beef forages. CAES News
Farmgate Value Report
Led by increases in forestry and livestock values, Georgia’s agricultural output increased by $484 million in 2014, making agriculture, once again, the largest industry in the state with a value of $14.1 billion. According to the most recent University of Georgia Farmgate Value Report, published earlier this month, the value of Georgia’s livestock and aquaculture industries increased by almost 36 percent from 2013.