Menu

Browse Tomatoes Stories - Page 3

46 results found for Tomatoes
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.
University of Georgia Extension specialists say rinse fruits and vegetables well in running water that is safe for drinking before using them. Fruits and vegetables with firm skins or hard rinds can be washed by scrubbing with a clean vegetable brush under running water. CAES News
Safe Harvest
Keeping produce safe means keeping harmful bacteria, viruses and parasites from contaminating fruits and vegetables. Enjoy the rewards of growing food through planning and some practical food safety tips.
UGA Extension consumer horticulturist Bob Westerfield checks bean plants for signs of disease and insects on the UGA campus in Griffin. Westerfield grows vegetables at work to be prepared to answer home gardener questions. He grows them at home for his dinner table. CAES News
Seed Shopping
Successful gardeners know that a bountiful harvest in the summer begins with proper planning in the spring. When the weather is still too cold to till the soil, seasoned gardeners are indoors ordering specialty seeds and planning what to plant and where.
UGA Extension consumer horticulturist Bob Westerfield checks bean plants for signs of disease and insects on the UGA campus in Griffin. Westerfield grows vegetables at work to be prepared to answer home gardener questions. He grows them at home for his dinner table. CAES News
Starting Small
Backyard gardeners thinking of turning their hobby into a business should start small, according to University of Georgia consumer horticulturist Bob Westerfield.
Tomato plant with tomatoes in various stages of ripeness CAES News
Homegrown tomatoes
Bob Westerfield spends his days growing vegetables and watching for problems. As University of Georgia Extension’s consumer vegetable horticulturist, he answers questions from backyard gardeners and Extension agents across the state. In the summer months, most of the questions are about tomatoes.
Thrips are tiny winged insects that feed chiefly on plants. Many species damage cultivated plants, by either sucking the sap or transmitting viral plant diseases. Thrips reach a maximum length of about half an inch. Most have two pairs of long, narrow, hair-fringed wings. CAES News
Thrips Damage
A tiny insect proved to be a formidable foe for Georgia farmers in 2013. Whether thrips will deliver a similar punch in 2014 remains to be seen. There are more than 7,000 species of thrips, but only two cause problems for Georgia farmers and UGA researchers — tobacco thrips and western flower thrips.
A cucumber vine grows in a backyard garden in Butts County, Ga. CAES News
Perfect for diseases
Summer is a great time for fresh local produce, but Georgia summers can present many challenges for gardeners trying to keep crops healthy and alive. This is especially true for tomatoes and cucurbits.