Winter’s mild temperatures and sunny days helped some Georgia farmers keep from falling behind with their watermelon plantings this spring, according to University of Georgia Cooperative Extension vegetable horticulturist Tim Coolong.

Georgia 4-H is recruiting an army of bivalves to help ensure the future of the organization’s coastal environmental education center. The organization is working with University of Georgia Marine Extension to encourage new oyster beds along the marshy shoreline at Burton 4-H Center on Tybee Island, Georgia.

March was drier and warmer than normal across Georgia, ushering in projections for a warmer and wetter than normal spring.

Ann M. Steensland, deputy director for the Global Harvest Initiative, will deliver the keynote address at this year’s Sixth Annual International Agriculture Day reception. The event will be held from 3:30-5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 19, at the Georgia Museum of Art. Hosted by the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Office of Global Programs, the talk and reception are free and open to the public.

The dusty pollen that we see in the air is not the pollen that plagues allergy sufferers. However, oftentimes when we can see lots of pine pollen floating in the air, pollen counts for problem plants are often high as well.

With warmer temperatures around the corner, Georgia’s mosquito season won’t be far behind. This year the remote chance of a southeastern U.S. outbreak of Zika — a mosquito-borne virus now prevalent in parts of South America — has university and public health officials doubling down on their message of how to control the pest.

Overly wet weather in Georgia’s major row crop regions during February 2016 has farmers worried that soggy soil may delay corn and peanut planting or cause fungal diseases to be a major issue later this spring.

University of Georgia Cooperative Extension plant pathologist Bob Kemerait cautions Georgia corn farmers about the El Nino weather pattern that will likely interfere with planting this March. A delay would increase the likelihood of diseases too, so Kemerait advises growers to plant resistant varieties and be ready to apply fungicides earlier than normal.

Complaints over off-target movement of chemical applications went down 48 percent from 2014 to 2015, but Georgia farmers must better understand the factors that influence drift, according to University of Georgia weed scientist Stanley Culpepper.