Beginning March 1, Robert N. Stougaard will be the assistant dean of research for the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. He will be responsible for the overall supervision of the college’s seven research centers and farms and three major agricultural experiment stations located across the state.

Once a top agricultural commodity in Georgia, the Southern pea’s presence in the state is now minimal. Growers are reluctant to plant the crop due to a tiny weevil, the cowpea curculio.

The key to managing Exobasidium leaf and fruit spot disease in blueberries, which makes the fruit unmarketable, is one application of lime sulfur approximately two weeks prior to bud break, according to Jonathan Oliver, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension fruit pathologist.

Hundreds of people get sick each year from inappropriate pesticide use, but those who don’t deal with pesticides daily may not think about it very often. Of the 11 states participating in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) pesticide safety program, workers reported 853 serious injuries from pesticides in 2011, according to the CDC.

University of Georgia entomologists advise farmers to kill crops capable of hosting whiteflies after the crop is harvested a final time. Crops left in the field could continue to serve as hosts.

University of Georgia entomologist Ashfaq Sial advises Georgia blueberry farmers to manage the spotted wing drosophila (SWD), the crop’s most destructive pest, by incorporating cultural practices into farming.

No official pesticide drift complaints have been reported to the Georgia Department of Agriculture this year due to in-season applications of dicamba, or 2,4-D.

Aspergillus crown rot disease is on the rise in Georgia peanut fields and University of Georgia researchers are working to pinpoint why. At present, university scientists recommend that farmers encountering this problem in their fields stop saving seed from year to year in an effort to reduce the disease while better control methods are found. The first line of defense has been fungicide application either in furrow or directly to the seed.

Nematode control is one of the costliest hurdles to blueberry production on replanted sites. Through research trials in Appling County, Georgia, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Agriculture and Natural Resources Agent Shane Curry found that adding pine bark mulch when replanting blueberry fields helps to combat the pests.