Browse Environment Stories - Page 21

Two consecutive weeks of rainfall in Georgia stunted the growth of the state’s peanut crop and created ideal conditions for diseases in vegetable fields, leaving farmers scrambling to decide what to do next.

Longtime residents of Georgia may remember the devastating floods of Tropical Storm Alberto in July 1994. The rain was so intense that Georgia’s one-day rainfall record was set during that storm: 21.10 inches of rain was recorded in Americus, Georgia, over a 24-hour period ending on July 6, 1994, as the storm stalled over the state. Despite that incredible record and the resulting damage, the National Hurricane Center did not retire that storm’s name. “Alberto” is the first on the list of Atlantic tropical storm names for the 2018 season, which begins on June 1.

Now is the peak time to plant peanuts in Georgia, according to Cristiane Pilon, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension peanut physiologist.

Are your sinuses clogged? Do you feel like you are walking in a sea of yellow dust? Have you washed your car three times this week? Welcome to pollen season in Georgia.

Going into the start of the growing season, a wetter, cooler-than-normal April helped to reduce drought conditions across the northern three-quarters of Georgia, but drought conditions remain in the southeastern corner of the state.

Georgia farmers should expect dry weather when they plant their crops this spring, but Pam Knox, University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences agricultural climatologist, anticipates an active tropical storm season in the Atlantic Ocean this summer.

Pine straw production, timber sales and wildlife management will top the list of topics at the Agroforestry and Wildlife Field Day slated for Thursday, Sept. 20, at the University of Georgia’s Westbrook Research Farm in Griffin, Georgia.

University of Georgia Cooperative Extension agents often get calls from homeowners who are concerned about the quality of their well water. Water from municipal sources is routinely monitored for safety, but water from private wells isn’t.

The average American uses between 80 and 100 gallons of water a day, and that may not seem like much, but over the course of a year, or a lifetime, it adds up. With only 1 percent of the world’s water suitable for drinking or growing crops, it’s up to everyone to the do their part to conserve this finite resource.

Georgians are accustomed to evergreen azaleas, but native azaleas are currently growing in popularity. Unlike evergreen azaleas, native azaleas lose their leaves in the fall, grow tall and airy rather than low and dense, and bloom in the spring and summer.