Had my first day in the field today, about 90km north of Cairo toward Alexandria. And this is who I am as they introduce me: What used to be called the desert road which was until 30 years ago, just that, sand.  At that time, land sold for 50 Egyptian pounds/fadan,  the equivalent of 75 … […]

Had an opportunity to volunteer for a US AID project in Egypt, so I took it.  Will be working with peach, plum and apricot growers in the Nile delta.  Departed Friday, through JFK, to Milan to Cairo.  Got here yesterday, good nights sleep and its Sunday now, first day of the work week here and … […]

Scott Korcz writes in and adds some photos about a problem with his ‘Harvester’ peach tree this spring.  Here are the photos he supplied You can see that Scott has a good mulch layer down to conserve moisture and eliminate weed competition, but this tree has a couple of problems going on.  First, this tree … […]

The Womack Family in DeLeon, Texas, is an incredible resource for commercial and casual fruit growers in Texas.  Womack Nursery was started in 1937 by James H. Womack. Larry J. Womack took over in 1964 and still grafts fruit and pecan trees today! His son, Larry Don Womack, currently leads the business which supplies fruit … […]

First,  my apologies for not being more regular in my posting.  As I am  sure you all know, this is the time of year us fruit people are in the field most of the time.  We have also been trying to keep funding for our grape projects, so needless to say its been hectic. In … […]

Well, the cool spells that are coming in have helped hold trees and vines back a little, but every crop we work with is showing signs of life.  Grapevines have wooly buds, blackberries are forcing, peaches are pushing, one more extended warm spell will mean bloom and budburst in everything.  Even pears, normally one of … […]

Lots of nervous peach growers.  In Fredericksburg we are sitting right at 660 hours of winter chilling, 100-150 hours short of what we really need to break dormancy on many of the standard varieties.  Some growers are opting to apply Dormex, a growth regulator that helps overcome insufficient chilling.  The risk is that once it … […]

I was invited to speak at the Virginia Vineyard’s Association’s annual meeting in Charlottesville this past week and on the way back to the airport, Tony Wolf, Viticultural Specialist with Virginia Tech offered to give us a brief tour of a local vineyard. In this photo, Carl Tillam, vineyard manager, Tony Wolf and Hans Walter … […]

Well, forget everything I said about having a good chilling season.  Our warm spell for the past ten days has certainly not been good for perennial fruit crops.  These high temperatures roll back the chilling accumulation, although we cannot really say how much.  We are stuck at about 550 hours of winter chilling in Fredericksburg, … […]

After over ten years of applied research across the state and over a year of publication preparation, we are happy to release a practical overview and management guide on Pierce’s disease.  During the late 1990’s, this bacterial pathogen was devastating vineyards in the Texas Hill Country and was moving into production areas north and west … […]