LATEST POSTS
-
Question of the Week – Hornet Nest
Why did this blueberry grower put a purple martin house in his blueberry bushes? This is not a purple martin house. This is a hornet’s nest!!! Hornets, wasps, and yellow jackets look a lot alike. There is one true species of hornet in South Carolina (and North America), the European hornet. The European hornet is an introduced…
-
Biologicals and Their General Performance Against Strawberry Diseases
Johanna Wesche and Guido Schnabel, Clemson University “Do biologicals work?” That is a frequently asked question coming not only from strawberry growers, especially in light of increasing resistance issues with many of the conventional fungicides and the fungicide insensitivity of Neopestalotiopis sp. In our recent article, “Biologicals Made Easy: Grouping and Understanding Biological Fungicides,” we…
-
Weekly Field Update – 6/16/25
Regular rain continued throughout the state last week. Summer officially begins later this week. We’re well into harvest now for most warm-season crops, and disease is a major concern. See details below. Keep an eye on the Upcoming Events tab periodically so you don’t miss any of our winter/spring meetings. Also, check out the latest…
-
June Grower Spotlight – J. Mac Produce
Where is Phillip visiting this week? In this month’s grower spotlight, Phillip is visiting J. Mac Produce in Gable, SC. Owner and operator Johnny McNair grows peas, butter beans, sweet corn and okra. He is most famous for his butter bean production and grows the varieties ‘Jackson Wonder’, ‘Thorogreen’, and sometimes ‘Bridgeton’. His operation is…
-
Sudden Wilt or Pythium Root Rot On Mature Cantaloupe
From Clemson Plant Pathologist Tony Keinath After a very dry April, the heavy rains in May triggered a case of Pythium root rot in one cantaloupe field in South Carolina in the past 2 weeks. Another name for Pythium root rot on mature cucurbits is “sudden wilt” to distinguish it from the more common damping-off…
-
Weekly Field Update – 6/9/25
We saw some more rain and storms across the state last week. Watermelons and tomatoes are really coming in and a few strawberry growers are still hanging on. Disease has made a significant increase recently and piercing/sucking insects are on the rise. See details below. Keep an eye on the Upcoming Events tab periodically so…
The South Carolina Grower 