Palms in North Florida suffered serious damage as a result of freezing weather in December 2022. As spring approaches, we will be looking to see if the palms will recover. Learn what to do now and what to expect from your palms with UF IFAS Extension Escambia County. by Beth BollesSource: UF/IFAS Pest Alert…
The 2023 Spring Festival of Flowers kicks off March 31 at the shared campus of the UF/IFAS West Florida Research and Education Center (WFREC) and Pensacola State College in Milton. Friday 95 p.m. Saturday Sunday 94 p.m. UFIFAS West Florida Research and Education Center Pensacola State College Milton 5988 Highway 90 Milton, FL 32583 Fast…
The UF/IFAS Blueberry Breeding Program is releasing a new pesticide module on February 6, as part of its UF/IFAS Blueberry Growers Guide app. This new module is a quick reference guide for certain information on pesticides labeled for highbush blueberry in Florida, including: • Re-entry Interval (REI) • Preharvest Interval (PHI) • Application Rates •…
Recap of February First Friday with Florida First Detector
Crapemyrtle bark scale, Photo credit: Gary Brooks, Bayer Crop Science, Bugwood.org.
In February, we talked about Invasive Scale Insects and covered identification of species commonly found in Florida and a few that were recently detected in Florida. Scale insects can be challenging to identify. Closely related…
If you are getting started with growing your own vegetables in Florida, start by reading the Florida Vegetable Gardening Guide, available in English and Spanish. Choose a site that is full sun with access to water. Gardens can be grown in a variety of types of garden beds including in ground, raised bed, grow boxes and grow bags.…
Are you bored with the usual tired Valentine’s options like boxed bonbons and odorless hothouse flowers? This year seek out some unique, Florida-centric Valentines fun! For an extravagant, supremely romantic (yet not too expensive) gift, you could get your sweetheart a vanilla vine. Vanilla is just now being grown in Florida. Like love and friendship, vanilla…
At their December 2021 meeting, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) passed two rulings designed to enhance the conservation of diamondback terrapins, a small estuarine turtle.
As of March 1, 2022, no one can possess a diamondback terrapin without an FWC permit.
As of March 1, 2023, all recreational crab traps in…
Hello Avid Readers!! Thank you for coming back for Pesticide Safety Education Month. We will have a series of blogs this month covering one of our favorite topics Personal Protective Equipment or PPE. The series begins today with an introduction to PPE and provision of resources on the subject. It continues next week with a…
Cool-season legumes grow during the late fall and spring. During winter the warm-season perennial grasses go dormant making cool-season legume and grasses a helpful source of forage for livestock operations. Soil characteristic that are most desirable for growing cool-season legumes are soils that contain organic matter and clay. Clay and organic matter hold soil moisture…
FORT PIERCE, Fla. — Most of the world’s olives grow in southern European countries, such as Spain and Italy. In the United States, California has more than 30,000 acres dedicated to the commodity. But Florida may be the next agricultural region for small-scale commercial olive production.
Olive trees are an important crop in…
The fall gardening season is exciting, especially because it is the time that many people begin planting after their summer break from gardening. Eventually the fall season slows to an end when mother nature provides a freeze to clear out some of the seasonal crops. But some vegetables avoid the frost burn all together and…
Wild Weeds – Weed of the Month Clasping Venus’s Looking-glass Triodanis perfoliata Clasping Venus’s Looking-glass is an annual herbaceous wildflower in the bellflower family. The bell-shaped flowers have five bluish-purple petals and develop on the leaf axil. Not all flowers open but they still produce seeds since the flowers are self-pollinating. The leaves are…
