Master Goat Farmer Training

 UGA's next Master Goat Farmer Certification Training for North Georgia is offered through Whitfield County's Extension Office.

Location: North Georgia Fairgrounds,  500 Legion Dr., Dalton, GA 30721
Dates: Thursdays,  January 28, February 4, 11 & 18
Times: 6:00 - 9:00 p.m. on each date, with a meal served at 7:00 p.m.
Cost: $100. Includes study materials, manuals, meals, refreshments, door prizes and graduation certificate

Preregistration required by January 21, 2016
To register, contact the Whitfield County Extension Office at 706-278-8207.

For topics, presenters, and additional details, see information online linked here.

Vegetable Growers Workshop

This program about growing food for yourself or for profit, coordinated by Bob Westerfield, Extension Horticulture Specialist, is for both beginning and experienced growers.

Participants will learn how to select varieties, grow their own transplants, understand their soil, plant and maintain vegetable crops, troubleshoot vegetable problems, and select and maintain equipment, and they will gain insights into how to successfully market and sell a crop.

Date:             Friday, January 30
Time:             9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Location:       UGA Griffin Student Learning center Room 105
                      1109 Experiment Street
                      Griffin, GA 30223
Cost:             $30, includes handouts, lunch, and refreshment breaks

Pesticide credit in both commercial and private category 21 will be offered.

Preregistration is required. To pay online, visit UGA's  Vegetable Growers Workshop webpage; for additional information, call Beth Horne at 770-228-7214.

Egg Candling Classes Scheduled in Paulding County

The Georgia Department of Agriculture (GDA) has scheduled four back-to-back classes in Paulding County for certification in egg candling:

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

UGA Extension/Paulding County

530 West Memorial Drive

Dallas, GA 30132

The classes will be offered at two hour intervals, starting at 8:00 a.m., 10:00 a.m., 12 noon, and 2:00 p.m.

Anyone planning to sell eggs to individuals or at a farmers market must hold an egg candling certificate. According to GDA information, the license can be obtained by successfully taking and passing both written and candling exams.

Classes are open to any Georgia resident, without age restrictions. There is no charge, but preregistration is required. Time slots will be available on a first-come-first-served basis. Study materials will be mailed by the GDA after registration.

To register:
Call the GDA at 770-535-5955, and provide your name, mailing address, email address, and preferred class time.

High Tunnel Organic Vegetable Production Workshop

High tunnel organic vegetable production workshop

Monday, December 16, 2013

Olin Tatum Agricultural Building at Stiles Auditorium

320 W. Cherokee Ave.

Cartersville, GA 30120

12:30 - 1:00 p.m.     Registration (be sure to eat lunch before you arrive); check in at Stiles Auditorium

1:00 - 2:00 p.m.       Organic Vegetable Production and Variety Selection; Dr. George Boyhan, UGA Vegetable Specialist

2:00 - 3:00 p.m.      High Tunnel Production and Irrigation Setup; Dr. Tim Coolong, UGA Extension Vegetable Specialist

3:00 - 3:15 p.m.      Break

3:15 - 4:15 p.m.     Soil Fertility and Organic Systems Management; Julia Gaskin, UGA Sustainable Agriculture Coordinator

4:15 - 5:15 p.m.     Organic Disease Control; Dr. Elizabeth Little, UGA Extension Plant Pathologist

5:15 - 5:30 p.m.     Break

5:30 - 6:30 p.m.    Organic Certification; Johnny Luke, Georgia Crop Improvement Association

6:30 - 7:00 p.m.    Wrap-up and Evaluation

Preregistration is Required by Friday, December 13, 2013

Cost is $10 per person payable to Bartow County 4-H

Check and registration information (click on link to go to the registration form) can be mailed to 

Bartow County Cooperative Extension

320 W. Cherokee Ave., Room 112

Cartersville, GA 30120

Call 770-387-5142, FAX 770-386-3488, or email uge1015@uga.edu for additional information.

Plant Your Home Orchard Now

UGA Extension Specialist Bob Westerfield has written a couple of recent articles on planting a home orchard, pointing out in both that choosing the right trees for your area is an essential step toward a successful and productive orchard. Insect and disease resistance are important elements of that success, but so is timing.

In "Plant Fruit Trees Now to Create a Home Orchard," Westerfield points out that the best time is now.

The article explains much of what a homeowner needs to know to get a productive orchard started, including site selection -- emphasizing drainage and sunshine -- ground preparation, and planting. Usefully, it also explains how to select a healthy tree for planting. Westerfield recommends the purchase of one-year-old trees:

"A common mistake made by many homeowners is to select oversized or ready-to-bear nursery trees. Experience has shown that younger trees bear almost as soon, are easier to keep alive and develop into more healthy vigorous trees than do oversized stock. Older trees cost more to grow and are sold at higher prices, but are usually worth less."

In "Select Best Fruit Trees for Your Region of Georgia," Westerfield identifies fruit tree varieties that perform well in the different regions of the state.

Recommended apple trees for Cobb County include "Ginger Gold, Gala, Mollie’s Delicious, Ozark Gold, Golden Delicious, Mutzu, Yates and Granny Smith."

For pears, choose "Orient, Carrick Waite, Kieffer, Magness, Moonglow, Starking Delicious or Dawn."

For plums, he recommends the Japanese varieties  "Methley, Morris, AU Rubrum, AU Producer, Spring Satin, Byrongold and Rubysweet."

Apples hang from a tree at the University of Georgia - Mountain Research and Education Center in Blairsville, Ga. Image credit: University of Georgia.

In addition to the information in the two articles linked above, homeowners interested in starting a small orchard out in the yard can refer to the information in UGA Cooperative Extension's multiple fruit/orchard publications: "Minor Fruits and Nuts in Georgia"; "Home Garden Pears"; "Home Garden Apples"; "Home Garden Figs"; "Plums for Georgia Home Gardens"; and "Diagnostic Guide to Common Home Orchard Diseases", among others.

For additional information, or for UGA publications on fruits not listed here, contact the Cobb County Extension office at 770-528-4070.

Rain is Still the Story in Home Gardens

All the vegetable gardeners whose gardens are not doing as well this year as usual have probably already thought that the excessive rain is at least partly to blame, but Dr. Elizabeth Little, plant pathologist with UGA, confirms all of our suspicions in her recent Georgia FACES article, "Wet conditions create perfect setting for tomato, cucurbit diseases."

This particular article focuses on the cucurbit family - the squash, melons, and cucumbers that are such a large part of the summer garden and summer mealtimes. In addition to short but useful descriptions of three fairly common diseases - downy mildew, powdery mildew, and anthracnose - she includes information about a less common disease, cucumber yellow vine, that is affecting crops in some parts of the state.

For all, she offers recommendations for reducing problems in future years. For example:

"Anthracnose is mainly a concern on cucumbers and melons. The symptoms include leaf spots, defoliation and sometimes fruit lesions. The diseases survive in the infected debris, so rotation and the destruction of plant debris at the end of the season are important preventative measures. Wet weather is a major contributing factor. Trellising and/or the use of high tunnels, especially with cucumbers, can help reduce infections."

For more information, visit the original article, linked above.

The wet weather is also causing bumper crops of all kinds of mushrooms to pop up in yards, gardens, and fields. Another UGA plant pathologist, Jean Williams-Woodward, has written in the Georgia FACES newsletter article "Recent rains have mushrooms popping up" that it is never safe to eat a mushroom that has not been identified by an expert:

"University of Georgia Cooperative Extension specialists say do not eat any mushrooms growing in lawns and certainly ones that have not been identified by a expert. Many are poisonous to some degree. At the very least, they will make you sick. At worst, you can die. Don't take the risk."

She adds, "To prevent accidental ingestion of mushrooms by pets and children, rake, mow over, or otherwise remove the mushrooms from your lawn."

Identifying mushrooms requires careful attention to the environment in which they are growing, what they are growing on, and much more, include their spore prints, which Williams-Woodward describes in her article, linked above.

Small Vegetable Growers Workshop

This workshop is designed for anyone who is considering starting a small vegetable farm or any type of produce as well as gardeners wanting to learn more about how to market their vegetables; it is for any beginning grower or homeowner who has ever considered selling his or her produce at a farmers market, roadside stand or by word of mouth.

The program will cover the basics of how to begin the process of earning extra income through growing and selling vegetables. Topics will include what vegetables to grow, how to grow them, developing a plan, and how to market, as well as selection of equipment.

The program will be held at the Demonstration and Research Garden at the University of Georgia Griffin campus. Bob Westerfield, Extension Vegetable Horticulturist, will be coordinating the program. The registration cost is $45.00 and includes all materials, lunch and breaks.

Date:  March 15, 2013

 Time: 9:00am - 3:00pm

 Location: UGA Griffin Research & Education Garden Classroom

UGA Griffin

121 Ellis Road

Griffin, GA 30223

Cost: $45.00 Lunch and refreshment breaks included

Pre-registration is required!   Register online 

Or print and mail the registration information below:

Send check or cash along with this registration form made payable to: University of Georgia

Mail to:  

Att. Beth Horne

UGA Center for Urban Agriculture

1109 Experiment St.

Griffin, GA 30223

Name(s):  

Phone #:

Email:

Address:

Number of people attending …… x $45.00= Total $................