The cost of controlling plant diseases combined with the cost of irrigation continues to push Georgia watermelon growers to become more innovative and productive, according to University of Georgia Cooperative Extension vegetable horticulturist Tim Coolong.

A south Georgia cotton gin is helping the University of Georgia’s C.M. Stripling Irrigation Research Park (SIRP) harvest cotton more efficiently thanks to their donation of a cotton module builder and cotton boll buggy.

UGA cotton breeder Peng Chee’s groundbreaking research in molecular genetics provides Georgia cotton farmers with root-knot-nematode-resistant cotton varieties. It has also garnered Chee national recognition.

The Georgia Peanut Farm Show is set for Thursday, Jan. 19, at 8:30 a.m. at the University of Georgia Tifton Campus Conference Center in Tifton, Georgia.

The University of Georgia’s newest pecan variety will be released next spring and has shown good resistance against scab disease so far, according to Patrick Conner, a horticultural scientist at the UGA Tifton Campus.

The microgin at the University of Georgia Tifton Campus may be small, but it makes a huge impact.