The Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Uvalde will host a Vegetable Spring Field Day on May 11.
The event will start at 8 a.m. at 1619 Garner Field Road, Uvalde. In the afternoon, the event will move to SSgt Willie de Leon Civic Center, 300 E. Main St., where it will conclude at 4:15 p.m.
There is no cost to attend but an RSVP is requested to Liza Silva by May 3 for an accurate meal count. Silva can be reached at 830–988–6126 or Liza.Silva@ag.tamu.edu. Lunch will be provided free of charge courtesy of Agro Equipment.
There will be three general Texas Department of Agriculture continuing education units available.
There will be vendors and booths at the Civic Center. Door prizes will be awarded courtesy of First State Bank of Uvalde. Event sponsors include Bridgestone and the Texas Department of Agriculture.
Morning topics, field tours and presentations
Daniel Leskovar, Ph.D., Texas A&M AgriLife center director at Uvalde, will welcome participants and provide an overview of the field day activities.
Field tours will include a look at vegetables as well as different types of high tunnel and field crops. Participants will learn about onion breeding and management, crop sensors, watermelons and biostimulants, guayule-rubber plants and hydroponic leafy greens. Pepper, tomato and melon hybrid screening will also be covered.
A smart cultivator and weeder demonstration featuring new technology will be presented by Agro Equipment.
Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service agriculture and natural resources agents Leslie Dominguez, Zavala County, and Noel Troxclair, Ph.D., Uvalde County, will present the continuing education units material.
Afternoon topics and speakers
The afternoon speakers will begin after lunch at the Civic Center. The event will conclude with graduate students presenting updates on their research.
The topics and speakers are:
- Safety of Tropical Fruits: Challenges and Solutions – Alejandro Castillo, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Animal Science and Department of Food Science and Technology, Bryan-College Station.
- Training Texas Growers in Produce Safety: Accomplishments and Future Directions – Matt Taylor, Ph.D., assistant professor of food microbiology, Department of Animal Science, Bryan-College Station.
- Texas Fruit and Vegetable Industry Updates – Dante Galeazzi, Texas International Produce Association CEO and president, Mission.
- Groundwater and Economics of Agricultural Production – Mani Rouhi Rad, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Agricultural Economics, Bryan-College Station.
- Breeding Resilient Peppers – Kevin Crosby, Ph.D., Texas A&M AgriLife Research vegetable breeder, Bryan-College Station.
- Strategic Approaches to Mitigate Salmonella Contamination of Bulb Onions – Vijay Joshi, Ph.D., AgriLife Research vegetable system physiologist, Uvalde.
- Healthier Living Through Hydroponics – Leskovar; Josh Harvey, vegetable physiology research associate; and Seunghyun Choi, Ph.D., AgriLife Research postdoctoral associate- vegetable physiology, both at Uvalde.
- Texas Superstar Plant Program: Then and Now — David Rodriguez, AgriLife Extension horticulture agent, Bexar County.
- Artificial Intelligence: A Tool for Effective Crop Monitoring and Management – Azlan Zahid, Ph.D., AgriLife Research assistant professor of controlled environment agriculture engineering, Dallas.
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