OVERTON — When most Texans think of East Texas, they visualize pine tree forests and picturesque cow/calf farms. But it’s not stretching things too far to call Cherokee County the Silicon Valley of poinsettias, says a horticulturist with the Texas Agricultural Extension Service. “Our growers have already started shipping nearly 1 million poinsettias this year,…
LUBBOCK — They appear right around Thanksgiving or shortly thereafter — in almost every store you visit during those holiday shopping excursions. You can choose from red, pink, white or a variety with multi-colored leaves called “Jingle Bells.” They are poinsettias, of course, an ornamental houseplant which many Americans use as part of their seasonal…
WESLACO — The growing national interest in foods that can help prevent cancers and other human diseases has lead to the creation of an ambitious and unique college-level class that will be taught via teleconferencing by leading nutraceutical researchers from throughout the United States and Canada. Titled “Phytochemicals in Fruits and Vegetables to Improve Human…
WESLACO — Rio Star and Ruby Sweet are but a click away for your gift giving this season. A new Web page features most everything about the state’s growing citrus industry including a link to order the popular grapefruit and oranges gift boxes. Texas Citrus, http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/citrus, is a project of Dr. Julian Sauls, Texas Agricultural…
OVERTON — Short treatments with a particular type of ultraviolet light results in more marketable bedding plants and vegetables, according to preliminary work done by a Texas Agricultural Experiment Station horticulturist at Overton. Dr. Brent Pemberton has found that exposing plants such as impatiens, tomatoes and cucumbers to ultraviolet B, (UV-B) treatments for a few…
WESLACO — If grapefruit could talk, it would tell you exactly where and when in its post-harvest life it got bruised. Steps could then be taken to soften the blows since bruises allow pathogens to enter the grapefruit, causing it and others around it to spoil. Short of teaching grapefruit to speak, there is a…
COLLEGE STATION — If what today’s college kids need is some solid experiences with concrete examples, at least one group of horticulture students have a firm foundation, literally. Students in the lab for HORT 425 undergraduate landscape maintenance and construction course recently poured, smoothed and finished concrete for a new plant media mixing pad at…
LUBBOCK — With only about one week to Halloween, the time is running out for pumpkins to come under a jack-o-lantern knife. But growers and horticulturists hope that after the October holiday deadline, pumpkins will be pumpkins — for decorating and eating — through the Thanksgiving season. “They are art objects,” Dr. Roland Roberts, Texas…
COLLEGE STATION — Pest management, research and innovations will highlight the Texas and Southwest Greenhouse Growers Conference Nov. 10-12 at the Hilton in College Station. The pest management sessions will begin at 8:30 a.m. Nov. 11 with discussions on Integrated Pest Management, a new IPM database at Texas A&M University, disease diagnosis and management, solving…
WESLACO — If you’re not into joining groups and you like chile peppers, this may be your kind of organization: anybody can join and there are no officers, dues, or fees. It’s called the National Pepper Conference and its co-founder, who started this “club” in 1972, says they are “totally unorganized,” yet it is the…
