How can I kill the weeds around my pecan tree?

RAYMOND, Miss. -- This year, Julie Bounds was expecting a bumper crop of blueberries. What she could not anticipate was the excess amount of rainfall her family’s blueberry farm would receive. This untimely rain has been the biggest challenge for growers across the state.

Fruit production requires considerable effort, and some fruits require much more care than others -- facts specialists with the Mississippi State University Extension Service keep in mind as they provide research and information support to the industry.

MSU has ongoing blueberry research at the South Mississippi Branch Experiment Station in Poplarville and the Beaumont Horticultural Unit, and muscadine research at Beaumont and the McNeill Research Unit. MSU also has trials and research on blackberries, wine grapes, elderberries, passion fruit and strawberries.

RAYMOND, Miss. -- A statewide citrus quarantine was issued recently for Mississippi after one of the most serious citrus plant diseases in the world was detected in the state. Citrus greening, also known as Huanglongbing or HLB, was confirmed earlier this year, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, or USDA APHIS. There is no cure for the disease, which is caused by a bacterial infection spread by the Asian citrus psyllid, a gnat-sized insect. Infected trees die within a few years.