News

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Red Emperor ginger is one of those plants people treasure even if it never blooms. I did not know much about this plant but received a cluster of them from my daughter, who had been using them as a thriller plant in a mixed container for a special event.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Mississippi State University research and Extension experts will provide information and demonstrations about agronomic research activities on July 14.

MSU’s Pontotoc Ridge-Flatwoods Branch Experiment Station will host its annual Research and Demonstration Tour. Registration begins at 7:30 a.m.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Mississippi’s fruit growers are harvesting about twice as many blueberries as they did last year, thanks largely to the lack of significant spring freezes.

John Braswell, Mississippi State University horticulture specialist at the Coastal Research and Extension Center in Biloxi, said growers in south Mississippi have just passed the peak of the 2009 harvest season.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Some graduating Mississippi State University veterinary students participate in a national match-making program each year that has nothing to do with romance and everything to do with successful careers.

The national match program enhances career opportunities for graduating doctors of veterinary medicine, or DVMs, and introduces potential faculty to jobs available at MSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine.

By Jonathan Paul Fleming and Karen Brasher
MSU College of Forest Resources

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Many anglers have long lived by the motto “grass equals bass,” and for a bass fisherman, there is nothing more thrilling than pulling a spinner-bait along a weed edge and getting a strike.

This simple motto is being investigated by researchers who say that the right type of vegetation in lakes and reservoirs can improve fishing opportunities.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Carbon trading has been around for about a decade, but with the increasing global concern regarding climate change, it is receiving even more attention.

Forest landowners have the potential to generate additional income by using their forest for carbon sequestration, a method providing long-term storage of carbon dioxide.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Rural communities in Mississippi and Louisiana have unique cultural atmospheres, attractions and small-town qualities that tourists enjoy.

The fourth annual Regional Tourism Summit of the Miss-Lou Rural Tourism Association can help community representatives identify these elements and design a creative marketing plan to bring visitors to the area.

The summit will be held Aug. 11-13 at the Paragon Casino in Marksville, La. The theme is “Gateways to Get-A-Ways: Preserving the Past, Preparing for the Future.”

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

It’s easy to love Shasta daisies, but when they look like shredded coconut on top of round cupcakes, they seem good enough to eat.

Last week we filmed a Southern Gardening segment in Mississippi’s hot Delta at the Wister Gardens in Belzoni. It’s called The Delta’s Garden, but the readers of Mississippi Magazine recently honored Wister as Mississippi’s Best Garden.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Wheat growers in Mississippi watched what was a very good crop in early spring turn into a major disappointment by harvest.

About 75 percent of the state’s 230,000 wheat acres were harvested by mid-June. Some of the remaining acres will never be harvested, as they are flooded by Yazoo River backwater.

Erick Larson, grain crops agronomist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, said the crop was doing well through February until heavy rains started in mid-March and continued through April and May.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Youth who enjoy drama, theater, music, art or literature and want to learn how computing can enhance creativity should attend the 4-H Technology and Expressive Arts Camp July 21-24 at Mississippi State University.

The camp, which is open to 4-H youth ages 14-19, is designed to offer as many opportunities as possible for youth to discover and enhance their imaginations and creativity. Youth who are not 4-H members can participate by joining a 4-H club in their town or county.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Each year some 300,000 Mississippi hunters take to the woods in search of white-tailed deer. Before opening day, landowners and hunters spend hours preparing their properties and equipment for the hunting season.

A workshop sponsored by Mississippi State University’s Extension Service and Forest and Wildlife Research Center, and the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks is giving landowners an opportunity to become better prepared for this fall activity.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Many of us who live in Mississippi’s heat have wished for geraniums with blooms as tough as our summers, and we finally have Caliente and Calliope to make life more enjoyable.

Each year when I visit the big flower trials in California, I drive from San Diego to San Jose. I get green with envy seeing the ivy geraniums growing almost like weeds along the more than 700 miles I travel between these cities.

By Patti Drapala
MSU Ag Communications

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Time and location are crucial factors in managing medical emergencies, but there always have been fewer critical care facilities available within a short distance when the victim is the family pet.

In 1985, several private practitioners in Metro Jackson opened the Animal Emergency Clinic on Monroe Street in the city’s downtown district. As more people moved into the Jackson-Vicksburg-Hattiesburg area, each veterinarian experienced an increase in emergency caseloads.

By Patti Drappala
Ag Communications

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Dr. Joey Burt wants veterinary medical students who plan to open or join a clinic to develop medical, communication and business skills needed to be successful private practitioners well before they graduate.

Burt left a thriving private practice he established in Oxford, Ohio, last November to become chief of the Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine’s Community Veterinary Services section.

STONEVILLE -- Mississippi State University researchers and Extension Service specialists will explain at a July 16 event in Stoneville current studies that could help farmers of agronomic crops.

MSU’s Delta Research and Extension Center will host the annual Agronomic Field Day. Registration begins at 8 a.m., and the program starts 30 minutes later.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Youth of all ages can spend a day at Tougaloo College on June 18 learning about sustainable agriculture through a variety of hands-on activities.

Admission is free to the Youth Sustainable Ag Day at the Tougaloo-Rainbow Garden. The event is sponsored by the Mississippi State University Extension Service, Hinds County 4-H, Tougaloo College and the Alcorn Cooperative Extension Program.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Rain delays and changes in planting decisions are forcing a later than ideal start for Mississippi’s soybeans.

As planting window dates have been closing for other crops, growers are switching some fields to soybeans before time runs out for them as well.

By Patti Drapala
MSU Ag Communications

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Educators who pioneered the 4-H movement recognized the importance of using hands-on activities and mental exploration to encourage youth to open themselves to new ideas and experiences.

While that basic premise of serving youth by helping them develop life skills remains important, many 4-H projects are clearly different from those of a hundred years ago. Today’s 4-H’ers can explore their world through numerous projects involving science, engineering and technology.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Tom Wilburn’s memories of growing up on an east Mississippi plantation, attending Mississippi State College and plunging headlong into the harness racing industry are the types of tales Jeannine Smith is eager to record.

United by a common passion for local history, these two graduates of Mississippi State University spent a lifetime together in two years. Smith, who received her master’s degree from MSU in industrial technology in 1995 and a doctorate in education in 2001, began researching for a book on Artesia, her adopted hometown, in 2005.

By Patti Drapala
MSU Ag Communications

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- A sudden outbreak of tiny buffalo gnats has created a costly nuisance in many Mississippi livestock operations, wildlife areas and backyard poultry flocks this spring.

The gnats are members of the blood-sucking insect family Simuliidae. While entomologists describe them as black flies, these insects may be gray, tan or greenish in color. They feed on the blood of humans and animals.