News

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.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

At this time of year, you could plunk me down in a woodland setting surrounded by hydrangeas and I would be in total bliss. I love all types of hydrangeas, including the most elegant of all: the lacecap.

Each year I get three or four calls, emails or letters asking what went wrong with a hydrangea because it did not form a large, mophead shape. Sadly, these gardeners aren’t enjoying the exquisite beauty of this particular type of bigleaf hydrangea.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Mississippi State University will hold two camps this summer to teach kids and teens that there can never be too many cooks in the kitchen.

MSU’s Department of Food Science, Nutrition and Health Promotion is offering “Fun with Food” camp for third- through sixth-grade students and “Culinology for Teens” camp for ninth- through 12th-grade students. Both camps will provide participants hands-on food discovery experiences.

By Patti Drapala
MSU Ag Communications

MISSISSIPPI STATE – An unusually wet May is causing some farmers to plant rice late, but the crop still has time to develop into a good one for the Delta.

Farmers could see decent prices, too, if several market factors play out by the time harvest occurs. They expect to complete planting by early June if rains relent and fields dry out. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that Mississippi’s rice crop will total 240,000 acres when farmers are through.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Mississippi State University’s Central Research and Extension Center is offering the annual twilight tour of its 175 acres of research plots to conventional and organic fruit and vegetable growers on June 16.

The free event begins with registration at 5:30 p.m. at the Mississippi Agricultural Research and Experiment Station’s Crystal Springs Truck Crops Station. At 5:45 p.m., growers will be taken on a wagon tour of the research plots.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Move over Red Abyssinian, there is a new banana in town – the Siam Ruby. Siam Ruby showed up at garden and patio shows and local garden centers last year, and quickly found favor with tropical plant nuts like me.

Before I go further, please know I am still a fan of the Red Abyssinian. It is just that the Siam Ruby is so colorful, you can’t pass it up. The trunk and leaves of this exotic tropical are burgundy with irregular iridescent lime green variegation in the foliage.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Soybean rust is active on kudzu in Alabama and Louisiana, but the disease has not made it to Mississippi, although rains are creating ideal conditions for its development.

Tom Allen, a plant pathologist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service and the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, helps monitor for this disease.

By Patti Drapala
MSU Ag Communications

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Mississippi farmers finished planting their estimated 630,000 acres of corn on time, but the continuing effects of rain, standing water and cool soil temperatures have slowed the crop’s development in many areas of the state.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – It took less than 24 hours for Hurricane Katrina to destroy nearly 1.3 million trees in south Mississippi landscapes, and those trying to replant are hoping to restore the tree-filled skyline as quickly as possible.

By Patti Drapala
MSU Ag Communications

TUPELO -- Mississippi 4-H Council President Chelsi Smith is a modern young woman who uses computers, PDAs and texting to reach members, yet relies on traditional 4-H values to make these tools effective.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Spring landscapes with azaleas, rhododendrons, dogwoods and redbuds look simply incredible. But as magnificent as these landscapes are, they are not complete without the addition of a Japanese maple with its lacy, fern-like foliage.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – 4-H’ers have always worn green to State Club Congress, but this year they will be “going green” at the annual event May 27-29 at Mississippi State University.

This year’s theme is “100 percent green…for our club, community, country and world.” Organizers chose this message to reflect the 4-H ethic of putting ideas into action.

HATTIESBURG – All children, families and educators are provided an opportunity for education and access to learning materials at the Mississippi State University’s Resource and Referral Agency in Petal.

The referral agency is part of the Mississippi Child Care Resource and Referral Network, offered by MSU’s Extension Service. There are 12 referral agency sites, including the one in Petal, which serves Lamar, Jones, Wayne, Covington, Forrest, George, Greene, Stone, Pearl River and Perry counties.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Heavy rains across the state brought planting and field work to a grinding halt since the first of May, causing some crops to grow rapidly and compete with weeds for needed nutrients.

The state had fairly uniform accumulations and an average of just over 7 inches of rain for the week ending May 10. The Gulf Coast had the least rain, with Biloxi getting less than 1 inch, while Belzoni in the lower Delta recorded the week’s high at 13.56 inches.

By Patti Drapala
MSU Ag Communications

MISSISSIPPI STATE – A team of Canadian researchers cataloging the genetic makeup of all living species into an easily accessible system have identified the Mississippi Entomological Museum as a treasure trove after setting up camp at Mississippi State University for a week.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – A Mississippi State University Extension Service employee with 22 years of experience in county-level programming for agricultural and natural resources, 4-H, consumer education and community development is the new statewide dairy specialist.

Lamar Adams, who was Extension director in Walthall County, began his new job May 1. Adams will develop educational programs for dairy producers throughout the state as a faculty member in MSU’s Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

The clematis looks like it was created for royalty, but in my area it’s the preferred mailbox bloomer. We have plenty of mandevillas and confederate jasmine, but in the end, the real winner in the popularity game is the clematis.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – It took only about 10 days to plant 40 percent of the state’s cotton crop this year, but farmers are only planting about a fourth of what they planted just three years ago.

“Forty percent of a 300,000-acre crop is quicker to plant than 40 percent of a 1.2 million-acre crop,” said Darrin Dodds, cotton specialist with Mississippi State University’s Extension Service.

Soil conditions were ideal, and producers worked quickly before rains rolled across the state the first weekend of May.

By Patti Drapala
MSU Ag Communications

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Aquatic researchers at Mississippi State University study the natural mechanisms at work in lake ecosystems so they can find better ways to manage habitats, but large bodies of water do not always make good laboratories.