Making It Grow Minutes

In recent years, changes in climate have resulted in high night-time temperatures and dramatically reduced the fruit set of many of our important vegetable crops. When it is seventy-five degrees or higher at night, many crops will not pollinate – there maybe vigorous, well-tended plants in the field that are covered with flowers, but the pollination process is impeded by those high thermometer rea...

For six years, Tony has been selecting and growing out promising seeds, trying to develop a more heat-tolerant butterbean.

Tony has said that serving the people of South Carolina has been his greatest honor and joy.

At meetings, in restaurant, while scouting fields for insect and disease problems, he never stopped taking calls from persons needing his advice.

Our recently retired, due to illness, Clemson colleague Tony Melton has many constants in his life. For one, he has never stopped being the humble fellow from McBee, South Carolina, who started picking cotton when he was three years old.

Without a doubt, the most beloved member of the Making It Grow crew is Tony Melton. I guess we could call Tony the collard guy, or the strawberry guy, or the tomato guy – he’s listed as a specialist in small fruits and vegetables but, honestly, he’s an expert on car repair, roofing and even building a house all by himself.

SC turtle species have been in peril as trade in those animals, sometimes in illegal international channels, has been putting certain species at risk.

Any of these lizards you kill, capture or find dead should be reported to DNR as they perform necropsies on them to get valuable information about just what animals they’re eating and to check for parasites and diseases they may spread.

A new law prohibits the sale of the Argentine black and white tegu lizard, requires their owners of them to microchip them, and owners must notify the state if one escapes.

Certain lizards, especially, are very popular and unfortunately one has become invasive in Florida and Georgia and is now established in our state.

Exotic non-native reptiles, especially lizards, are very popular. One has become a serious threat to our native wildlife in South Carolina.

Feel free to bring flowering stems of goldenrod inside your house – its heavy pollen is moved by insects and not wind.

When rubber was difficult to get during World War One, Henry Ford asked Thomas Edison to find a plant native to the US that could be used for rubber production so he could have tires for his cars.

Goldenrod happens to bloom when some of us have start having hay fever – the real culprit this time of year is ragweed.

Seaside or beach goldenrod, Solidago sempervirens., grows up to six feet and has larger flower heads than other goldenrods making it quite attractive.

This plant was used for many medicinal purposes by indigenous people for a variety of ailments.

If you want to enter a competition, you must preregister in order to participate.

New research indicates that insects are involved in pollen transfer for some cycad species.

In Australia, researchers have worked with indigenous people studying how they prepare cycads for eating. Most often the carbohydrate-rich inner kernels are extracted by pounding or crushing the entire seed, either before or after roasting. Then this pulp is made safe by a quick or prolonged leaching in running water.

These plants are extremely toxic to animals, including humans

The State Plant Pest List committee worked with stakeholders and set the ban on this timeline to limit the impact on nurseries or propagation businesses, allow time for the industry and inspectors to receive adequate training, and still try to curb further damage done to our environment by these highly invasive foreign plants.

Just Say No to Bradford and Related Callery Pear Trees

The first released cultivar of the flowering callery pear was named Bradford and it was easy to grow, pest free, flowered profusely and best of all could not fertilize itself and make viable seeds. But then other cultivars were released into the market resulting in viable pollen being produced and transferred all over the place by insects drawn to those flowers.

Large stands of them taking over fallow fields and roadsides. They crowd out plants that would provide nectar and pollen to a greater variety of beneficial insects over a longer period of time.

It is not and will not be illegal to have Bradford pears growing in your yard. However, they are now on the State Plant Pest list and beginning October first, two thousand twenty-four, nurseries will no longer sell Bradford pears or any other cultivar of the invasive flowering pear, Pyrus calleryanna.